I woke up at around 3am this morning, and I gave up on the struggle to get back some more sleep, at around, what, 6:30am. Must have been because I turned in earlier last night, around 9-10pm; must also be because I wanted to do stuff this morning.
Or did I? I don’t know, not a lot of things going on over the weekend besides the usual Church, and spending time out and off. Of course, there’s me finalizing the message I have for later, and who knows, I may be able to do some more posting and scheduling today… Oh, right, I have to go ahead and do my Excel schedule for next week, from Monday (February 21) to Sunday (February 27).
If you didn’t know, that’s been something I’ve been trying on and off – To plot a schedule of what I do every day, on Microsoft Excel. I started doing this around 2015. My schedule was way different back then, goes to show what my priorities were before, and I chuckled a little – maybe after this I’ll take a look at it again just to see shades of my past self.
I revived this initiative some years later, and then became more dedicated to it when the pandemic started. It’s served me back then, especially when we all had so much more time in my hands – I dedicated a lot of time to learning, and it has paid off… but one thing I do want to point out is that I haven’t been as consistent in logging my tasks real-time more than this week’s plotting.
I guess what I’m trying to say in all this is that the older you get, the more you value your time, by way of awareness and reporting. Though I’m definitely doing this for myself, who knows – I may gather a lesson or two as I keep on doing this, and as I learn, other people would benefit.
It’s all in the name of efficiency – Efficiency, a word I’ve been obsessed with for quite a long time. Efficiency, the ideal key performance indicator to how you personally respect the time you’ve been allowed to walk in this reality, by the grace of God.
I’m sure things would improve for me – I mean, I’ll probably find tools better than Excel and Evernote as technology progresses (though, honestly, I think it’ll be a pretty long time until Excel and Evernote are exceeded), and I’m pretty sure as I grow wiser (not necessarily older – yes, I guess I’ve grown up to that point that I’m pretty sensitive about my age), I’ll evolve or develop new approaches to Efficiency.
There are things, however, that probably wouldn’t change any time soon, or ever – these are the implications of the infinite in this finite world. That is, that which I have through Christ and His finished work.
To enumerate, and also evaluate: Christ’s birth was the beginning of God’s everlasting love expressed through His redemptive plan. Christ’s laying down of His life ushered in an exchange which was also our union with Him.
Christ has guaranteed by His death that I myself am dead to the old finite existence, laced with sin, doomed with entropy as the ultimate end of my being. Christ has guaranteed by His resurrection that I have been made a new creation, righteous as He is righteous, reconciled to God that we come to His throne boldly, calling Him ‘Father!’
Christ’s birth, death, resurrection, and also His ascension imply that as Christ has been raised up and is now seated at the right hand of God, so we also have been seated in the heavenly places, our beings alive in eternity just as we are alive in this finite reality…
The evidence of this claim is seen in the presence of the Holy Spirit in us – Sure as the Holy Spirit descended upon all who believed in the upper room in Jerusalem, so He is poured into us, just as Christ authors faith in us the moment we give consideration and appreciation to the Gospel, constantly yet gently revealed to each and every one of us every day, every hour, every minute.
…I mean, just to bring all this into memory and to share it, gives me such a peace which not only dwells in my being, by overflows through my mind and my physical body, that I could not move without these infinite implications moving with me.
I have to go back to my getting sick at the start of this month, when I saw how much of a liability I could become because of an affliction. Through it all, I literally did nothing while banking on the hopes of recovery – but still, even then, I believe that while my finite state was compromised, the infinite implications upon the rest of my being overflowed – because, now that I think about it, it wasn’t just me who was (barely) alive at the time, but Christ, in whom I live and move and have by being. I did absolutely nothing but to exist, but even then, Christ was in every breath, Christ was in every shiver, every beat of my heart.
To understand this, to appreciate this brings me to a different perspective when it comes to efficiency – we could have things in place to work while we rest, as I spoke on yesterday regarding passive income. We could have friends and family speaking for us, working on our behalf.
However, I believe anyone and everyone in the body of Christ has something so much more, even if we’re rendered empty and without contact with anyone else – we have reconciliation with no less than the God who makes us and fills us, and holds us together. We have union with God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who love us and move without fail in our midst, through the finite and the eternal… and we can take heart, knowing that through Christ and His finished work (1) nothing can ever separate us from the love of God, and (2) we are confident that God is for us and not against us.
I’m brought to remember an older cousin of mine, Manong Archie, who I’ve been keeping out of my mind for the longest time – see, he’s suffered more than one stroke, to the point that he is bedridden. I can’t avoid thinking about him and not feeling any sorrow… But to remember now how Christ works the best through even those of us who have been hit the hardest, it gives me some hope. I may not know within the limits of my own mind how God works with, in, and through Manong Archie, but I do know, just as He works with me, now, till the end of my physical body and beyond, He would also work with my cousin.
As He would work with my Mom. As He would work with Manang Irene and all she’s going through. As He would work with my Auntie Isabel, who’s recovering from pneumonia.
God is at work, God is on the move with my team of Aces, beyond what visions I may have for them. God is on the move, He is at work with Chelmi. He is at work with Manong Paul, the faithful taho vendor who keeps coming to us every Sunday. He is at work, yes, He is at work with my brothers, their wives and children, who are faced with their own problems and opportunities.
God is at work and is most efficient with the Truckers, just as much as He is at work with the soldiers of Ukraine and Russia. God is at work; by the power of the Holy Spirit, He moves and grooves with everyone who has hurt me, everyone who has scammed my family, everyone who has declared themselves as my enemy – Oh, Jesus, just as You have died for me, just as You lived for me, so You saw each and every one us us with your everlasting love, proclaiming that we were all worth reconciling to You!
And, friend, dear reader… Yes. God is lovingly at work in your own life, and if only you would give the slightest consideration to Christ, who was born, died, rose again, and ascended, if only that you would know of His perfect and infinite love for you, a love that would have you moving in wonder, versus cringing at every moment, in fear. God loves you.
I don’t know, I may not have Excel, I may lose all the principles I’ve been practicing in the name of efficiency, but just to know Christ is efficiently working in and through me, in celebration of this union established by His blood – well, because of this, I have what matters: I have a peace which transcends all standards imposed by this reality. I have a peace beyond all understanding.
I may not have sleep, but this gives me rest.
May we all rest in peace. After all, it’s not just something we write on gravestones.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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