This last Sabbath, I had the privilege of being back in the mountains and attending church in Kamantian. It was nice to be barefoot, sitting on the hard bamboo floor with little children crawling all over me.

Sublito was in charge of the first sermon. He is really doing quite well. His sermon was biblically based and related to practical life. He had even given it a title—Sige lang (pronounced SEE-gay long). Sige lang is an all-purpose phrase. It means something like, “That’s okay. No problem. Sure, everything went wrong, but we’ll make the best of it. Don’t worry about it.” In the Philippines, there are always a lot of problems no one can help, so you just learn to live with them. You just shrug your shoulders and say, “Sige lang.”

In his sermon, Sublito talked about how, as Christians, there are plenty of times when things don’t go our way. But we must always be willing to say, “Sige lang,” because God is the one who is ultimately in charge. Our only job is to follow His orders. Whatever happens along the way is just sige lang. God will work things out in His way and in His time. Our only job is to faithfully follow Him.

It was a sermon I needed to hear. I used to think that, with enough talk and enough work, it was possible to solve just about any problem. Now I am learning that is not always the case. There are times when people attack us, lie about us, refuse to listen and in general obstruct everything we are trying to accomplish. To say the least, this can be frustrating and downright discouraging. But never mind. God sees. God knows. God is in control. We need to place everything back into God’s hands and say, “Sige lang—that’s okay.” No matter the ferocity of the tempest, no matter the power of the opposition, no matter the unwillingness of others to listen, God is still in control, and His work will be accomplished. It’s a good phrase to remember—sige lang. The Bible says, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.” When that day shall come, how fantastic it will be. But until that day, sige lang.

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