NO LOOKING BACK July 14, 2020

The webinar I participated in today was on the pedagogy of online learning, as applicable to the teaching of accountancy, with some suggested collaboration with other related and necessary courses, and the use of modern information technology tools.  Teachers, being one of the few who are early enlightened, are convinced that there is no going back to the old ways of doing things.  And the new normal will soon be the normal and standard way to do things, hence, the expert speaker talked about ways to administer and manage that.

Much like what we read today in the Word, from the gospel of Luke chapter 9.  Jesus Christ has sent His disciples to preach in different places, telling them that He has given them power and authority, and showing them that like the miracles He has done, they too could do the same.  In other gospels, when some of them failed to do a miracle and asked Jesus why, He said that some of these things can only be done by prayer and fasting.

In our world today, we know that it is not anymore the time when faith is a matter of convenience or brownie points.  We need to get serious, we need to strengthen ourselves to face greater and more difficult challenges ahead.  And we are no more localized because our audience has grown bigger and multicultural.

But we need not worry because our GOD is already there.  He will guide us and show us the way.  This is not the time to fear and to doubt, neither is it the time to vacillate and weigh the benefits and costs between doing His will or not, for in verses 24 to 25 He says: “For whoever will save his life shall lose it: but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.  For what good is it for a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” (in other translations, to lose his soul)  If we only think of ourselves, we lose what little we believe we have, but if we give ourselves in service to His kingdom and in fulfillment of His will on earth, we gain much more than what we believe we are entitled of.

This is now the time to move forward in faith, and in spite of all difficulties, to go straight the narrow road, for the last verse encourages us and prods us on with: “and Jesus said to him, No man, having put his hand on the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of GOD.”  Our old life has gone, the pandemic saw to that, and a new life awaits us.  We should rather work in faith to be fit for it, and let there be no looking back.