Today's prayer agenda for the leaders was for us to have our priorities aligned with the priorities of God whenever we had to make a decision about anything.
This morning, when I looked at both pointers, I didn't think there was anything similar between the both of them. After all, it wasn't exactly written that way on purpose, each agenda had it's own goals and expectations.
I didn't expect to find their meeting points in Mitch Albom's book Tuesdays with Morrie. In my mind, I thought I had read it halfway during the school holidays, so during my free time in school I just thought of finishing it. In truth, I had finished the book within 2 hours the first time, so quickly that my impression was that I only read it halfway. So in actual fact, I was reading it for the second time, something that I rarely did for any of the books that I've read in my life.
I like the book. After all, it's about two sociologists having extremely meaningful conversations about life, a professor and a student. Here and there, I see sociological ideas littered around the chapters, and although simply put forth for readers to understand, nevertheless manages to touch the joyful strain within me regarding the subject again. It's books like these that seems to draw Biblical and sociological perspectives together, a "pure mix" of reality and spirituality that intertwines into a perfect worldview for the traveller passing through this life.
There's a passage I love inside the book. And I'll quote it here:
"We've got a form of brainwashing going on in our country," Morrie sighed. "Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it - and have it repeated to us - over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what's really important any more.
"Wherever I went in my life, I met people wanting to gobble up something new. Gobble up a new car. Gobble up a new piece of property. Gobble up the latest toy. And then they wanted to tell you about it. 'Guess what I got? Guess what I got?'
"You know how I always interpret that? These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship.
These are words spoken by a man close to death, with the realization that money and power means nothing at all. You can't take it with you when you die.
It's only when you learn how to die, that you learn how to live.
How does this link to the prayer agendas? Everything! Examine youself to see where your desire lies. What are your short-term goals? What are you striving for in life? If we are students, does it mean we're exempted from considering these questions just because we have graduation to look forward to? What happens now? If God were to pop out next to you and say, "Time to go home now, my child," are you going to procrastinate? Will you have regrets? Will everyone forget you within a few weeks of your funeral because you hardly made any impact on their lives?
Our desire drives us. If our desire comes from above, to want to please Him in everything that we do, then our actions will be as such. If the desire that comes from within is self-directed, self-promoting, then we will do everything to please ourselves. Most people congregate in the latter group, even I will admit to that. We want to please ourselves, we have certain goals in mind. And when these goals become established, we are resistant to change. Even when our career has a decaying effect on our lives, and lacks any sort of meaning to us, we are reluctant to change because the pay cut will affect our payments for the car, the people we know and party with will change, and the authority we wield will disappear. Even when our spiritual life is rotting away and we long for something more to life, we are reluctant to change because it means less time to play computer games, less opportunity to pick the ladies up on a Saturday night clubbing event, and less chances to work on Sundays so you can impress your friends with the car you had been eyeing on for quite a while already.
So what are your desires? If you're not sure, just look at priorities: what you've been spending your time and resources on. And even then, ask yourself if your heart is there in the first place. You can spend every Wednesday evening as a cell leader, every alternate Friday nights at prayer meetings, monthly Saturday afternoons at worship practices and every Sunday morning in church praying, but if you're just going through the motion, then your desire isn't in it. When Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well", He really meant it. But He can also tell who the Pharisees are, because He can see the heart (1 Sam 16:7). I believe that sometimes God doesn't "add to you" all the things that you want, because it will distract you from seeking His kingdom. And no one can really tell if another is seeking the kingdom, because desire comes from the heart, though it can be argued that what sprouted in the heart will eventually be seen via fruits or works. But works without the heart is entirely possible also, so how can I blame God when I don't get what I want?
Can someone say, "I seeked God's kingdom first, and wow, now I look like a supermodel!"
Can another say, "I seeked God's kingdom first, and wow, now I'm wealthy!"
Can another say, "I seeked God's kingdom first, and wow, now I'm famous and popular!"
Sure, why not? But you know why it rarely happens? Because looks, fame, popularity and wealth are some of the biggest, most superficial distractions in life. Can one say for sure that upon getting one or all of these, one's desire for God's kingdom will not suffer? It's not impossible, of course! But God doesn't want to lose you simply by giving you what you want either. He knows what is good and what is bad for you, and whether He gives or not is His will. We are called to desire the greater things, and often I find that it's not by giving you the superficial stuff that mankind comes to desire the greater things. It's usually by withholding them back from you.
I know this will be strange and hard to understand, but I'll write it here anyway for those of you who still want an answer. Once your desire has been firmly set upon the things above, God has an uncanny and surprising way of blessing you abundantly with all the things of your heart that are important but have been placed as a lesser priority to His kingdom. You will know it, because attaining them has become important no longer. In other words, cultivate the heart mentality of "whether I get these things or not does not matter anymore" and "my desire is for You alone", then these very things will fall from the sky.
If you are doing your best at that, but deep inside you're still asking God, "Why haven't you blessed me yet?" then you know that you're not there yet.
Yet.
Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. -Paul (Col 3:2)
Your desire is shown through your priorities, and the state of your heart while carrying them out. -Valentino Casanova
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