Are we sure of our destiny? Who are we entrusting our life to?

It is well known that whoever you truly like, you will follow. Or the other way around, if you follow someone it’s because you like him/her. You like his ways, his criteria, his standards, he seems to be a winner and you want to walk in his footsteps. But it is well known too that wherever those footsteps take you will also be your destiny. But, what if your role model or idol is a phony or a fraud? It is like a big balloon full of air that when it gets punctured, it blows out and disappears. That is very sad, because you probably give up your life to follow someone who is not worthy of it, and when he gets to the end, his career, his teachings, ideas, and everything about him simply vanishes., and you end up as empty as he does. What an awesome end, though, have the opposite people!, the ones who entrust their life to the Truth. The ones who do not follow balloon ideas, but sounding teachings where everything harmonizes, because they live what they preach and have nothing to hide. Not like the ones who preach humbleness and live like Daddy Warbucks. What a great way to end when you abound in goodness and grace. It is like leaving a shimmering path as you walk by; like a pleasing aroma left behind when you walk in the ways of the Lord. That is what I sensed he had done when I went to the funeral service of my friend and brethren Liberato Vega who had passed away on July 2014 somewhere else; a devout Christian and a straight patriot who always strove to do the right thing by his heavenly Father with whom I know he now dwells. Former congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart was one of the speakers, so was Rev. Martin Añorga, close friends of the family. There I learned how my friend and his family had been harassed, back in our country of birth, by the Castro regime for only turning down a “great” position on the new government on account of my friend’s Christian beliefs that clash with Communism. Just for that, their home was ransacked by government officials who condemned him as a Persona-non Grata, thus making them flee to freedom in the U.S.  That is what they (leftist/socialists) usually do to anyone who dares to oppose them.  Even though the government tries to ridicule, vex and/or eliminate opponents, the just and the smart persons know, and call the victims, heroes, like my friend’s granddaughter did in a school essay. That is what we are when we endure due to standing up for righteousness against anything that opposes love, goodness, and mercy. And even when many would have accepted a position with the enemy, a man with integrity would have not been able to live in cheating, lying, killing, or destroying, for envy’s sake, with no God.

When we follow Christ, we are sure of our destiny.  Liberato did, and was also a proud Cuban, that is why he wanted to be buried like Cuba's apostle José Martí who wrote, in exile, something like this:

Even if I’m overseas

When I die, I shall be free.

On my tomb should be displayed

My birth Flag, and a flower bouquet.

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1.1-2)

What is God’s priority? . . . Hasn’t He made a great choice?

Last month I commented of our priority which should be Him, for His is us, the people who make up the world He made for us to live in. For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish; but have eternal life. (John 3.16)  And He did it for us, the people who make poor choices and do, in our stubbornness, as we desire instead of abiding to His law which is, at last, the best,  the safest and most rewarding way to use our time to enjoy ourselves on His companionship. How great! And all we have to do is to believe in Him. Jesus said: “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light”. (Matthew 11.28-30) Why would He say so if He didn’t mean it?  Have you not experienced His love and mercy? I have, but it would take me hours or days to mention them and would probably overlook many. When we ask Him in the right attitude, He is never too busy to turn us away and His vulnerability to our plea is genuine. He created this perfect world where the natural catastrophes happen to avoid worse ones and the heavenly bodies orbit with no collision in million of years. Every thing is perfect, yet, nothing is more important to Him than us. We are His masterpiece created to His image. In case you think otherwise, we are His priority.

When I think He chose to make us His priority, I can not but to be amazed and say like the psalms author:

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained; what is the man You take thought of him, and the son of man You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.  (Psalm 8.3-6)  Yet, there are people who deny Him as a Creator.  I pity them, for they have put their trust in man made institutions and irrational ideas made up by unsound, yet acclaimed by the world, men.  I have enough reasons to believe in The One who created all the wonders for us, placed us as His priority; and didn’t rest to find a way to cleanse us to be able to share an everlasting life together.

For that reason I say:

Bless the Lord, o my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord o my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. . .The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. . .As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer. But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children to those who keep His covenant and remember His precepts to do them. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. Bless the Lord all you works of His, in all places of His dominion; Bless the Lord, o my                                                                  soul! (Psalm 103.1-5, 8, 15-19, 22)