WE should develop an abiding sense of
the need for order.
And that’s simply because there is always some kind of order in the
world to which we have to conform ourselves freely.
Even from the natural level, it’s obvious that different
kinds of law ought to be observed to put some order in the world as
God, its creator, has wanted it to have. There are laws of physics,
chemistry, biology, etc., for this purpose.
In our common life as a people who have to live together,
we can observe and also make some laws to put order in that integral
aspect of our life. For this, we have laws of sociology, economics,
culture, history, politics, etc.
It’s obvious that we try our best to have some order in
our life. We just have to realize that we also have to be most aware
of the laws that govern the spiritual and moral aspects of our life,
not to mention the supernatural goal of which our Christian faith
teaches us.
That is why we have moral laws and certain indications
regarding spirituality and piety. We need to be always conscious of
them and try our best to observe them. But all this need to develop an
abiding sense of order starts with our daily effort to live and to put
order into our things.
Unless we live order in a daily basis and in our ordinary
little things, I don’t think we can be ready to live order in the big
and ultimate things in our life. That is why we have to develop a
certain discipline that would help us acquire this indispensable
virtue in our life.
Offhand, what comes to mind as the basic requirements for
this effort is the clear idea of what our goals are—both the short-run
and the long-run, the immediate and the ultimate—as well as the means
and resources we need and have to achieve these goals.
For Christian believers, it’s clear that the ultimate goal
is to be with God always, to give glory to him, to love him and to
love everybody else. The basic means and resources are God’s grace for
which we should always ask, our effort to correspond to that grace,
etc.
But the immediate goals would be our daily planning and
scheduling of things, always remembering the importance of our time
which we should never waste. Time is a God-given resource that has a
very strategic purpose in our life. By planning and scheduling our
activities we not only save time, but somehow can also multiply time,
since order enables us to do more things.
This is a very important skill to have for which we have
to cultivate the proper attitudes and practices. Toward this end, we
should try to have a running inventory of the things we have to do,
the duties and responsibilities we have to carry out. For sure, a
daily to-do list would help.
If we could just spend a few minutes to make this to-do
list, we can achieve a lot more than just going through the day
without it, completely subordinating ourselves to the changing
circumstances like our moods, the happenings around, etc.
With that list, we have a better way of discerning the
proper priorities of the day. Prayer and our direct duties toward God
should have pride of place, which does not mean that we spend the
greater part of our day for these activities. These duties toward God
should inspire the rest of our earthly and temporal responsibilities.
With that list, we would be better protected from
distractions, especially these days when distractions are aplenty. We
would have a clear sense of purpose and our ability to go from one
thing to another would be facilitated.
With that list, we can truly aspire to gain dominion over
our day, if not, over our whole life. We would not be held captive by
passing and irrelevant elements, like our moods. It certainly would
help grow toward our human and Christian maturity.
We just have to see to it that our need for order does not
fall to the other extreme of getting exaggerated as to make us rigid
and inflexible, wanting always to control everything and therefore
being close-minded, and easily falling into helplessness and despair
when things do not come out the way we have planned them.
Our effort to develop this basic virtue of order should
not lead us to an anomaly that is usually called obsessive-compulsive
disorder. Order should be compatible with charity, patience, mercy,
flexibility, adaptability, etc.
And that’s simply because there is always some kind of order in the
world to which we have to conform ourselves freely.
Even from the natural level, it’s obvious that different
kinds of law ought to be observed to put some order in the world as
God, its creator, has wanted it to have. There are laws of physics,
chemistry, biology, etc., for this purpose.
In our common life as a people who have to live together,
we can observe and also make some laws to put order in that integral
aspect of our life. For this, we have laws of sociology, economics,
culture, history, politics, etc.
It’s obvious that we try our best to have some order in
our life. We just have to realize that we also have to be most aware
of the laws that govern the spiritual and moral aspects of our life,
not to mention the supernatural goal of which our Christian faith
teaches us.
That is why we have moral laws and certain indications
regarding spirituality and piety. We need to be always conscious of
them and try our best to observe them. But all this need to develop an
abiding sense of order starts with our daily effort to live and to put
order into our things.
Unless we live order in a daily basis and in our ordinary
little things, I don’t think we can be ready to live order in the big
and ultimate things in our life. That is why we have to develop a
certain discipline that would help us acquire this indispensable
virtue in our life.
Offhand, what comes to mind as the basic requirements for
this effort is the clear idea of what our goals are—both the short-run
and the long-run, the immediate and the ultimate—as well as the means
and resources we need and have to achieve these goals.
For Christian believers, it’s clear that the ultimate goal
is to be with God always, to give glory to him, to love him and to
love everybody else. The basic means and resources are God’s grace for
which we should always ask, our effort to correspond to that grace,
etc.
But the immediate goals would be our daily planning and
scheduling of things, always remembering the importance of our time
which we should never waste. Time is a God-given resource that has a
very strategic purpose in our life. By planning and scheduling our
activities we not only save time, but somehow can also multiply time,
since order enables us to do more things.
This is a very important skill to have for which we have
to cultivate the proper attitudes and practices. Toward this end, we
should try to have a running inventory of the things we have to do,
the duties and responsibilities we have to carry out. For sure, a
daily to-do list would help.
If we could just spend a few minutes to make this to-do
list, we can achieve a lot more than just going through the day
without it, completely subordinating ourselves to the changing
circumstances like our moods, the happenings around, etc.
With that list, we have a better way of discerning the
proper priorities of the day. Prayer and our direct duties toward God
should have pride of place, which does not mean that we spend the
greater part of our day for these activities. These duties toward God
should inspire the rest of our earthly and temporal responsibilities.
With that list, we would be better protected from
distractions, especially these days when distractions are aplenty. We
would have a clear sense of purpose and our ability to go from one
thing to another would be facilitated.
With that list, we can truly aspire to gain dominion over
our day, if not, over our whole life. We would not be held captive by
passing and irrelevant elements, like our moods. It certainly would
help grow toward our human and Christian maturity.
We just have to see to it that our need for order does not
fall to the other extreme of getting exaggerated as to make us rigid
and inflexible, wanting always to control everything and therefore
being close-minded, and easily falling into helplessness and despair
when things do not come out the way we have planned them.
Our effort to develop this basic virtue of order should
not lead us to an anomaly that is usually called obsessive-compulsive
disorder. Order should be compatible with charity, patience, mercy,
flexibility, adaptability, etc.
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