Our daily orchestrating task

I BELIEVE this is what many of us are fast realizing these

days. With the multiplying things we have to attend to each day, we

are pressured to learn how to orchestrate them if only to come out at

the end of the day with some meaningful accomplishment and with a

great sense of consistency despite the different tasks involved.

            Yes, we have to learn when to move fast and when to move

slow, when to be active and when to be contemplative, how to

distinguish between the essential and the incidental. We have to

sharpen our sense of order and priority, especially because very often

we would be faced with competing priorities.

            Besides, we have to know how to combine the intellectual

and the physical aspects of our work, the old and the new, the

traditional and the innovative. We have to know how to blend our

duties at home with our responsibilities at work. We have to be ready

to cope with our usual daily routine and the occasional surprises that

come our way.

            That task of orchestrating all these things has become an

urgent necessity indeed. And it is understandable that we be tempted

to be very practical about this concern and to meet its demands with

simply practical means.

  

            But I believe that being practical in all this would at

best be only a temporary remedy. It cannot go the distance. What is

absolutely necessary to properly tackle the challenge is to root

ourselves on God. He is the source and goal of unity among the endless

diversity and variety we find in our life.

  

            God is the one who can show us the proper priorities among

the many concerns and tasks we have. After all, he is the creator of

the whole universe and as such, is the original and supreme lawgiver,

the establisher of the proper order in the world.

            In Christ, the God made man to give us “the way, the truth

and the life,” we are given the way of how to orchestrate the many

tasks and the diverse concerns we have everyday. In Christ, we are

given how to orchestrate things in the context of our fallen nature,

our wounded condition that is in need of healing and redemption.

            We cannot deny that this delicate task of orchestrating

the many things in our day, some of them competing or even conflicting

with each other, has to contend with our weaknesses and the many

temptations around, plus the many sinful structures already embedded

in our systems and culture.

            It’s only with Christ that we can orchestrate the many

confusing things without getting lost along the way. Only with Christ

can we learn how to orchestrate things properly in the midst of the

many evils in the world, teaching us when to tolerate certain evils

and when not, and most importantly, how to suffer and to derive

something good from the consequences of all the sins in the world that

we cannot avoid.

  

            Yes, it is only when we get vitally identified with Christ

that we can achieve a certain unity and consistency of life amid the

many variables that condition us. Only with Christ can we truly

achieve our proper ultimate end even as we immerse with the changing

circumstances of our life.

            In this regard, we cannot overemphasize the need for a

certain plan that would put us always in God’s presence, at least, as

we go through all the tasks and concerns of our day. There is

definitely the need to spend some time in prayer and meditation if

only to develop a certain intimacy with Christ that hopefully would

last the whole day.

            We need to develop the attitude of constantly looking for

Christ in everything that we do, with the hope of finding him. And in

finding him let’s hope that we can be moved to love and serve him.