NEGLECTED FORMULA

(The story of unseen antidote for this generation's disease)

Jasmine Pearl G. Albano

It is in human nature to demand formulas to exist to surpass a certain 
phase and/or solve a certain problem. Each formula often has different 
elements that can or cannot be flexible yet they are all equally accurate when used together with 
respective purposes.
FIASCO•FAILURE
One missing thing and everything will fall.
Formulas are designed that way, for the elements being together and to work together.
Considering our situation these days we can observe how each one of us became a medium of
elements to discover formulas that'll aid the uncountable circumstances, global issues, and
economic problems.
Big pharmaceutical companies around the world study 24/7 to contemplate formulas for a
vaccine that'll add layers of our protection from COVID-19. First-world countries allot funds and
doses to send vaccines to neighboring countries that aren't capable enough of building nor
reproducing.
We have knowledgeable professionals working in the World Health Organization
(WHO), the Department of Health (DOH), and millions of medical and non-medical personnel
designated in different regions. Government officials and government alone find ways to ease the
economic concerns of the people by launching bills and programs that offer financial support
during this time like the Social Amelioration Program in the Philippines under the Bayanihan
Act.
Inside all of these active solutions surrounding us was the human formula speculated to
make each goal succeed.
Cooperation. Hard work. Unity.
However, the cycle seems unstoppable as circumstances can't be bothered with these
solutions alone.
Did the COVID-19 end? Did the death rates slow down? Did the starvation stop? Did
people stop being careless in doing crimes? Did the epitome of the expected result arise? No.
REPETITIVE•REDUNDANT
The formula isn't impossible to repeat even if one element is missing. But the possibility
of it falling over and over again is more likely to happen. If not falling, it'll just continue to miss
the target.
Pandemic. The word itself is already tiring to read, how much more when all the damages
and catastrophe accompanied with it slapped on one page. In more than one and a half years of
that cycle, all the things that are happening today were just like the Deja vu of yesterday and a
checklist to expect tomorrow.
From news articles to tabloids and even social media, the contents are almost the same.
The cause, the effect, and the solutions were all focused and anchored to the discipline of the
people, to the credibility of the leaders, the efficiency of the workers, the whereabouts of the
celebrities, and the supporting power of the economy.
People. Money. Power.
Yes, the news is important as to health, the same way with the knowledge and financial
state. Yet none of these can equate to the amount and weight of essence that one book can hold.
 The missing element that most of the worried people ceased to see could only be found in
a powerful Book.
THE BIBLE.
No history is nonsense because there is not a day that passed where history never awaits.
For someone who travelled through hundreds of pages, thousands of words, and million
letters of the content of the BIBLE, what's happenings today aren't new anymore.
We humans, the people of today, are just the millennial version of the Egyptians of the
bible who had experienced ten great plagues - water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock
pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and, the most tragic is the killing of their firstborn
children. Those ten plagues greatly tested all of them from the highest up to the lowest rank or
class of people, how far or how low can they bring themselves just to afford the formula that'll
meet their goal to live. To surpass the hardships and to live peacefully in the normal phases of
their lives.
The story doesn't end with Pharaoh and his people, God's chosen people - the Israelites
whom He rescued from the oppressing hands of the Egyptians showed how stubborn they were
making the same mistakes, self-entitled to their own opinion and beliefs, sometimes act as all-
knowing their situation and were blinded by their arrogance.
They travelled through the wilderness, through the desert under the spiking rays of the
sun, under the angry winds of the air, the cool breeze of the night, and the silent dark skies for
forty years. God then let them wander for a long time to teach them how to listen and to obey His
Words.
We have the truths of their stories. These aren't just the ordinary ancient mythical stories
that appear as the 'make believe' versions of our situations right now.
Because, as the words engraved inside of the bible says,
•The Bible is our Guide. Psalms 119:105; “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my
path. It guides the way and serves as our light on the path that we're lead to take”. It shines
directly to the path that we need to take to reach not just the goals we set for ourselves, but with
the shine of the will of the Lord.

•It is a handbook that is written by God for human life. 2 Timothy 3:16 says,
“All scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness”. God uses His power and wisdom to bless the
people, His disciples like Moses, John, Paul, Jude, Luke, and thirty-five more to write such a
wonderful book that lives as a manual for us as we live with the different aspects of our lives.
With those words that He continually said and left to us as guides and comfort became His love
letter for us as His children.

•The Bible is a Mirror. James 1:23-24; “for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is
like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his
way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was”. It is an eye-opener for us to see
what we are missing, for what mistakes we're making along the way and, with such things that
we see and we hear the words speaks to us and let us take action on what's needed to be done,
what needed to be changed.

It always blesses us much more than what it takes from us. As Billy Graham says, "The
Bible is not an option; It is a necessity. You cannot grow spiritually strong without it."
 MISSING ELEMENT
What do the people have before that we people of today were so blind to see?
GENUINE REPENTANCE.
It is said in the word of God in 2 Chronicles 7:14; “If my people, which are called by my
name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;
then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”.
They worked out for themselves to believe, to be humble enough to acknowledge what
they have done and ask for forgiveness. Yes, despite the wrongdoings they have committed, the
negative traits that stained their appearances, they have managed to search for that one element
and make a solution out of it, and then they discover the right and accurate formulation of a
working formula.
The lives that they have lived displayed the element that we are missing through the
pages of the bible. It is the formula that we refuse to discover at some point in our lives.
We thought, communicating with God through our unified prayers is the best thing that
we could do to bring everything into normal. But is it really enough or are we missing
something. We were taught that communication is a two-way process. That we need to listen too
when someone is talking. God hears us when we talk, but when it is His turn to talk do we really
lend our ears to Him? He talks, through the Bible. And like those Israelites in the Old Testament
Time, He is asking us to listen and to obey His Word. He never plans any evil things to come
upon us. It was our actions in the past and in the present that puts us in whatever situation where
into. But He is still merciful and gracious to all of us for giving His Son to pay the ransom for
our misbeliefs.
They may be too good to be true, but they are as realistic as crystal clear waters that run
through our lives. Salvation is too grand to refuse that every drop of the blood that Jesus paid for
it is priceless.
EARNED EFFECTIVITY
Maybe what we need is not one bottle that'll fit all the elements of life and salvation.
Maybe what we need are two bottles or perhaps a pot that'll allow our formulas to come together,
to stick together and, so they can work together. We've lived through generations of history to
look back and to learn.
We've travelled the years to build, to search, and to look for what's missing. And still, we
can continue to live through the piles of months with a complete formula our stories have
discovered.
The words of the Lord remain new and will always be true. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in
the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways
acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Ages after ages, these shall remain as to how it
has been told.
There is no other Adviser, Father, Teacher, Friend, and Leader that is more true and
efficient than God. He said in His words that in HIM nothing is impossible and, no formula is
inadequate when His ways and words are to speak.
What people refuse to see was the greatest treasure that He laid before His life and after
ours. Even if we relive all the scientists and inventors buried in the peace of their lives, even the
7 billion humans in the world start to be a genius and all-knowing there will always be
something, one spot missing in every solution when the instructions of God from His Word -
THE BIBLE isn't included as one of the elements.
 FORMULA COMPLETED.
Bible-based Faith. Cooperation, Hardwork. Unity.
As much as human nature is in need and demands for formulas to exist, humans also have
the greatest power and impact to build the complete element and effective formula that'll save
them to live. Nevertheless, the 'formula' that was once neglected by many turns to be the piece
that'll prevent any human nature to be in a pointless circle of dotted solutions and formulas to
solve a certain issue/problem. After all...
The bible is the history of instruction that relives in us, the one that allows us to discover
a formula for a life worth living with Christ Jesus our Lord, Savior and Redeemer.