Have you ever felt being forced to serve God? To pray always? To go to church because your friends are going and they are forcing you to come as well? Do you feel like being dragged to God without your full consent?
Do you feel like serving God is more of an obligation than a commitment?
Dear friends, what you should keep in mind is that our faith is not an obligation in the sense that you will just do something for God for the sake of doing it. It was never a mere obligation. Please keep that in mind. You can attend all the masses all your life but if you are just doing it because your parents dragged you to do it, it's not good. If you are serving the church just because you want to show your neighbors how much of a Christian you are, it's not okay. If you are giving food, clothes and money to people just because it's an "in" thing for good people, that's terrible. And if you are attending prayer meetings and other sessions that glorify God just because you want to belong to your friends, that's foolish.
Friends, attending masses, serving the church, helping others and going to prayer meetings are great things to do and all. But if we were just doing it to make ourselves look like faithful or religious people, it's terrible. We are a lot better than that.
Sure, by pretending we enjoy these things may end us up really putting ourselves unto them. We , of course, should give it a try. We should be open to see the essence of doing these things. We must, of course, do something to make ourselves see it's worth. We must persevere to be engaged on it. But when a time comes that you feel like you are not yourself anymore; that your pretending is not working anymore; that no matter how helpful you have been, you know that you still lack for something. Close your eyes and take time to evaluate yourself.
Am I doing it right?
It's a waste of time - to pretend that we are religious and faithful individuals. It could have been a precious time of our lives and even probably the best time we can ever have, but we wasted it. We lied to ourselves. It's not genuine. It did not come from within.
Faith is a beautiful thing. It must be a beautiful thing. If we are putting this little façade of holiness, how can we unveil the real wonder of our faith? It may look from the outside that we are pushed to God, but in reality, it actually blocks our way towards God. We are not getting closer from anyone, not even to ourselves. We are actually making this fantasy of a person and encages ourselves with it.
It's not the way how things should go.
Think of adoring God just like how you sing. When you go to shower and turn your music in high volume, dancing carelessly in the beat, singing loudly and enjoying the lyrics that made you love the song. It was about being free and true to yourself and to God.
It's about committing yourself on it. And commitment doesn't come with obligation but responsibility. They may sound alike but they aren't one and the same. When we say you did something out of obligation, you do it for the end results. When we do things because we are responsible for them, we associate ourselves to the responsibility itself. There is a sense of acceptance that we are a part of that thing - and not we are supposed to be a part of that thing. Isn't it a lot more wonderful if we just lose ourselves in adoring God? Not because somebody wanted us to? Not because some people pushed us to? Not because the society thinks we should? But because we accepted the responsibility of testifying our lives in line with God's?
We should pray, should go to church, should read the Bible, should help other people and should become Christ-like out of our own will to serve Him. A sincere and genuine adoration to God. It is beautiful, my friend.
And if no matter how hard you try to cope up with the society and you still end up with no identity, still faking everything, never be too hard on yourself. A bigger and wider opportunity of service must have been waiting for you. You must be a closet songwriter who can write Christian songs. Or a speaker who can preach God's word. Or an director that can make movies for God. Or a teacher to educate the youth. Or an athlete to inspire people. Or a criminal in your early life but now surrendered your life to Christ and became a model of repentance. Or an ordinary person who reflects God on his own life. If it isn't the way people always do, you must find your own way.
And if a thing is not common, remember that it's special.
PS.
Dedicated to my last fan. ^^ Three fans is a great achievement for me. Lalo na dahil di ko prinomote tong book na to beyond my account. Salamat guys!
And...
I am dropping a little assignment for you guys who haven't found your way of serving God ... Do not leave any stone unturned! May God bless you on your journey! I made a list. I wish it helps.
Things to consider:
Your strengths
Your weaknesses
Your likes
Your dislikes
Your habits
Your talents
What you love to do
What you hate doing
And as you can see, I used 'you' and 'your'. You get what I mean :)
I guess this is goodbye now. THANK YOU GUYS for reading this. It means so much to me kung naabot ka pa dito. ^^
Spread the love!
I always loved number 7. ^^
