It was a Friday-like Monday. You got up late, left home without any breakfast, jeepneys were all full, the traffic as usual was heavy. At work, deadlines were screaming as you see mountains of tasks to finish. It was a waste of your precious time to savor lunch nor eat snacks. You focused on the computer screen, too busy to chat with colleagues, spent a little more time to wrap up what you were doing. You left the office late wishing to get home soon, but there were still a lot of employees like you whose faces were long and tired. You had to deal with the traffic jam wondering if there was dinner to eat. It was a waste of you precious time for sleeping to spend more time awake, so you decided to just rest tomorrow is another day.

What a typical day for each and every one of us, right? As I imagine this routine, we have every single day, it suffocates me. Are we born to just work and survive?

The gospel tells us that the sheep hears the voice of their Shepherd; He knows the sheep, and they follow Him. They are given eternal life, and they shall never perish. How comforting these words are! But also how different from what we are experiencing in our daily life. I guess it is because most of the time, we forget that we are sheep and we have a Shepherd. Sometimes due to the noise around us, we do not know whose voice to listen to and whose voice to follow. As a result, we feel like a living human with a dead soul who just wakes up, reports to work, gets hungry, waits until the day is over, complains about life, goes to sleep, and the cycle goes on.

If we try to listen to the voice of God more, we will be led to the path that nourishes. We will see goodness even in small things, and we will realize miracles from heaven. It was a Friday-like Monday when I found myself sitting in a room with two other members studying about the Word of God. Despite all our drained energy from work and outside activities. I began to remember how the guardman in our subdivision said “good morning”; a colleague treated us pizza; a student had a good impression on me; there was food in the table when I got home; another guardman greeted me “good evening” how surprising that were a simple feast before we had the bible study session! I was too tired of the day to see those beautiful things around me, but the gospel readings once again comforted me that probably I heard His voice, so I still came to that Monday night session though I did not actually plan to. Not only that our stomach was full but also our soul was once again nourished by His words in the scriptures.

To do what is good by listening to what God wants us to do and where He wants us to go are the challenges we have to realize every single day of our life. As Christians, it is our role as His sheep to follow our only Shepherd, Jesus. Think deeply whether we are doing the things that we do because Jesus wants us to or we are only pressured by the society or the people around us who we confused as shepherds. If it nourishes our spirit and it makes us feel amazingly full, probably it is better to choose.

No one can take us away from God’s hand so it is not impossible to be connected to Him every single day of our lives. It is never a waste of our precious time to reconnect to God through Jesus. Make time to be recharged by His words in the bible and turn your Friday-like Monday into thank-God every day.

He knows you are His sheep, listen to His voice, and follow Him. Follow God.

– Olive M. Ilustrisimo

Source: Neo Jeremiah Voice of the Young Prophet Newsletter – May 12, 2019 issue.