Remain in My Love

10 May 2007: Thursday of the 5^th Week of Easter
John 15, 9-11 Remain in My Love

The request of Jesus in the Gospel today to remain in His love is a call towards commitment. But commitment is something very difficult to do. To remain in a relationship, for example, is harder than to enter or to end it. To remain committed to someone may mean to some people being determined by them: ang pagpapa-kasal daw ay pagpapa-sakal. To commit one self is giving up the right to remain free of everyone --- and the ‘freedom’ to do anything they want. In fact, to marry is to tie the knot, pagpapa-tali sa minamahal. Moreover, commitment to one sole person --- and God --- is difficult because of the variety of things we commit ourselves to and thus take our attention from God or that one sole person. We commit ourselves to organizations. We commit ourselves to friends and barkadas. We commit ourselves to our work and to things that occupies our time. With all of these ‘distractions’ from the one sole vine, the source of our life, how do we remain in Jesus?

I came across the following, photocopied and without authorship (the internet says, “Author unknown). The title is, The Difference.

I got up early one morning

and rushed right into the day:

I had so much to accomplish

that I didn’t have time to pray.

Problems just tumbled about me,

and heavier came each task.

‘Why doesn’t God help me?” I wondered.

He answered, “You didn’t ask.”

I wanted to see joy and beauty,

but the day toiled on, gray and bleak.

I wondered why God didn’t show me.

He said, “You didn’t seek.”

I tried to come into God’s presence;

I tried all my keys at the lock.

God gently and lovingly chided,

“My child, you didn’t knock.”

I woke up early this morning,

and paused before entering the day;

I had so much to accomplish

that I had to take time to pray.

Thus, a suggestion: take a few minutes (like 2 minutes, though a little longer is advisable) after waking up in the morning to think about God before rushing for work or study. Even if the pause is quick, it ensures faithfulness. Just as teenagers require their boyfriends/girlfriends to text each day, at least, a few moments of prayer might make a difference.