The Things Above
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:1-3
We live in an attention-demanding world
When my youngest son Aaron was still a toddler and was fast learning how to communicate, he could be very demanding for attention. One time, I was at the dinner table with my wife Niko, having a discussion. At one point, Aaron came closer to me and asked a question. I didn't answer it immediately because I was in the middle of an idea. Aaron was not to be discouraged, however, and kept calling me, trying to get my full attention: "papa... papa...papa... PAPA! But being too engrossed with my discussion with Niko I wouldn't even look Aaron's way. Finally, Aaron climbed up a chair beside me, took hold of my head and turned my face towards him, and cried "PAPA!", finally capturing my full attention.
We live in a very demanding world. Everyday-life commands so much of our attention. As we wake up in the morning, we start thinking of the chores for the day and a whole slew of things to do, drawing our attention away from our own thoughts. We open the radio in the morning, and our ears are tuned to the blaring music and raging news. We switch on the television set and the images projected on the screen keep our eyes and attention to the seemingly endless stream of entertainment programs and enticing advertisements.
We go out into the street and we join the great mass of people on their way to their places of work. We bump into them in the crowded street. We compete with them for available transport space. We enter our work places and we begin the daily battle to earn our keep. We enjoy the company of our friends. We struggle with the presence of our enemies. We pour out our energies for the right to earn our daily pay, and we go home exhausted. We go to sleep, preparing ourselves for another challenging day ahead. In the midst of all these, our thoughts our occupied by worries about bills and obligations, and looming debt payments. We worry about the safety of our loved ones. We worry about our kids' future. Some of us get sick. Others go through crises and experience physical or emotional pain.
We are held captive by the things that we see, and hear, and feel, and think, and worry about. Some draw our attention just a little bit. Others capture our attention a lot. And I notice that there are three things in this world that have the strongest capacity to capture our attention: the things that give us the biggest pleasure; the things that give us our worst fears; the things that give us the greatest pain. We all would love to have so much money that will buy for us a nice, comfortable house we can afford. And we all dream of owning a brand new car, so we do not have to commute everyday and we'd have the freedom to go wherever we want to go. We all wish to have the latest gadgets-cellphones,
music players, notebook computers, gaming consoles, flat-screen TVs, you name it. We wish to have so much money in the bank that we no longer have to work, so that we get to live our remaining days as though they were one grand vacation. Dreaming about them can sometimes take up so much of our time. Working hard to accumulate wealth to afford those dream take up even more.
But then, just as soon as we've reached a milestone in our financial targets, worry start to creep in and begin to mess up our dreams of a grand vacation. "What if what we have is not enough? What if we lose our job? Or what if our business fails? What if the economy crashes and the value of our property plunge along with it?" The curse of great wealth is that the worries that come with it are just as great. They tend to fill all our waking hours with anxieties. Even dreams are not spared, as nightmares begin to trouble us in our sleep.
In the end however, none of the things we accumulate that are intended to feed our pleasures, and reduce our anxieties and cushion us from the pain of life will ever be enough. No amount of earthly comforts will shield us from pain, no amount of accumulated wealth completely remove our worries, and not even the most expensive possessions or privileged experiences can ever fully satisfy our desires. All our efforts to build our little heaven here on earth will always eventually fall flat on the ground.
The problem is that we've set our sights too low. We need to look up, and set our minds on what is above.Setting our Sights Higher
Not all truths are equal. While it is true that I can swim, and if I had a lifejacket around me I would be fine while in the water, but if the bigger truth is that I'm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean I don't stand a chance of surviving. I need a savior. Once I'm rescued by a big boat on a search and rescue mission, it is pointless for me to worry about my wet wallet and ruined shirt. My life is more important and I'd be simply thankful that I am rescued and still alive. I would be indebted to my rescuer, and I would do everything I can to express my appreciation.
The greatest truth that should dominate our waking hours is the truth of Jesus. When you compare the things you hold dear in this life, put them all in one side, and then take the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and put it on the other side, there is no comparison. Jesus is the greatest, most significant, most majestic and awe inspiring truth of all. The truth is, Jesus is the Son of God who became a man. And because he became a man, and went through all the pains and pressures of human life, we have a God who knows exactly what we go through as we live our day-to-day lives. We have a God who sympathizes with us, and knows what we need even before we ask.
The truth is, Jesus died on the cross 2,000 years ago that fateful afternoon in Calvary. And the bible says his death was the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins-that His death became our death, and his blood became sacrifice for our sin. Thus by the blood of Christ we are forgiven and we are no longer condemned to eternal punishment.
The truth is, Jesus became alive again and went up to the Father, sat on His right side and is now the king of heaven and earth. All authority is given to him. All creation is now subject to him. We therefore acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, and he reigns as king of our lives and over all creation. We must bow in humble submission to him, and pledge our obedience to serve Him.
The truth is, anyone who's put his trust in Jesus is joined together with him in his life, death and resurrection. And because Christ now lives in us, and we live in Christ, we are reconciled with the Father, and we are no longer treated as slaves but as children of God and friend of Christ. Thus we are no longer citizens of this world but are now citizens of heaven.
These are the truths that we should set our minds on. Compared to these truths, everything else on this world pale in comparison. These truths give us power to give up our lives for God's service. These are the same truths that empower missionaries to give up material comforts to minister to the poor and marginalized in the most difficult to reach countries in the world.
But we're still stuck in planet Earth
The difficult thing is that we are still in the world of men. Our greatest struggle is how to keep the heavenly truths in our hearts and minds in the midst of all the demands of the smaller truths. Everything around us tend to minimize the truth of the Gospel. The desire of the flesh, the urgent demands of the things of this world, even the temptations of the Evil One all conspire to set our sights low. I am not saying we should negate our experiences in this physical world. We cannot ignore the daily concerns of life even if we wanted to. But what I am saying is that these should not be our highest priority. We must learn to hold the things we enjoy in this life very loosely. We must never grab hold of them too tightly. We must be willing to let go. So we are to treat our lives here on earth as if we're just passing through. We're on an upward journey to the heavenly kingdom, and we're just passing through. I went on a journey to Santiago Isabela one time, and I stopped over in a restaurant in Nueva Vizcaya. I had lunch, coffee. I enjoyed the view, the lush greenery of the mountain. I could have stayed there long and enjoy the scenery some more, but that was not my final destination, and I had to leave it and journey on. This is the same attitude we should have as we live our lives on earth. We should always be ready to let go. How can we do that? We are to die to ourselves. In a spiritual sense, we're already dead. Our old nature has died, it was crucified along with Jesus when he was nailed on the cross. Our spiritual unity in Christ effected our deaths to our old selves. So we who entrusted our lives to Christ died in Christ. But since Christ lived again, we are also raised up in Christ to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead This does not mean that we never sin. To the contrary, we're just as vulnerable to temptation as everybody else, and many times we find ourselves failing and falling into sin. The difference is that even if we do sin, we have assurance that we are forgiven. Christ's death on the cross is sufficient for the forgiveness of all our sins, past, present and future. All that God is looking for in is that we truthfully confess before Him that we have failed, rebelled even against his holy will, and humbly ask for his grace and mercy. And the scripture promises that we are forgiven.Our new life in "hidden with Christ" - this means God looks not at our own righteousness, but the righteousness we've received in Christ. We line ourselves up behind Christ, so that as God looks at us, He sees us hidden behind Christ. Christ mediates between us and God, and we are made acceptable as a child of God only because we are in Christ.
What to do, then?
Two things.
One is to determine the right investment of our minds, strength, capabilities and possessions. We do not have to be radical and give up everything we own, give them to the poor. We are given the freedom to live quite normal lives by the world's standards. But we need to draw certain boundaries. We need to determine how much money is enough. We all need to work, to provide for our families. But we do not need to enslave ourselves and keep pushing our limits to have more and more, beyond what already have.
Our strength, our talents, our capabilities are meant to be used for the things that glorify God the most. Often, these are the things that will not give us immediate pay-off. But these are the things that store up treasures in heaven for our account. God amply rewards in heaven the things that we willingly give up for the cause of the Gospel.
Two, we need to learn to prioritize the use of our time as well. There are things that are important in life. But there things that are completely essential and vital to our very spiritual survival. We need to make time for daily bible reading, prayers and meditation. These will help us keep our minds set on the things above. We cannot think about God without knowing Him from His revelation in Scripture. We cannot talk to him intimately if we do not know Him. So our devotion to Christ is supreme. Spending time to grow in our relationship with Him is the highest priority in this life.
