tim's journal

For the time already past is sufficient...

How should we live, in light of Christ's example? Today's reading from I Peter 4 is very practical, especially I Peter 4:1-5... "because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased to sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh for no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God." What would it look like, if I truly lived no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God?

We had dinner with one of my colleagues tonight. And, as more often than not, ended up talking about things we could do business-wise. "What can we do to make money," I asked. Why? At the core of it, to be honest, is that I want to be self-sufficient - of course, forgetting that God provides all in the end, our health, the air we breathe, the time that we have. God is the ultimate provider - this enables us to live for Him. If I am the ultimate provider, then I don't have time to live for Him, I have to live to provide so that the future can be secure, so that we can avoid "suffering", send the kids to good schools, eat healthy organic food, go to Kaygetsu every once in a while (ok, maybe once), and upgrade my digital camera. Self-sufficiency is one of the lusts of men, you might know it as "power", the power to control the future, the power to dictate my own terms of living. As long as my heart is pursuing this, how can I live for God? I cannot.