IF WE want to flow with the changing times without getting confused or lost, then we have to realize that we need to flow with God always. He after all, being the Creator and original and ultimate lawgiver of the universe, would be our sure guide who knows how to adapt to the times without compromising what is essential and necessary in life.
He is the one who provides the anchor, the sense of direction, the power to adapt to the changing circumstances of our life. Always being with him is the key to how we can stay the course as we navigate the different and often uncharted oceans and explore the unmapped territories of the world.
Thus, before thinking of what would be the effective and practical way for us to cope with the great and often dizzying variety of possible situations we can encounter in life, we have to make sure that our relationship with God is strong and stable.
Any difficulty in developing that kind of relationship should simply be overcome. To be sure, all the effort involved would be all worthwhile. Overcoming the usual awkwardness, the inconsistencies and vacillations in this regard will surely give us our just and generous reward.
And as long as we put our mind and heart into it, we can actually achieve that ideal, because God, for his part, will never be sparing with his grace. So, we should not doubt and hesitate in overcoming whatever difficulty there is in developing our intimate relation with God.
Let us remember that God in his Son who became man, Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit, is able to adapt himself to our human condition in both its best and worst possibilities without losing what is truly necessary for us.
He is willing to go down to our level as sinner, the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son, if only to recover us and bring us to the highest peak of our dignity as children of God, sharers of God’s divine life.
Let’s keep always these reassuring words of Scripture: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways!” (Ez 33, 11)
And St. Paul says something very appropriate: “God made him (Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5, 21) These words clearly tell us that Christ is willing to adapt himself to our worst condition here on earth — without committing sin, of course — if only to save us.
We should therefore not regard Christ as someone so rigid in his ways, and with standards and criteria that are just impossible for us to follow and live. We need to be most careful in making judgments on the actuations and status of others, because often our ways, standards and criteria do not measure up with those of Christ.
Especially these days when changes and differences among people in terms of generation, fashion, etc., are faster and plentier, we just have to learn how to adapt ourselves to the ways people are, even going to the extent of contextualizing and inculturating our different dealings with them.
As long as we identify ourselves closely with Christ, assuming the very mind of Christ and his motives in dealing with people, we can do it. Again, as St. Paul would put, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” (1 Cor 9, 22-23)
Let’s be convinced that only with Christ can we flow with the times properly, adapting ourselves to the different possibilities they offer without getting lost./PN
