What weighs you down?

LATE one evening, while preparing for my comprehensive exams in Theology, I saw a gamu-gamo (winged ant) crawling on my table. I observed how it crawled. Whenever it would reach the edge of the table, it would stop, move backwards and go in another direction, until it reached the end of the table again.

The gamu-gamo did the same thing, twice, thrice. However, on the fourth time, it did something different. It spread its wings and flew. It was free, finally!

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The Ascension was when the Risen Lord was lifted up from the earth to be seated at the right hand of the Father. With the Ascension, the Risen Lord completed His earthly mission.

His final mandate was clear: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature." We are to continue His mission. But His assurance is also clear: "I am with you, always."

His mandate and His assurance should also set us free.

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Jesus teaches us to ascend, to rise above our personal agenda to carry out His mandate. Many a "disciple" does not and cannot carry out His mission because he is weighed down by his/her burdens in life. In fact, many of us often set aside or completely forget our real mission in this life because we are so focused on our own personal agenda.

Is His vision your vision? Is His mission your mission? Is His horizon, your horizon? Is He in the picture at all? Or is it just one me, me all the way?

Move over. Make room for your Lord and you will be free.

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As long as a person is focused on himself/herself, the Evil One is happy. His proven strategy is to keep a person focused on his/her earthly blessings. That is why some people cannot look beyond their money, power and creature comforts.

Do you find yourself looking at the mirror so many times in a day? Do you find yourself so caught up in your financial plans and investments? Do you find yourself hopping from one earthly pleasure to another? Are you so sensitive to what people are saying about you? Watch out. You are too focused on yourself, and the Evil One is very happy about you.

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The Evil One is equally happy when a person stays focused on his/her woes and miseries. And so it is that some people spend their whole lifetime focused on their problems and burdens. They have blessings, but they tend to belittle or all together forget these in view of their tenacious attachment to their burdens in the past, in the present and in the future. They always have that "distant look," sorting out some things in their minds and not quite aware of the realities around them.

Do you find yourself replaying and rewinding your life in the regrets lane? Do you find yourself going fast forward into the worry lane? Careful. The Evil One is jubilant because while you are it, you are unaware of the bigger burdens of people around you. In this self-engrossed mode that borders on self-pity, you hardly hear the Lord who is calling you to His mission.

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What weighs you down is not how much you weigh, but what you weigh, i.e., what you consider as important in life. A person can be laden with real problems in life but he/she can refuse to be burdened by them. He/She can rise above these and still live a joyful and fruitful life. In other words, the choice is ours to make: to be happy or sad; to be trusting or to be worried; to build or to destroy; to be forgiving or to be angry; to be gentle or to be violent; to be better or to be bitter; to love or to hate. This is the challenge of the Ascension: to crawl with our burdens, or to rise above our burdens, and get going with His mission.

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"Do you know why angels can fly? It is because they have wings, and they carry no burdens."

This beautiful text message reminds us that we too can fly. A person who has the wings of prayer and the wings of hard work plus the determination to rise above his/her burdens can really and truly fly.

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The way we pray can affect the way we live. If you pray gratefully, you will live gratefully. If you pray bitterly, you will live bitterly. If you pray miserably, you will live miserably.

Many times we do not really listen to God in prayer because we keep repeating to Him our miseries, our problems, our failures. Why not set aside a day or a prayer time when you will not mention your problems to God? Why not set aside a prayer time when all you do is just thank God? Just be grateful, and soon you'll see that, in fact, you have many things to be grateful for. Problems and miseries will always be there, but is that all you tell Him every time you to talk to Him? Do you not also have nice things to tell Him? Why not try praying happily and gratefully some time? Try it. It works, and it works good on you.

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For those who insist on carrying so many excess baggage as they travel through life, remember that all of us will have to make it through the long haul till we reach our final destination, heaven. There, the Lord will ask: "What is it that you have been carrying in your bag all these years, my child? Lots of love or lots of trash?"

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A moment with the Lord:

Lord, help me to dispose of my trash and burdens so that I can carry lots of love. Amen.