Due to the current cap of five unique visitors per household per day, my immediate extended family found ourselves unable to meet up together at the same time. No matter how we arrange our visits, there is no way we can fit the entire family together. I’m sure many faced the same predicament and painful decision to decide who to include, and with that, who to forgo.
Life is like that oftentimes in many ways. While we want the best of all worlds, we quickly realise that reality is a far cry from the ideal. We want to enjoy lots of free time but we also wish to be productive; we want to be healthy and look fit but we also want to stuff ourselves full with yummy pineapple tarts and other CNY goodies. Having all these at once is impossible and vacillating between two minds only ends us closer to none. We need to decide what we are to pursue (and forgo) and stick it through. And we know it.
While it is undoubtedly good if we can stick to a course of action over a period and not be double-minded when it comes to these things, it is by far a greater thing to be consistently single-minded in our spiritual pursuit. James warns us not to be double-minded and unstable when we come before God in prayer (James 1:8). Instead, we are to “believe and not doubt” (James 1:6). Doubting is to dispute with oneself: a basic division within our hearts which brings about wavering and inconsistency of attitude toward God. God responds favourably to us only when our lives reflect spiritual integrity—the consistency of faith, purpose, and intent.
You see, there are two fundamental ways of being human in the world: trusting in our human resources and abilities to seize things for ourselves or radically trusting in God to receive from Him what is best for us. We cannot perceive and be sustained in the deeper life in God until we are fully awakened to this reality. So, brothers and sisters, let us live life through the lens of faith—to follow Christ, deny our false selves, and find true life (Matt. 16:24-25). Jesus is not talking about giving up pineapple tarts during CNY. He is calling for the abandonment of our deeply entrenched self-centred being so we can enter into a life of loving union with God, one that manifests itself in Christlikeness: both inside and outside.