Living abundantly

Yesterday in a weekly Sunday mass, a sermon was about abundant life. The speaker/preacher quoted that in economic term, there are 3 basics need of people namely food, cloth and security. So as long as we have food for the day, a cloth to wear and a shelter we are OK. If we have food supply for more than a day, a few clothes and a big house as shelter, we are living in abundance.

Looking from that sense, I think most of us are living in abundance despite all types of crisis surfacing around us. Despite the rise in fuel price, I do not have to be worried because owning a vehicle is not a primary need. But that's not usually the case. It seems like owning at least one vehicle has became of a great importance. It used to be our want but now it has became our need.

Jesus said do not worry about anything, about what should you eat and what should you wear. Well, I think during that time, Jesus was speaking to the needy, to the poor. Those people have less than enough food to eat and perhaps they did not have extra clothes to wear. All these people have been worrying about food and clothes. So Jesus told them not to worry because God will provide that for them. He also mentioned that life is more important than food and the body is more important than clothes. So as long as we have life and the body, we should not be worry. God will take care of our food and clothes.

Does this mean that we do not have to worry about not having job or steady income? Does it mean that all we need to do is to believe in God and do nothing else and hope God will give us everything that we need? Paul wrote that faith without deed is dead. We need to work our faith out. We need to use our talents which is given by God. God wants us to make us of our talents not to keep it and bury it.

As a Christian, we believe that everything is from God, by God and for God. We do not believe in luck. We do not believe in 'it happens accidentally'. We believe that everything works for good for those who believe in Him. But that will only happen if we live by His words, by His wills. In his blog, 97 seconds with God Jon mentioned about the Tower of Babel that we have in our life. We all have that tower. We built the tower of greed and selfishness in trying to attain our own agenda. We did not even ask God if it is His will. We merely plan our tower and God make our plan become confusing and hard to work out because it is not His will.

The Amazing Race

One of my favorite TV shows is The Amazing Race. Being a reality show, the show speaks of our attitude and aptitude. I realized that members of a team got to know each other better and better as they went on running the race. They might be thinking they have known each other well enough but as the race goes on, they realized that there are many more things that they don't know about his/her partner.

Looking at the way the race goes, I find out there a few important elements that participants need to master. Amongst other are:

• Instruction
• Each instruction need to be really understood by the participants. Failure to do so will lead the team to a wrong direction
  
• Wise decision
• When facing detour, teams need to decide wisely.
• Team spirit
• Since it is a team game, it's very important to support one another in the team. Selfishness is absolutely intolerable.
• Perseverance
• Never give up attitude is a must
• All talents are to be used to the fullest
• In order to complete all tasks, participants have to use whatever talents that they have such as bargaining, begging, persuading and so on.

Paul equaled Christianity to a racing event. Everyone is running towards the finish line. Our goal is to finish the race. Ranking is not really a matter.But it is not an easy race. Throughout the race we may face many obstacles. Some may give up the race.

I see this as another version of The Amazing Race. We are the contesting teams. God is watching us throughout the race. As long as we reach the finish line, we are not going to be eliminated even though we may be the last team to arrive. In the show, there are teams who only arrive late at night even in the wee hour of the next morning. But the host will still be there waiting for them and to tell them their position. So does God. He will be waiting for us even though we arrive late at night, in the wee hour or on the next day. He will always be waiting because He wants us to finish the race, to reach the finish line.

In the show, each team that arrived at the finish line looked so bad. They were tired and exhausted. But the host and his aids will welcome them with smiles before saying "You are team No. so and so". When they were told that they were not the last team to arrive, they would leap and hug each other in joy. They forgot about all the sweats and tears that had poured out throughout the race. Now they are ready for their rewards.

I could imagine that when we reach the finish line, we will be in a bad shape as well after all the obstacles that we have gone through. But He will be there together with His angels, welcoming us with joy and singing....heaven will be applauding us...or we will be given a standing ovation....and there He is, approaching us and says " Son, welcome to heaven. You are now citizen of heaven".....

But to be able to reach the finish line, we need to understand the instruction (the commands of God), we need to choose wisely (God will help us in making decision if we ask Him), we need to support each other (we need to love one another, built one another), we have to persevere (we cannot give up but ask God for strength), we need to use all our talents (Talents are from God. We need to use them for God).