Cuándo yo era joven joven, nunca oí aún el término "multi-tasking" (tareas múltiples). Ahora que estoy comenzando los sesenta, he llegado a ser una experta en ello. ¿Qué es lo equivocado con esta imagen? La vida es DEMASIADO ocupada, ¿no es así? Con todas nuestras conveniencias modernas y aparatos caros, la "vida sencilla" casi ha quedado borrosa en una memoria nostálgica, un accidente de la generación de “haz más pero logra menos.” ¡Esto es muy grave! Nos levantamos antes que salga la luz del día y no desayunamos para poder “descansar” en el campo de golf, pero nos hemos olvidado de cómo sentarse en el porche y mirar el amanecer. De alguna forma encontramos en nuestra agenda apretada tiempo para tener tres reuniones del comité pero no tenemos tiempo de visitar al vecino. Logramos mirar cada episodio de "24" pero apenas podemos encontrar tiempo para la oración diaria y el estudio de la Biblia.

Puedo repetir la pregunta: ¿Qué está equivocado con esta imagen?

La respuesta está triste pero clara, especialmente cuando se aplica a los que nos llamamos Cristianos: Nosotros no creemos lo que decimos que creemos.

Decimos que "aparte de Dios  no podemos hacer nada," pero gastamos nuestros días  aparte de Él, tratando de lograr todo tipo de cosas por nosotros mismos.

Decimos que amamos a Dios y a los demás aún más que a nosotros mismos, pero dedicamos nuestro tiempo a servirnos a nosotros mismos.

Decimos que Él es nuestra paz – y sin embargo no la tenemos.

¿Por qué?

El profeta Isaías lo deletreó para nosotros: Si nosotros no tenemos paz, es porque nuestras mentes no están centradas en Dios y no tenemos confianza en Él. Quisiera poder llegar a esa gran verdad, pero no encuentro el camino. Si nosotros no tenemos paz en nuestras vidas, es porque hemos sido chupados en el agujero negro de mentiras que contradicen la verdad de la Palabra de Dios y nos dicen que todo depende de nosotros, de nuestros propios esfuerzos, y lo mejor es que hagamos/vivamos/logremos todo lo que podemos mientras podemos. La única forma de poder escapar ese agujero oscuro es rechazar concientemente las mentiras y comenzar una vez más a llenarnos nuestras mentes de las Santas Escrituras – leerlas, meditar en ellas, memorizarlas, y actuar sobre ellas. Pueda que nuestras circunstancias no cambien o que nuestros problemas no se borren o que nuestras responsabilidades no mengüen, pero si reemplazará nuestra ocupación sin sentido con un propósito enfocado. Con eso viene un “gozo inexplicable” y “una paz que sobrepasa todo entendimiento.”

El tiempo es corto, mis queridos(as) amigos(as). No pierdan el tiempo en cosas que no tienen ningún propósito ni la promesa eterna de gran valor. Yo, por lo menos, no deseo tomar mi último suspiro habiendo desperdiciado mi vida en actividades vacías en vez de honrar a Dios y servir a los demás. 

Que la paz que viene solamente cuando nos deleitamos en Su dulce presencia lo/la envuelva éste día y siempre…

 

            When I was young, I never even heard the term “multi-tasking.” Now that I’m in my (early) sixties, I’ve become an expert at it. What’s wrong with this picture? Life is WAY too busy, isn’t it? With all our modern conveniences and expensive gadgets, the “simple life” has nearly faded into a nostalgic memory, a casualty of the “do-more-but-accomplish-less” generation. Seriously! We get up before daylight and skip breakfast so we can “relax” on the golf course, but we’ve forgotten how to sit on the porch and watch the sunrise. We squeeze in three committee meetings weekly but can’t find time to visit a neighbor. We manage to watch every episode of “24” but can scarcely find time for daily prayer and Bible study.

            May I repeat the question: What is wrong with this picture?

            The answer is sad but clear, particularly as it applies to those of us who call ourselves Christians: We do not believe what we say we believe.

            We say that “apart from God we can do nothing,” but we spend our days apart from Him, trying to accomplish all sorts of things on our own.

            We say that we love God and others more than we love ourselves, but we dedicate our time to serving self.

            We say He is our peace—and yet we have none.

            Why?

            The prophet Isaiah spelled it out for us: If we have no peace, it is because our minds are not focused on God and we don’t trust Him. I wish I could find a way around that truth, but there is none. If we have no peace in our lives, it is because we have been sucked into the black hole of lies that contradict the truth of God’s Word and tell us that it’s all up to us and we’d better do/be/experience all we can while we can. The only way to escape that black hole is to consciously reject the lies and begin once again to flood our minds with the Scriptures—read them, meditate on them, memorize them, and act on them. It may not change our circumstances or erase our problems or diminish our responsibilities, but it will replace our pointless busyness with focused purpose. With that comes “joy unspeakable” and a “peace that passes all understanding.”

            Time is short, beloved. Don’t waste it on pursuits that have no purpose or promise of eternal value. I, for one, do not want to breathe my last having wasted my life on empty activities instead of giving it away to honor God and serve others.

            May the peace that comes only from basking in His sweet presence envelop you this day and always….

 

 

            I would like to tell you that throughout this past week I have been a spiritual rock, standing strong for my family as they gathered together in what appeared to be my mother’s last days. I would like to say that—but I can’t. Not only has God spared Mom to live out the full number of days He has allotted to her, but I have (once again!) been reminded of my own weaknesses and fallibility.

            Weary is the word that comes to mind, and with it a desire to escape to some quiet place where rest is an achievable goal. And yet…

            God is the Source of my peace. He is my strength and my rest and my joy—and my great Reward at the end of the day. When all else changes, He remains the same. Even when the earth shakes (which it did here in Southern California this past Sunday evening!), God remains unshaken.

            And that is where my focus must remain, particularly when well-meaning loved ones and friends tell me that God would not want me to wear myself out, that He wants me to be happy and fulfilled, to even have fun once in awhile….

            Really? Hmm… True, moments of happiness and fun sometimes invade our lives, and I am grateful each time that happens. But is it our purpose? Or is that purpose so much higher than a self-serving life?

            Again, I don’t discount the need to care for ourselves as best we can, for health and well-being enables us to effectively serve God and others. But when Mordecai confronted Queen Esther about interceding with the king to save the Jewish people from extinction, the queen’s personal happiness and fun were not even figured into the equation. Knowing that she would be putting her own life on the line to approach the king uninvited, Mordecai challenged Esther to lay down her dreams, her comfort, her security—everything—in order to fulfill God’s calling and purpose for her life: “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Did Queen Esther realize the seriousness of this challenge? Absolutely! She accepted the challenge and said, “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16).

            As it turned out, Esther did not perish and, in fact, was instrumental in saving the Jewish people. But if she had perished in the attempt, would she have failed? Would she have wasted her life?

            Not if that was God’s purpose for her being here in the first place! Though we don’t all have such a world-changing calling or purpose as Queen Esther, we each have a specific, God-given purpose for walking this earth—a purpose that far outweighs our need to be happy or “have fun” along the way. If fulfilling that God-ordained purpose means that we perish in the process, so be it. How better to be assured that when we step from here into eternity we will hear those wonderful words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord.”

            At the end of the day—or of our earthly lives—does anything else really matter?