Christmas...come and see

 “For a child has been born for us, a son is given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”. This is from an Old Testament reading and the ancient prophecy of Isaiah.

Last week, upon the prodding of my boys to go to watch Noel Sydney festival in the city CBD, we went, me grudgingly, but not before attending a mass at St Mary’s Cathedral. It’s been a while since we’ve been in this majestic and iconic church of the Christian faith. As the mass ended with a choral rendition, something stirred within me and made me teary-eyed when I listened to the cathedral choir joyfully and magnificently singing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” like throngs of seraphims and cherubims singing in the heavens while also looking, and mesmerized, at the massive splendor of the cathedral’s high altar surrounded by the archaic yet beautiful stained windows.

A deep and warm feeling of spiritual emotions engulfed me right then and then.

Amidst the hectic and frantic year of 2022, of secular, and ironically, faith work I had, I felt that very moment in time, of missing out on something more important, more precious than anything else – a vague sort of feeling like when you bought a highly prized raffle ticket that you failed to claim because you’ve lost it – and past the deadline of claiming it you found the ticket and then pondering what could have been had I found it then.

Hold that thought for a moment. 

Picture yourself on Christmas eve in a magnificent cathedral like St. Mary’s. What is that bring us that evening in that place? What is it that draws people all over our land to churches at Christmas time? We are drawn, I hope, by more than the beautiful music, by more than a place of prayer, by more than the love of family and friends.

We are drawn by a longing for something, an ache, an emptiness, a void, a restlessness, a sense that life is incomplete.  It’s there all the time in different ways.  Often the noise around us drowns it out.  Sometimes when life is going well, we forget it’s there for months on end.  Then suddenly it’s back again: like a voice calling from the distance, a thirst deep within us, a sense that we are incomplete.

In times of happiness, that joy we feel has nowhere to go.  In times of sadness, it’s a longing for comfort beyond ourselves. In times of confusion, the ache becomes a cry for guidance.  In moments of darkness, a sense of the light is there, if only we could see it.  In times when we do wrong, it’s a sense of guilt and regret.  In the times when we are crushed, it’s a desperate cry for help, a longing for someone to be listening.

Sometimes it feels like a distant memory of childhood.  Sometimes it’s an echo from a faraway future.  Sometimes it’s a cry in the midst of the pain of the world. Sometimes it’s a glimpse of peace amidst turmoil and misery.  Sometimes it’s a gentle whisper in the silence of the night.  Sometimes a disease for which we can find no cure.  Sometimes it’s a longing for someone or something we cannot name, something precious but just out of reach.

All down the ages men and women like us have felt this longing, this restlessness, this emptiness whenever we have tried to live - without God.  However deeply we try to bury it, however much we hide from it, and however difficult it is to face it, the sense remains that there must be more to life than there seems to be.  We know we are called to something deeper, more real, and more meaningful than this world seems to offer.  We long in our hearts for more.

God is calling us all down the long years.  Christians recognize this inner voice, these questions, this restlessness as the voice of God calling out to each person in creation, to every one of us.  You were made with a purpose and a high calling, each of you, to know your creator and to live in friendship with God.

It is part of the great mystery of life that our friendship with God has been fractured by the evil which is in the world.  But even that broken friendship leaves its traces in that sense we have that life is incomplete, unfinished, hollow, unless we find the meaning.  From time to time, we listen and know and understand that God is reaching out to us, longing to draw us home.

The story of Christmas can only be understood as a rescue mission.  Humanity is lost.  By ourselves, we cannot find our way back to God.  So, God sends to us his Son, born of a virgin, a child in a manger, to help us find our way.

Many people who celebrate this Christmas with all the lavishness and worldly tinsel will be like my imagined self, the owner of the lost lottery ticket.  They will simply not understand what they have been given.  They will not claim the treasure which could be theirs, the treasure which is worth more than they can ask or imagine.

So, pause for a moment this Christmas and ponder again the wonder of the scene we know from cards and nativities all the world over.  See the stable, rough and ready, feel the straw under your feet and the chill night air.  Hear the animals, imagine the farmyard smells.  See Mary, a young girl, full of holy wonder.  See Joseph, kneeling by the crib.  See the fearful shepherds crowding in the stable door.

And in your mind’s eye see the child, wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.  See this child who is called by the prophecy so long-ago Wonderful Counselor: the one in whom the wisdom of the ages rests.  See this child who is called Mighty God: the Lord of heaven and earth born as an infant, taking flesh and becoming human.  See this child who is called in the prophecy, Everlasting Father: the one through whom the stars were made becomes a boy in a stable.  See this child, born in the midst of conflict, who is named the in prophecy, Prince of Peace.

Come and see the child named Jesus.  His name means God Saves and this Jesus has come to save us and all the world from our sins and draw us back to God.  According to Isaiah, his coming brings light.  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.  His coming brings joy.  “You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy”. According to Isaiah his coming brings freedom and peace and order and justice and righteousness such as the world has never known.

Remember as you look, this is the child who will grow into the wisest teacher, the most compassionate friend, and the mightiest healer the world has ever known.  This is the child who when he grows will feed the hungry, calm the storm, drive out the demons and raise the dead – mighty works and signs of a greater reality.  This is the child who when he grows will call men and women to follow him and become a new community that will spread over all the earth.  This is the child who will grow into the man of sorrows, who for the love he bears us, will go to his painful death on the cross for our sins, who will again be wrapped by his mother in strips of cloth, and who three days later will rise again, the conqueror of death itself.

Don’t hurry going out of the stable.  Stay a while. Kneel with the shepherds and ponder. If God really came to earth as a tiny child, then that one truth changes everything.  It changes the way you see God.  For God is not distant waiting for you to come to him.  God is present longing for you to receive his gift.

It changes the way we see ourselves.  You are not just a number, a statistic, or a grain of sand on the seashore.  You are infinitely precious to your creator.  You are meant to be here.  You are chosen and called and saved. Your life has meaning beyond itself.

It changes the way we see the world.  For every child is precious to God, loved, and cherished.  God’s love does not change as we grow older.  God’s love is not affected by race or the place where we are born or the human family we are born into.  No one is just a number.  Each is a person, unique, created in God’s image, loved, and able to be redeemed.

Our world is meant to be different.  It is meant to be a place of peace, not war, of fairness, not inequality, of health, not a disease, of love not hate, of honouring one another, not exploitation, of truth not lies.

“For a child has been born for us, a son is given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”

Listen again at Christmas time to the voice of God calling to you down the ages and calling you home.  Come and kneel on the floor of the stable with the shepherds.  Receive the most precious gift of all this Christmas time: the gift of Jesus - the Gift of Life.

Ides of March: A birthday reflection

 It all starts with birth.

 We enter the world with an opportunity to fulfil our individual mission in the time we are granted. The day we are born is the day we become our very own person - no longer just a watermelon in our mother's belly.

 Every year, on the anniversary of our existence, we stop and honour this day in a celebratory manner. Our family and friends usually go to significant lengths to make us feel loved and cared for. It's the one time a year when the world revolves around us.

 As time goes by, birthdays seem to creep up rather quickly and before we know it we're a year older and hopefully wiser.

 When it's all over and the next day arrives, things tend to go back to normal. We eventually become accustomed to the fact that our 'number' has changed as we return to our daily routines.

 So what's it all about?

 There is an interesting shift in balance as we age. From birth till the late twenties, our bodies continue to grow stronger and become more agile. As each year passes we can generally run faster, and increase our flexibility. This trend continues up until our early thirties, when the physical decline slowly begins.

 Getting older can present us with a number of challenges, but aging comes with rewards too. Unlike the body, the mind (while it's still sound) is capable of taking on more from age thirty and beyond. In fact, its depth increases as we continue to feed it and experience more from life.

 The adult brain seems to be capable of rewiring itself well into middle age, incorporating decades of different encounters. Research suggests that an older mind is calmer, less neurotic and better able to sort through social situations. Some middle-agers even have improved cognitive abilities.

 I write this blog after today after having gone through 5 deca and an octave years in existence.

 As I look in the mirror, and notice I have a little less hair, weaker eyesight and a body that doesn't burn fat as quickly as it used to - one could forgive me for not being thrilled about getting older.

 Yet I'm comforted by feeling like my mind is stronger than it's ever been. My thirst for information is as high as I can remember – but I stopped continuously craving knowledge.  I’d more want to partake the wisdom I’ve acquired over the years.

A few years ago I had a lot more tolerance for a 'dumbed down' world. This is certainly not the case anymore. I currently find myself drawn to videos and literature (and even music) that make me think, feel and cry rather than spending time on fluff that numbs my mind.

 As I grow a year older, I sit and ponder: What have I accomplished by being here? Has the world changed because I left that womb? If not, how can I leave some positive footprints on this planet in my remaining years?

 Confronting thoughts no doubt, but I'd rather think about them than just go through the motions.

 Perhaps C.S Lewis put it best when he said: "You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream."

 My goal now is to really “start” enjoying life with my wife, Joy. Better late than never to start writing down our telenovela-like love story, be with my adult children in their awakened journey of their lives, and show a more revamped fatherhood to my remaining 4 boys, still living with us.

Looking at phone notes – I’d like to share several truths I so far have learned in the living life.

 I’ve learned life is a precious gift given to us by our Creator and we are to treasure each and every second we have been granted. And that He speaks to our hearts everyday if we but have a desire and sensitive ears to hear His whispering Voice.

 I’ve learned that there are consequences to our decisions and choices, whether good or bad. And that when one works hard, rewards will follow. I realize that goes against the entitlement mentality of  today that says, “I deserve it whether I have worked for it or not.”

 I’ve learned that there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledgeable men are not always wise. Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge rightly.

 I’ve learned that what is truly valuable in life has nothing to do with money.

 I’ve learned that laughter is a gift that adds music to the soul and is medicine for the spirit.

 I’ve learned that unforgiveness will eat away at your soul and short circuit your relationship will others and the Creator.

 I’ve learned that it is ok for a grown man to cry and show his emotions. And a smile is contagious.

 I’ve learned to be thankful for my blessings and to be trusting in my adversity. Our disappointments in reality are His-appointments.

 I’ve learned you cannot ever compromise with evil. If you do, it will eventually destroy you and make a fool out of you.

 I’ve learned that many waters cannot quench love. Life is short so if you are going to tell someone you love them do it before it is too late.

 I could go on and on of truths and principles I have learned over the years, but I will end with the greatest truth I have ever learned.  I’ve learned that man is sinner. While we don’t all sin alike, we have all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The remedy for our sin is the One who was above sin but died for our sins – Jesus Christ.

 And lastly…Live life, and love well.

Don't worry - Just Love More (A New Year's reflection)

 As the New Year approaches, I always take time to reflect on things. When you reflect, you think about everything that has happened to you throughout the year (past). You also think about what direction you want your life to take (future). Yes, new year is a doorstep to the future.

The same sentiment on the future, somehow has made my youngest son, Caleb, a bit despondent when he was listening his older siblings talk over a late dinner - on what they would become 10 years from now. Caleb, has a high emotional intelligence and he was teary-eyed when he shared what the future will hold for him and how worried he was for the future.

It took a while for me and Joy to explain to an 11-year-old boy about how not to worry about the future and just enjoy the blessings of today. I even shared the Latin quote his grandfather, my Dad, has shared with us 7 children when I was his age – “Quid sit futurum cras fugue quarere”, loosely translated as “Forbear to ask what tomorrow may bring”. I hope he did understand us.

Actually, everything that happened the past year, Covid and all, encapsulates the worries we all have and will have for the new year. The uncertainty of what may come and what may be, tomorrow. And yet, we focused much of our worries and anxieties, and seemingly ignored the blessings and good fortunes that came our way, the very gift of what you have right now. The value of every thing and every one with you right now. It’s like receiving a gift from someone who was excited and eager to give you one and when opening it you felt it was not meaningful for you and was not paying attention to the giver.

How much we missed out the actual value of the gift and ignored the reaction of the person giving the gift expecting we will like it. We just ignored that we survived, are alive, overcame the difficulties and the challenges that we faced in the past year with the persons with us at this moment – our family and our loved ones.

We should be reflecting, how blessed we are. Not in money. Not in popularity. Not in an absorbent amount of material things. We’re blessed with far richer things (things that no one can take away), such as our growing faith, our healed relationships, new wisdom, newfound creativity, gained-knowledge, desire to explore, willingness to learn, ability to understand others and having inner self peace.

You're blessed! If you feel down about something happening in your life, remember there's always someone experiencing something far worse (loss of a home, loss of a loved one, nothing to eat or illness). It just takes looking at someone's situation, to realize yours is not so bad. Embrace and be thankful for what you DO have. Have FAITH that whatever problems you are experiencing at the moment will end in due time. There's always sunshine after a storm.

Going into the New Year (which in my view is a time for CHANGE and GROWTH). We need to ask the One above for things we may need when life presents itself to us. We may ask God to give us the grace to love but HE doesn't just give us the grace directly - He gives us opportunities to use the grace. We pray for patience,  He doesn't just give us patience he gives us chances opportunities to be patient. If we pray for generosity or to be merciful he gives us opportunities to be generous or opportunities to be merciful.  

We should also resolve ourselves to love more, as what St Paul usually exhorts. To love the right things. This means, we need to have the right discernment – to let your head lead your heart so we can truly love what is worth loving. Appreciate the true value of a thing before trying to love.

 In the Christmas movie, “The Grinch”, the grinch started to value his silence and his own worldly things and he realized at the end other people are worth loving. In the “Miracle at 34^th Street”, this high-powered woman valued work and came to realize that, actually, family is really important. In “It’s a Wonderful Life”, there’s George Baily who valued success until he realized he can also value just living in a place having a quiet life helping others. In “Home Alone”, Kevin initially doesn’t value his family and at the end he acknowledges how he missed them. Almost every one of these Christmas stories that we know involves this discernment of what is of value after realization of all the all the characters who have started giving their heart to one thing and realizing later it doesn't deserve their heart. Yes, we love with our hearts but we discern what is worth loving with our heads.

I want to encourage you to LET GO of what was. If you willingly LET GO, GOD replaces it with something better. We used to hold on for dear life to people, places and things that weren't good for me. Don't hold on to those type of people or things. They only bring you down and make you feel bad. Cut the ties and surround yourself with uplifting people and things. People that make you feel good. Things that make you feel good.

Life can be far from sweet, and life is definitely not a bed of roses. But just like a garden, you must prune (cut-back) and weed (get rid of) for it to be pretty. Clear your "life garden" of what is unnecessary and not good. LET GO of all the gunk and crap that clogs up your life (whatever or whoever it may be). Some may not like your decision, but in the end it's about you and your wellbeing. Clear your path and make way for something better. Let go of the old, so there's room for new.

And just like God’s abounding love – which is a focused love for us. That is why, he came down as human being to show to us how deeply he loves us by becoming one of us, feel our joys, our pains, our sufferings and eventually give up his life for us to hold the promise of life and love eternal after the end of our lives.

My prayer to all those worried about the future - A blessed and hopeful New Year to all!

NEW YEAR’S REFLECTION AND PRAYER

As the old year ends and a new one begins, take time.

Time to remember the struggles you faced, and mistakes you might have made, and maybe even loved ones you lost.

In every year, you experience heartache. This one was no different.

And in remembering, find a seed of hope hidden in yesterday.

Remember how you’ve been blessed. Re-live when you found unexpected strength. Recall where you saw God’s great Spirit at work, and know his mercy kept you going all this time.

Recognize his mercy. Ask for his peace.

The peace that pours out every moment of every day from the wounds of Christ.

Prepare us Lord for the New Year. Lift us up and place in our hearts a renewed desire to know and worship you more.

Give us your abundant grace. Shower us with your healing love.

May your eternal Kingdom reign in our hearts and our lives. May the New Year show us once again your eternal mercy and glory.

And let us sing your praises with great joy.

In Jesus name,

Amen.

Keeping in Touch

As I was about to end a one-off Zoom meeting at work while working from home, I gave one of the usual  end of the meeting words to all who were online…’Thanks guys and keep in touch’. Out of nowhere my youngest son, in his usual pesky demeanour said to me…’Dad, touching is not allowed nowadays’. Funny that one comment. But come to think of it, one of the few good things about this frustrating lockdown is that it does give us a lot to think about, and one thing that it has made me consider is the importance of touch. We are living in days when any physical contact is frowned on, if not forbidden, and, rightly, we need to be careful about what and who we touch.

I find it interesting that although we talk about ‘managing to keep in touch’ with people through technology, the irony is that the one thing we aren’t doing is touch. We link up with people through sight and sound, but not with physical contact. That inability to touch is a loss. We are now reduced to bows, hand waves or facial gestures.

What is more uncomfortable is the loss of touch when we are in contact with those we love; those people we would like to hug, hold or kiss. I kind of miss during prayer fellowships when we have to shake hands with friends and pat them. I realise it may be a bit agonising, because in the absence of physical contact, for those who find themselves in solitary isolation. Amidst all the serious concerns about this pandemic, one that’s overlooked is what we might call ‘touch deficiency’.

Although we take touch for granted, it is extraordinarily powerful and therapeutic. Medical science has confirmed how vital touch is for babies, yet that importance continues throughout our life.

Touch has been shown to improve our immune system, reduce pain, decrease blood pressure and alleviate depression. Sometimes, it raises our self-esteem when someone pats you in the back for a job well done.

Touch conveys intimacy and can often say more than words. Touch can carry different meanings too: comfort, warning, rebuke or love. Touch shows the importance of physical contact; that we can say of some emotional event that we were ‘touched’ by it.

Sadly, the very fact that so much has been made over the last few years about ‘inappropriate touching’ testifies to the power of touch.

I have realised that touch plays an important role in the Christian faith. On almost every page of the Gospels we read of some aspect of physical contact. The baby Jesus is wrapped in cloths and put in a manger. As an adult, Jesus bathes feet and heals by touch. Ultimately, Jesus is betrayed by a kiss, killed by physical force and carried away into a grave. When raised from the dead, Jesus confirms that he is no vision or ghost by allowing himself to be touched by his disciples. Remembering this, the apostle John wrote, ‘We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands’. In Jesus, the remote and untouchable God becomes literally someone who is at hand.

The physical emphasis of Christianity continues into the church. It’s there in the new covenant that Jesus created which focuses not on a form of words, but on the very physical elements of bread and wine. It’s there in baptisms and in the laying on of hands for healing. It’s there in greeting one another ‘with a holy kiss’ or whatever modern form we find culturally appropriate.

Touch is valuable. It should be part of our lives and it should be part of our fellowships. Sadly, touch reminds us at the deepest level how much we are valued and loved. It’s a fascinating thought that, in Jesus, human beings are able to touch the God who loves us so much that he put on flesh and became one of us. 

So if you are suffering ‘touch deficiency’ at the moment, remember that God understands that need. When ‘this is all over’ may we all be those who value touch a little bit more and are more ready to share it with those who need it and receive it ourselves. And, in the meantime, to use a phrase that can be a cliché but is in fact a reality, may we all know something of God’s touch at this time.

By:

Lorvic Osorio

https://dmonk64.blogspot.com/

On Being Scared and Isolated

This COVID19 virus is causing a lot of disruption in life isn't it? As of this writing, the government, state and federal has imposed quarantine and travel restrictions. There are restrictions on public gathering, schools is starting to close for a while and our experience is likely no different than your experience right now – a certain panic, a fear, a worry. And so when we're going through all this disruption and change its natural to ask this question - How will this end? And because we just don't know we kind of get a little uncomfortable and we get afraid. In other words, we get afraid of the unknown.

Nowadays, we live in a culture where we're not used to not knowing the answer. We live in an Information Age where we have a question we just go to Google and it gives us the answer instantly. I mean, recently I heard my two boys speak and ask our Google Home Nest about the weather and query the latest news and it will reply instantaneously. Caleb, our youngest, would then say to me, ‘Daddy, I told you Google know all the answers. I replied back ‘No, she knows facts but she does not have wisdom. I guess, that's what we need right now. We need wisdom.
You see Google can tell you that you were born on what day, but it can't tell you why you were born. It can't tell what your purpose of life is. It can't tell you what will make you happy. We live in an era  where we have all the information in the world at our fingertips but we lack  wisdom and discernment. Right judgment to be able to see the way God sees and then know the  grace to act the way we ought to act. And so, we fall into the trap of fear. Question is… do we have a reason to be afraid?

While the answer is no and how I can say that so confidently well because if we just look to the life of Jesus and the Gospels he never gave people reason to be afraid. He never affirmed people ever in their fear. He never stood on the side of a mountain with thousands of people around him and said blessed are the fearful…for they shall inherit the earth. Or blessed are the anxious of heart for they shall be satisfied. Jesus never said anything remotely close to that. In fact, Jesus said the opposite. didn't he say ‘Peace I leave, you my peace I give to you. I don't give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid’.

What then should be our posture? Now that self-isolation is what we now face, how do we handle our situation? Let me share three words that I hope will help.

The first word is resolution. It’s vital to take charge of the situation and not let the situation take charge of us; at the end of this we all want to be a victor, not a victim. In as much as we can, set ourselves targets and goals. Our grandparents were called to war, we are being called to sit on our lounges – we can do this!
However justified we may feel it is, don’t slip into becoming a wreck, don’t be negative or pessimistic, don’t moan. There are some people who bring happiness wherever they go and other people bring happiness whenever they go! Have a happy attitude and don’t drain people with negative talk. Resolve to be cheerful.

Keep up with personal hygiene, change your clothes, don’t sleep until midday! Find things to do, books to read. And do projects (I am writing my blogs), clean the backyards, play boardgames with the kids). Let’s tidy and de-clutter. (Remember how ‘we didn’t have time’?). Try to get exercise, even if it’s simply walking up and down the stairs or the corridor. And let’s think and act to help others who are isolated – even a phone call or Messenger, or practically to support and assist.

This is pretty much standard psychological advice but let me add a Christian dimension to this. We need to remember that God rules over all things, including viruses, and this has not caught him unawares. A little word in the first two verses of Psalm 23 has come to mind. There, in the middle of those wonderful lines ‘The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters . . .’ Although we all desire freedom and the ability to do what we want, we are like sheep and our wise Shepherd may, when it suits him, make us lie down. God has his purposes for us in this period: let’s resolve to make the most of them.

The second thing is relaxation. Now I apologise if you are stuck in a small unit with hyperactive children and relaxation is something you are praying for, but the fact is most of us will be facing a life that has shifted down a gear or two. This may well be a blessing; one of the characteristics of modern life has been its frantic pace. Many of us are familiar with the sort of situation in which you come across a strange person in the hallway and realise that it’s a member of your family. Indeed, you may well have said as you frown at your twentieth email of the day over your morning coffee, ‘the pace of life is killing me’. Why not consider that, in this self-isolation, God is gifting us with a slow-down? In the long run it may well be the reality – and I pray that it is – that these days of self-isolation end up adding months, if not years, to your life. Our great Shepherd has slowed down life and given us time: time to pray, to read the Bible. To have those conversations with your loved ones, to send out those emails that you never got round to. To relax!

The third thing is reflection. Isolation should give us the opportunity to think about who we are and what we are doing. For a brief moment, the endless stream of traffic on the motorway of life is stopped and we’ve got the opportunity to think about where we are going. While it’s not the moment to peer into the rear-view mirror of life and reflect gloomily about our failures and disappointments, it is a good time to look forward and to think about what we value and what our purposes are. In many accounts from ex-soldiers we often hear or read something along the lines of ‘what I saw and experienced in the war changed me; I made a promise that, if I got out of this, I was going to do something with my life’. What a perceptive thought on how most people live life! Why not spend time thinking and praying, not about how unpleasant things are now, but how, once this is all over – and one day it will be – we are going to live our life in a different way.

Replace you fears and anxiousness to an attitude to resolve, relax and reflect; and may we find our period of isolation to not be a burden but a blessing.

By:
Lorvic Osorio
https://dmonk64.blogspot.com/

A 2020 Vision for the New Year

Watching one of the episodes of the “The Chosen” TV series where Nicodemus admonished one of his students and quoting the  warning of Isaiah the truth about their much-awaited Messiah: “There are many who see him but do not really perceive him.” I can’t help but comparing it about my thoughts about the new year ahead, I was reminded of the phrase ‘2020 vision’ with its sense of seeing things with perfect clarity. The Pharisees at the time of Jesus would have wanted that kind of vision Isaiah had. The word vision, of course, has a wide meaning and as we peer into this most uncertain of years, we probably all wish that we had 2020 vision of what it will bring. As the saying goes, not everything is as it seems.

In fact, vision is not just seeing. I was told that if you’ve ever strolled around an art gallery with an Art expert you soon become aware that while you may be observing the same art object, they see much deeper, far further and with much greater understanding. We have sight, they have insight; we see, they perceive.

The danger of seeing what is superficial and overlooking what is important is frequently referred to in the Bible. At least six times the New Testament refers to a solemn warning verse of the Old Testament: ‘Go and tell this people: “Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving”’ (Isaiah 6:9 ) it is repeated because so many people either saw Jesus or heard preaching about him but didn’t have the vision to perceive who he really was. They missed the point: they saw the man, but not his significance; they had sight, but not insight.

One of the characteristics of our age is superficiality: the dangerous refusal to perceive what is really there. With that in mind, let me at the start of this new year, suggest three important areas where we need true vision.

First, we need to have the vision to recognise that we are not valueless but valued. There are various popular ways of looking at human beings today but a common factor is that in them we come out as being utterly insignificant. So some see us as ‘nothing more’ than the dominant species thrown up by the great lottery of evolution. Others consider that we are ‘nothing more’ than consumers whose significance is simply the role we play in the economy. Still others see us as ‘nothing more’ than ‘the electorate’ who need to be persuaded into supporting some political system. And, of course, if even the best of us have only a small value, then the ‘little people’ – the old, the poor, the sick – have even less. Behind these views are the gloomy philosophies that all existence is ultimately meaningless and that humanity is just a brief bubble of consciousness that will soon vanish into the silence of a vast, uncaring universe. Our faith begs to differ. It looks below the surface and it shows us as God sees us. Every one of us, the Bible declares, is wonderfully made in God’s image and, as such, is of infinite value. Yes, our rebellion against God has damaged and disguised our glorious status but we remain loved by God. Indeed, God values us so much that to bring us back to himself he came in Jesus, to live and die as one of us. We have value.

Second, we need to have the vision that we can be not hopeless but hopeful. The near universal view of our time is that this life is all there is. When our pulse stops, when the ECG monitor shows a flat line and definitely when the crematorium swallows our coffin, then it’s assumed that it’s the end of our story and whatever hopes and dreams, longings and memories that were once ours vanish beyond recovery. Here, too, the Christian picture is defiantly different. The Bible promises us that death is not the end but that we all live on beyond it to stand before God. There, if we have handed our lives over to Christ and through him been reconciled to God, we will be welcomed into a joyous eternity. This promise of an unending future glory for those who have come to Christ transforms our life in the present. This life may claim to be everything, but with vision we now realise that it is nothing more than a brief, vital prelude to the real thing. Far from being the end of the story, for those who know Christ it’s just the beginning. However dark our days and however difficult our lives, to know Christ is to know hope. We have hope.

Finally, we should all have the vision that we should be not purposeless but purposeful. The current dark mood that life is meaningless casts its chill shadow over all that people do. If, as is claimed, life is ultimately purposeless, then why not just go with the flow and hope that wherever the river of life carries you it won’t hurt too much? Yet, as with everything else, to perceive our lives from a Christian perspective changes such a view. There is meaning in the world and that gives us purpose. What we do counts and counts for eternity. To become a believer in Christ is not simply to be given the ultimate ‘get out of jail free’ card for endless ages; it is to be given a new spiritual passport, to be offered citizenship of an eternal kingdom, to be gifted with the Holy Spirit and to acquire a new identity as a child of God. With those tremendous privileges comes the greatest of challenges: we must use what we have been given. We must be holy as God is holy. On the diary of life we have been given blank pages and it should be our intention to fill them with things that we have done for God and his kingdom. To be saved by Christ carries with it the obligation to live for Christ. We have purpose.

At the heart of these three much needed things – value, hope and purpose – lies the unique and awesome figure of Jesus. And again, that ancient warning of Isaiah still stands true about him: there are many who see him but do not really perceive him. May we not just see Jesus as a historical figure or some ‘great moral teacher’ but as the one – the only one – who can give us those things the world cannot give: value, hope and purpose. That will be the very best sort of 2020 vision to start the year 2020.

"Sometimes you don't realize that Jesus is all you need until JESUS is all you have.”

by: Lorvic Osorio

Too Many Tabs Open

I used to write my so-called blogs over an hour or so or just over having coffee. Nowadays, I can’t whip one up even in a week. Trying to squeeze every minute of my time to do almost everything fries up my brain as if every bit of information around me seems needed to be processed, digested and eventually consumed. And I stop suddenly and ask myself – what’s the point?

I finally found the time to finish this piece, after my wife reminded me during our brief escapade to Hunter Valley over the weekend – “we have to pause and have a break from the daily grind of life”.

I realised – our brains have too many tabs open.

Talking about their struggles with a stressful life someone said to me, ‘My problem is that I’ve got too many tabs open in my brain.’ At the time, I thought it was just another example of the increasing habit of using computer terms for ordinary life as when you hear someone say, ‘Sorry, I’m in data overload mode,’ or ‘Let’s interface over coffee.’ On reflection, however, I think it says something important.

The background to this idea of ‘having too many tabs open’ is something that today many of us are all too familiar with. We load a web browser (Chrome or Edge) and open a webpage, perhaps to check our email. Then we chase up other things, checking on weather, sports, news and then, perhaps, continue trawling around the web as we research things, read reviews and so on, without closing any of the previous webpages. The result is that open tabs proliferate: I gather there are people who quite commonly find themselves with a hundred open tabs. Eventually the browser slows down and up pops the warning: Too many browser tabs open. It’s a computing habit that has been well studied and been found to be bad practice. Although it may give the user the illusion of successful multi-tasking, in reality it isn’t very productive. It leaves lots of things unfinished, weakens the focus of the user and encourages the sort of displacement activity where you find that you have mysteriously left a hard activity for an easier one.

Applied to life, having ‘too many tabs open’ is a very common phenomenon. Many of us have lives in which there is simply too much going on and which we don’t manage in the best way. On the screen of our existence there are far too many tabs open. We may have one cluster of tabs to do with work: projects, trips, a forthcoming meeting; and another cluster to do with home: that DIY job, the tidying and the gardening. Then there are all those other collections of tabs associated with our social life, community life, families, finances, holidays, hobbies and so on. Matters are made worse because these are open browser tabs. They are not some sort of static to-do list; they are live issues that we have commenced but not completed. We have either found ourselves bored with them or been distracted away by the call of some other tab.

In part, this is a problem of the modern age. Life is so complicated. Today, everything from a toaster to a car comes with a manual that is at least 10-pages thick – and a demand that it be registered online, connected to the Internet and given a software update. Where once we only received communications from other people once a day when the post fell through the letterbox, now we undergo a continuous deluge of emails, messenger chats, tweets and updates from when we wake to when we fall asleep. Once, when we left our houses we left our telephones behind; now they pursue us everywhere. Once we lived in a world in which we had space in which we could think and live; now we are under pressure to respond and react continuously.

We have too many tabs open.

There’s a lot wrong with this. One danger is that we find it easy to slip from those difficult issues that we need to address into easier ones that don’t need our attention. Another is that it’s confusing: I doubt I am the only person who finds himself asking, ‘What exactly am I supposed to be working on now?’ It’s also stressful. In our minds we know that these tabs are open: we can hear them whispering for our attention. It also discourages serious thinking: after all, you can focus deeply on a little but not deeply on a lot.

What’s the solution? First, we need to have the humility to know our limits. It was always a wise rule to never bite off more than you can chew and it’s even wiser in today’s hectic world. I can well imagine that, somewhere, there’s already a gravestone with the sad inscription, ‘He just had too many tabs open’.

Above all, prioritise. We need to ask ourselves: do I need to do this? Do I need to do it now? Can I do it well? I suggest we need to reflect on the following little story in Luke’s Gospel and note its application both to our mind and spirit.

‘As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.’ But the Lord said to her, ‘My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.’ (Luke 10:38–42).

And in this time of Lent, indeed, there is only one thing worth being concerned about. Let’s make that priority our priority.