Today’s passage is Galatians 4:1-11. Paul expands on what he said about us being clothed in Christ through baptism and sons of God and therefore both Abraham’s seed and heirs of God’s promise. Initially we little better than slaves because we had to follow a lot of rules but, through Jesus, we received the spirit of sonship and now call God our Father. Paul asks the Galatians why they want to turn back and become slaves again to special days, etc. He says he’s afraid he’s wasted his time on them.
Why does Paul say that we are known by God rather than we know God?(9)
Why does Paul write this letter to the Galatians if he thinks he’s wasted his time teaching them before?(11)
“You’re wasting my time!”
How often have I heard that said to me in my life?
How many times have I said it to others?
It’s such a dismissive remark, betraying no love, no patience, no peace of mind, no gentleness, no kindness, no self-control.
Jesus never said it, he just died on the cross for me to show me that I wasn’t a waste of his time or his efforts or his love.
One of my teachers told one of his students that she was wasting his time.
She told her parents, her father phoned the school, and I have to talk to the teacher to find out the context and tell him to never say it again to any student or even to say something close to it again.
Both Paul and my teacher saying the same thing at almost the same time is clearly a message to me.
I still occasionally say it to myself at couples mokjangs that either goes on too long for me or one mogwon just talks and talks#8212;sometimes for an hour!#8212;without really opening.
I like the Korean expression about that: He talks with a dog’s voice.
In other words, it’s just a lot of yapping to no purpose.
But who am I to say these are a waste of my time, a waste of my efforts in participation?
Why does my selfishness determine what is worthwhile or not?
Where is my love, patience, and self-control?
Where would I be if God had thought the same about me?
I struggle to remember that everyone I meet has an eternal soul.
We last forever.
This life is a blink compared to eternity. Nothing I do will last.
No story I write will endure beyond a few years.
No one will remember me beyond a few people I’ve met who will die with their memories of me.
But my soul and the souls of others live forever.
We are more important than money, art and culture because it all disappears while our souls do not.
We are part of eternity while our deeds and earthly efforts are not.
The Galatians and their churches all vanished, but their souls did not.
Paul’s letter will endure until Judgement Day when we won’t need it anymore.
My efforts are only a waste if they are selfishly motivated.
When I say to anyone that they are wasting my time, I show my selfishness, not my love.
Paul says he’s “afraid for” the Galatians (11) because his teaching was not effective and therefore wasted, and he fears for their eternal souls.
Their souls are the issue.
And my soul is the issue if I still have so little love for others that I think I waste my time on them.
Tomorrow I go with my 부부 mokjang for an overnight picnic.
When it was first proposed, I didn’t want to go because … it would be a waste of my efforts.
Today’s passage has shown me just how wrongheaded I am.
The picnic is for me to change my attitude.
Somebody else’s efforts were not wasted on me, praise God!
Application: to pray for the moments I can serve my fellow mogwons on the picnic.
Lord, forgive me my selfishness, let me no longer say or think that someone wastes my time or efforts. Let me always feel I do things through you, with you and for you. And with love.
