A New Beginning
The world just welcomed a new calendar year. The Chinese are in the midst of their Lunar New Year and the Christians are making spiritual preparations for Good Friday and Easter.
Indeed, there is much motivation and reason for people to "start life afresh".
The opportunity to "begin anew" has always been a good time to reassess our life's priorities and values. It's a wonderful time to put on new positive habits and paradigms while letting go of past anxieties and hurts.
Whilst making plans to experience new beginnings are important, let us not neglect having God as the foundation of our plans. Taking time daily to pray, meditate on His Word, and acting on His will strengthens our foundation, one brick at a time.
God offers each and everyone of us, an unconditional access to his abundant love, unlimited wisdom, protection and blessings. If the foundation of our plans are based on human intellect, strength and social networks, we are unlikely to find true happiness from our efforts.
When God becomes our sure foundation, we will not have to worry about finding life's "true North". Our happiness and fulfillment is found in Him.
GOD bless!
neil
Faith and What it is to Me
Faith is a word that is commonly spoken amongst Christians and non Believers for just about any and every occassion. For example, "don't be afraid Son, have faith that you will do well in your test today" or "I don't understand what has happened in the past week but I have faith that somehow God will interfere in someways" or "C'mon! We can beat these guys. Pucker up and have faith!"
Yet in the Bible, the dynamics of 'Faith' has been frequently communicated and instructed by God, the Prophets, Jesus, His Disciples to encourage, motivate and console nations, followers and the early Church communities. For Christians, 'faith' is an unconditional gift from God. Like all other gifts blessed and freely given by God, we can do nothing deserving to 'win faith' from God. Faith has been delivered into our hands and it is at our disposal to develop it, put it to practice or risk losing it.
All of us have witnessed how faith filled people remained peaceful in times of prolonged or temporal trials. Perhaps it is worth sharing ,what I believe is a useful reminder about faith in God. Nothing unheard before, but when it is internalized and reflected upon with reference to Holy Scriptures, the interpretation of faith becomes more alive.
Faith in God = Trust in God.
When faced with what appears to be unceasing sufferings, double or triple whammies, do we lose heart when we do not see a solution forthcoming? Our individual answers will reflect the level of willingness we have right now to surrender our need for control to God.
Do we trust God only when God reveals His solutions to us?
Can we trust God without knowing where He is leading us and what He has in mind for us?
The Old and New Testaments bear many accounts of Israel and early Church communities demanding for miracles, signs and wonders from God before continuing their spiritual journeys. Similarly, the Bible gives many testimonies of ordinary people responding unconditionally and readily to God's call without knowing what God will do for them and for the lives of those whom God has placed in their charge.
Only God's singular promise of divine providence was enough for these faith filled people who eventually became God's leaders. Imagine receiving a message from God which says, "Be not afraid. Go! I will always be with you" or "Be confident, patient and wait upon the Lord. Make sure you obey all my commandments and meditate upon my Laws day and night and you will not be discouraged or afraid".
With no sight of a near solution to life's problems, would such simple messages be assuring enough for us? People of faith will give an unconditional 'yes'.
They are able to say "yes" because of an important dimension of spiritual life - Total Obedience to God. They recognize the Lord as the Divine Master and Author of their lives while they are mere servants called to be good and faithful stewards. Their relationship with God was put right from the beginning.
It appears natural to ask God for a glimpse of the solutions He has arranged for us before His time. To do so, however, may lead us into the temptation of wrestling control of our lives from God if we realize that we will not be receiving what we expect from Him. When that happens, we will not be totally obedient to God's promise; ie. we obey only when we are assured that we will receive what we expect and at our expected time.
So to conclude, complete obedience in God comes from complete Trust in God. To build our trust in God, we need to read our Bibles daily and reflect upon God's providence for the generations before us and for our generations today. God is constant. He does not change in His promises to our forefathers and to us.
Where there is Trust, there is Faith.
GOD bless!
neil
Finding Contentment
"Well, religion does make a person very rich, if he is satisfied with what he has". (1 Tim 6:6)
It has been a good 5 months since I last posted something in my spiritual blog; a blog which is dedicated to proclaiming God's greatness and mercy. While God's mercy is new every morning, I felt that some of the events which I have experienced in my life of late have been far from a reflection of God's divine 'greatness'.
What are some of these unpleasant events that I speak of with disdain? The unlikelihood of long term job security and career advancement opportunities in the local employment market, local politicians becoming richer while many parts of society continue to struggle with daily necessities, hypocritical relationships in the office, inconsiderate drivers on the road etc.
At times, it appears that pursuit of material success and wealth accumulation is the only solution in this mad world. Compassion, kindness and mercy to others becomes secondary when one needs to get ahead for survival. Are we victims of circumstance or is society purely driven by cynicism? Only the God who knows our hearts know the real intent of our stormy passions.
I attended sunset Mass at Risen Christ Church last saturday. The Gospel was about the rich man who had been richly blessed by God, having obtained a barnful of wheat. Feeling delighted with what he had, he desired to build a bigger barn so that he can continue to collect more wheat, fill it up and not worry about labouring in future. In that parable, a claim was made for his life during the night.
Can anyone today criticize the man in the parable for believing what he was believing? He was willing to work very hard by gathering more wheat for a bigger barn so that he would not worry so much about life's uncertainties in the future. Isnt "working hard and enjoying later" the principle which many parents, governments, schools and institutions tell their children and people? Ask any financial planners and they would preach the familiar song of gathering as much hay when the sun is still shining.
Fr Vaz, in his homily, mentioned that this man who was described by Jesus in the parable as a fool, was self absorbed. He was not concerned about sharing what God has blessed him with for God's glory and he depended on his material gains instead of God for security.
I suppose that is where the fine line is. The success we reap in life are from God.
The challenge will be to recognize this while we are busy working hard and making as much hay as possible while the sun is shining. SO that we can find a divine purpose for our toil which is beyond a self-absorbed motive of claiming all the gains from our labour as our own. The higher calling by God will always be to "love one another as I have loved you".
