Leave our past to God's mercy, our future to His Providence and our present to His love.
Humans are creatures of habits. And one of the most common habits we have is that of worrying. We worry about everything, big and small, about what had happened, what is happening and what is going to happen. But God calls us to leave them all with Him and to Him for with these burdens, we can never set our sights on His Kingdom.
We cannot change the things that have past nor can we accurately predict what is going to happen in the future no matter how near the future it is. Being sinful people, at times, we carry with us the burden of our guilt or the consequences of our sins. Sometimes, we remember how we hurt someone badly or how we had committed a sin that we ourselves have yet to reconcile for. Sometimes, we get reminders of nasty things we have said that had caused someone's emotional pain. But these are all things that have shifted beyond our control as soon as its moments had passed us by. Worrying about them, holding onto our guilt and refusing to let God heal these brokenness are all futile and life-killing. Instead, God can take care of these worries of past events with His mercy as we let them go with the reconciliation with ourselves, with God and with others involved. In God's mercy, we find strength and hope to move ahead with our lives and continue in our strife for goodness. Like St. Peter who felt guilty for denying Jesus three times, he trusted in His Master's mercy and forgiveness, picked himself up with his firm hope in the Lord and moved ahead in his life, and God worked miracles through St. Peter. He does not keep harping on the fact that he was unfaithful to God. He accepted it, allowed God to heal and forgive him and then off he went to do God's work. So we too must set our sights on God's Kingdom building. There is no time and energy for us to feel sorry for ourselves. We stumble and fall, we learn, we climb back up onto our feet and we continue on our journey.
What does the future hold for us? While our teachers and parents have taught us that what we are in the future is determined by the choices we make today. Yet, who is to say exactly what is to be and will be? Only God knows. We do our best in all that we engage in at every moment and leave the result and our futures to God's Providence. A child can say, "I want to be a lawyer when I grow up!" However, perhaps God says this child is better off as a doctor. Are we going to trust our limited knowledge of what is good for us or are we going to trust God's unlimited wisdom and providence, and put our hopes in Him that He will give unto us a future that is best for us? Do we take control of our own lives or do we humble ourselves to allow God to take us by the hand? Is it us with Divine Providence or is it God? What is Divine Providence to us? Do we trust in it or does it mean more of a fictional or abstract terminology? Do we truly believe in God's Divine Providence? If we do, then there will cease to be worries about our future.
God loves us and takes prefect care of us in the here and now. Whatever we need now, He knows them all and He chooses what is good on the list and gives it to us unconditionally. When we are lost, God's love brings a friend close to be our lighthouse. When we are sad, God's love cheers us up. When we are in despair, God's love brings hope. When living the "now" moments, all we need to do is to be fully dependent on the love of God for out of this love will God provide all that we need and that is good for us. It is out of this love that God generously extends to us that we are able to stand in His holy presence and call Him our Lord and Master.
When our eyes are fixed upon the Lord, all distractions such as fear and worries will fade into the background and eventually, dissipate entirely for nothing can stand in comparison to Him. How are we going to respond to God's call to set our eyes on Him? How do we alter our daily lives so that God is the centre of it all instead of putting Him on the sideline? How are we going to take care of God's Kingdom the way we ask Him to take care of our lives?
18 August 2010
11.09pm
It is so true. All my life, I had wanted to be a reporter and being a teacher was never on my list. However, I decided to do relief teaching during my uni holidays and that made me fall in love with teaching. That also led to my gradual discovery that I have been called to be a teacher.
ReplyDeleteHe never fails to provide for me on a monetary basis each year on my journey as a private tutor. I know that whatever state of life He has called me to, He will provide for me and will walk with me in the trials.