Baggages

During our recent trip to Cebu for the pastors and workers' conference, going back to Iloilo was a learning experience for me. As we went to the pier to get aboard the ship going to Iloilo, security had to inspect all our things for deadly weapons. As I was passing through the metal detector, it kept beeping on me! The guard won't let me pass through until there was no more beep. So I had to remove my cellphone...then my coins and keys...lastly, my belt that had a metal buckle. Finally, the detector went silent after I removed all the metal objects attached to me. The lesson: Don't carry too much metal on my next trip.

Sometimes in our walk with the Lord we carry too much extra baggage. This can come in different forms like bad habits, bitterness, or anxiety. But it can also come in good packaging such as activities that don't really help us stay focused on God's call upon our lives. Sometimes good things become the enemies of the best things that God has for us. Let's seek the Lord for His perfect will for our lives and lay down anything that can hinder us from running our race. - RJ Alobba

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” - Hebrews 12:1

UseLESs rUsH

"See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." - Ephesians 5:15-16


Recently, I had to rush some errands for my office and I didn't have a lot of time in my hands since I decided to do it on my lunch break. I had to go to the mall to buy lunch, get a staple gun, swing to the other office to drop some supplies, pick up the laptop the company issued me, and go back to my office. All this has to happen in one hour.

12:00:01...12:00:02...12:00:03...12:00:04...

The following occurs between 12:00 P.M. and 1:00 P.M.

Preparing to rush out the door, I picked up the plastic bag that I thought were the supplies I needed to deliver. I got to the mall parking lot and I took a good look at the bag -- it was the wrong one, since I picked up the plastic bag containing the trash instead! I then had to go to plan B.

12:59:57...12:59:58...12:59:59...01:00:00

In the world we live in today, things are rushing. Even on this remote island in the Philippines were I live in, things are already starting to be fast-paced. Life just keeps demanding, doesn't it? Still, we are called to be wise people. We Christians live by a higher standard and we live by faith. No matter what happens, let's take time to wait on the Lord, to pray over things, and to make decisions based on a Biblical world view, and not the view the world tries to plunge down our throats.

RJ
Iloilo City, Philippines