2.25.11

My pastor’s musings on his 56th birthday as delivered on “True Love Sings” tonight.

Life is Not Short

Life is not short nor long.
God ordained its length so it must be just right.
Life becomes
short and vexing only when throttled full-speed on needless business;
long and tiring when slow-motioned in idleness.

With the right deed, place, and time
there should be no big need to longingly look backward nor forward:
no putting on hold and wasting a very present, cash moment
only to wallow in the very spent past
or gaze at a very distant, promissory-note future.
Living the moment would do.

So when earthly time is up,
the heart won’t fear nor regret
but would only gratefully, graciously, gladly yield this present breath
to inhale the next in a yet another life in another place and time.

Minimize pain.
Maximize pleasure.
Do the most good.

Get a life!
Live life to the fullest.
Then gladly meet your Maker.


REFLECTIONS
Deuteronomy 29-31

Compare
Deuteronomy 29:4
But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.

Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

* The Lord decides what we can and cannot learn/understand in this lifetime?
Does this mean, he has designated also those who can and cannot?
Therefore, he decides who becomes matalino and not?

* The “secret” things have also been revealed to those who he likes to reveal them to? But are the secrets of God really knowable?
Or do people only perceive to know what they think they know?
Kasi, if they know the secret, hindi na secret yun.

And granting that the secret is shared by God to a chosen few, does that mean God
wants these chosen ones to share the secret with anyone? Or is there an exclusive
club of truth-seekers and secret-keepers?


The Viability of Obedience

Deuteronomy 30:11-14
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Deuteronomy 31
Key Words: Be strong and take courage!!!