It’s amazing how easily it is for me to not focus on what is important. Sports, music, watching TV, etc., distract me from thinking about and acting on things such as this:
“Imagine you have a grid that is ten trillion trillion square centimeters — about the length and width (a two-dimensional cross-section) of our Milky Way galaxy. This immense volume of one trillion trillion centimeters by one trillion trillion centimeters represents the available parameter of space of really possible values of the density of mass-energy one nanosecond after the Big Bang. Imagine further that there is only one square centimeter in the midst of that huge volume that represents the critical density of mass-energy allowing the development of life in the universe. This tells you how exceedingly improbably (and fine-tuned) our life-permitting universe really is — quite beyond any one-off random occurrence.” (Fr. Robert Spitzer, Science at the Doorstep to God)
Or this
“Nicodemus answered him, How can such things come to be? hat, answered Jesus, can such things be strange to thee, who art one of the teachers of Israel? Believe me, we speak of what is known to us, and testify of what our eyes have seen, and still you will not accept our testimony. You cannot trust me when I tell you of what passes on earth; how will you be able to trust me when I tell you of what passes in heaven? No man has ever gone up into heaven; but there is one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man, who dwells in heaven. And this Son of Man must be lifted up, as the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness; so that those who believe in him may not perish, but have eternal life.
“God so loved the world, that he gave up his only-begotten Son, so that those who believe in him may not perish, but have eternal life. When God sent his Son into the world, it was not to reject the world, but so that the world might find salvation through him. For the man who believes in him, there is no rejection; the man who does not believe is already rejected; he has not found faith in the name of God’s only-begotten Son. Rejection lies in this, that when the light came into the world men preferred darkness to light; preferred it, because their doings were evil.Anyone who acts shamefully hates the light, will not come into the light, for fear that his doings will be found out. Whereas the man whose life is true comes to the light, so that his deeds may be seen for what they are, deeds done in God.” (John 3: 9-21)
Passages such as these are at the same time too big to think about and too big not to think about.
St. Alphonsus Liguori vowed (and by all accounts followed-through on it) never to waste a minute of his life on anything outside the service of God. On the other hand I often feel I need a kick in the behind to spend time in the service of God.
Reflection and Prayer
Somewhere there is a happy medium for me between relaxation and the working out of my salvation. Lord, help me use my time wisely, in the ways that best suit who I am and serve you to the best of my abilities.
Bonus Video
This is the full scene (with a brief introduction) from The Chosen that depicts the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus related in John 3. It is powerful. It’s about 10-minutes long.
