Proverbs 3:5-6
5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
6. in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

สุภาษิต 3

5จงไว้วางใจในพระผู้เป็นเจ้าอย่างสุดจิตสุดใจ
และอย่าพึ่งการหยั่งรู้ของตนเอง

6จงระลึกถึงพระองค์ในทุกเรื่อง
และพระองค์จะทำทางของเจ้าให้ตรง

သုတ္တံ 3

5ထာဝရဘုရားကို စိတ်နှလုံးအကြွင်းမဲ့ကိုးစားလော့။ ကိုယ်ဉာဏ်ကို အမှီမပြုနှင့်။

6သွားလေရာရာ၌ ထာဝရဘုရားကို မျက်မှောက်ပြုလော့။ သို့ပြုလျှင်၊ သင်၏လမ်းခရီးတို့ကို ပဲ့ပြင်တော်မူမည်။

箴言 3

5心を尽くして主に信頼し、自分の分別には頼らず

6常に主を覚えてあなたの道を歩け。
そうすれば
主はあなたの道筋をまっすぐにしてくださる。

Proverbs 3:5-6

Last time I went to church, Pastor Shan at Victory Church in Chiang Mai shared a sermon series about faith. Seeing this verse reminded me of something I experienced 8 years ago, a time when my faith was tested. I thank God for the trials and situations I've faced, which have made my faith stronger, even in the most challenging and traumatizing moments recently and still happening back in my home country.

Here’s my story:

My Story

I was living alone on the upper floor of an old house, with only a mother and her child living downstairs. It was my first year at university in a city called Hinthada, or "Henzada" as the British once called it. It was also my first time living away from my family, so adjusting to this new life was challenging. My father had spent his twenties in this city, working for his uncle and attending university, so he still had friends and connections there.

The house was owned by one of my father’s friends. It was on a large property with only the main house and a smaller one in the center of the grounds. An elderly woman lived in the smaller house, and trees surrounded the two houses, and it took about a minute to walk from the house to the gate of the property.

As a homesick 16 years old boy, I felt nervous and anxious in this unfamiliar place. I was alone on the entire upper floor. No one had lived there for years. There was a single bedroom and two larger rooms on either side, with a living area in the middle. At the far end of the house, a door was broken and wide open, giving me a view of its backyard, the vast green fields covered in tall grass.

I stayed in the single room next to the living area. When I arrived, it was full of dust, and all the furniture was antique. There was even a piano with broken keys, parts of it crumbling away. One creepy detail was the black-and-white photos hanging on the walls, likely of former residents. It took me a lot of willpower not to make eye contact with those photos—they seemed to watch me whenever I walked back and forth. Maybe it was just the perspective, haha.

The city was entirely new to me, as was the environment. I didn’t have friends yet, but I knew two or three people staying in a nearby student dorm. I invited them over to my place once we’d become friends. One of them, I later learned, was really into supernatural stuff. One day, the three of them came over. The house is around 70-80 years old, so it’s understandable that it shakes a bit when people walk up the stairs. On windy or rainy days, it shakes noticeably. I could feel it when I lay in bed. And one fact, the house is in antique designed , the staircase to the upper floor was outside the house, so anyone with access to the property could walk right up to my floor.

When my friends came upstairs, they looked around, a bit wide-eyed.

You live alone, here? Here?

one of them asked, clearly uncomfortable. I laughed and replied,

Yeah, it was creepy at first, but you get used to it.

My friend shook his head, saying,

I wouldn't last a day or a week. You're brave—or maybe crazy or what!

We laughed, and I joked back,

The place scared me at first, but I've gotten used to it. You would too!

One friend, grinning, said,

This place is awesome. I’ve been looking for a spot like this for experiments.

I raised an eyebrow.

What kind of experiments?

I asked, and he replied,

You know, supernatural stuff.

I quickly shot that idea down,

Oh no, not here! I don’t want to be the guy left here after you all run off when things get creepy. That's how every horror movie starts!

He laughed, saying he was joking, but he definitely seemed fascinated by the house. After that, they’d check in on me once a week, visiting after class or on weekends. Every time, my friends came up the stair, I can feel the gentle shaking of the house.

I didn’t know what was coming through that door, and I was looking for help from people, not from God.

One notable thing about the property was the abundance of trees, attracting a wide variety of birds—from sparrows and crows to hornbills that you’d usually only see in zoos.

Image of a Hornbill

A species of Hornbill, common in Myanmar Chinland

At night, I could hear birds calling and the sound of their wings flapping. Squirrels and mice would dart past my room as if stopping by to say hi. I felt a bit like a jungle character, some kind of urban Tarzan or a male Cinderella. Haha...

This was my story of solitude, but it’s not over—the important part is here. One night around 8 PM, I was lying on my bed, scrolling through Facebook. Suddenly, I felt the house start to shake. The entire property was dark except for my room and the room downstairs where the mother and her child were. I wondered who might be coming up the stairs since I hadn’t invited anyone, and no one had told me they were coming over. I got up from my bed, and it was strange—the shaking kept growing stronger. I could see the lightbulb swaying, and the water in my bottle was rippling. It was not one or two people coming up the stairs like my friends did. It felt like five or six people were stomping up the stairs. Scared, I went into defense mode.

I grabbed my metal airsoft pistol from under the bed—it could shoot metal pellets and was actually dangerous. If I miss the shots, I can still hit a person or throw this heavy metal to that person. I also picked up a bamboo stick I kept behind my door and got ready to face whatever was coming in through the main door. I shouted down to the mother downstairs, but there was no response. The whole place was eerily quiet, and then, suddenly, the shaking stopped. All of this happened in just 5 to 10 seconds. Heart racing, I aimed my pistol at the door, thoughts racing through my head. Should I call my friends?

At that moment, my phone rang. Startled, I hurried back to my bed and answered. My friend, out of breath, quickly told me, "Did you feel that? There was a huge earthquake!" I nearly laughed in relief. "Oh my God, thank you, Lord—that was only an earthquake. Mother nature just doing a little shaking."

What I learned

This story is an example in my life, that I didn’t put God first. I didn’t know what was coming through that door, and I was looking for help from people, not from God. I was looking my solution based on my past experience and my knowledge. In life, we face many situations like this. But how often do we do this in life?

When we’re struggling, we often lose focus on Jesus and instead focus on our problems, worries, solutions, and decisions. Only when we can’t handle things alone do we run to God and ask for help. But we should put God first before making a decision, before facing challenges, and before trying to solve a problem, before loving someone, before trusting someone. God already sees everything. He knows what is coming and what the solution is. He already has a plan, and He is always ready to give us the wisdom and strength we need to handle anything that comes our way.

To Conclude

Through many situations in my life, I learned that God is always there for us, even when we forget to turn to Him first. He knows our struggles and is ready to guide us if we ask. So, let’s remember to trust Him with our whole heart, just like Proverbs 3:5-6 says. In every situation, let’s put God first, knowing that He already has a plan and will show us the way. When we start with faith, we can face any challenge with peace and confidence, knowing we’re not alone.

A Prayer

Thank you, Lord, for this new day. Thank you, Lord, for guiding us and making a way even when there seems to be no way. Thank you for giving me the chance to share this story and to develop this blog application.

Please hear the prayers of the oppressed people, your children in my homeland. Only you can bring justice to this land where men have failed.

Lead us to serve you more and more.

In the name of Jesus, we pray...
Amen.

A Time I Didn’t Put God First—and What I Learned

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