GOD'S-PURPOSE-DRIVEN-LIFE!!!

Monday, September 05, 2011

Labor Day

by Lorenz S. Centino, Jr.

Matthew 6: 31 – 34

31        Therefore do not be anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?'

32        For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

33        But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.

34        "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS:

A BLESSED MONDAY TO ALL!!!

BIRTHDAY happens once in one’s lifetime. It is celebrated and commemorated once in a year. Birthday is the most personal celebration one can have as it leads one to look not beyond oneself but rather unto oneself. It directs one’s attention not to the future but the foundation of one’s present and future. Birth is good news. Upon birth one starts a journey. Upon birthday celebrations one celebrates what has gone and re-commit to the journey of what has to come. The most common concern of this journey is being anxious about “food” to eat, what to “drink” and “wear.” Many spent almost their whole life time anxious about these concerns. These concerns blinded many to see the real purpose of life which is more than living or being alive. Birthday celebrations, as I celebrate my birthday today, are opportune times to reflect the purpose of life.

I read a quotation which says, “Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.” Indeed, wisdom is not parallel with the years we lived life. There are those who aged much, but have not learned to live life meaningfully. Many failed to live life meaningfully because they failed to see life’s purpose. Many have the wrong approach how to live meaningfully and with purpose. Many thought that they will find meaning as they go through with age in life, or life becoming more meaningful as they overcome one challenge or crisis after another. However, as they go through life, many have lost their spirit because they find themselves in a quagmire of challenge after another, crisis after crisis that seemed bigger than what they can handle. Many go through life with anxiety and resignation. They find life to be empty with meaning and purpose. They just find life to be about “eating” the best food that satisfy one’s taste, “drinking” anything that brings pleasure and delight and “wearing” what makes one caught people’s attention and admiration. But at the end of the day, they still find life empty.

The Gospel today presents to us the perspective God wants us to have in journeying the pilgrimage of life. This perspective provides us, first of all, the purpose of life. Life is preordained to move forward at the service of the Kingdom and the Righteousness of God. Life’s purpose is to be in the SERVICE and COMMUNION with God. Therefore, life that moves away from this direction distorts and alters its predestined orientation. And so the Lord today exhorts us who lapsed and move on along this opposite direction not to be anxious about the concerns of the morrow. Anxiety should not be about the future for God knows what we need as he created first what we need before he created us. We should be anxious rather about the present. But this anxiety should not be about ‘eating” or “drinking” or about what to “wear, rather it should be about seeking first God’s Kingdom and His Righteousness.

We are challenged, therefore, by the Gospel today to be anxious on how we can serve the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. Having this kind of orientation each day, let us be assured that the Lord has the answer to what most are anxious about of their future. The Lord declared that if we seek first, or be anxious about, the Kingdom of God all the concerns that belong to the future will be ours as well for the Lord knows well what we need. Let us then live a God’s-purpose-driven-life, that is seeking first His Kingdom and His Righteousness and ALL shall be ours as well! TODAY what we have to be anxious about is how to CHANGE our PRIORITIES AHEAD of us according to God's PURPOSE for our LIVES!


For your personal comments, you can reach me through this email: sanolorenz@yahoo.com