LABORING IN LOVE AND HOPE

I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
and my reward is with my God.

Isaiah 49:4b (read 49:1-6) NIV

Isaiah felt that he was a messenger to "all peoples of the world" and took upon himself the title "Servant of God". He felt very small before the huge challenge of bringing hope to people who were going through the greatest crisis in their history. Not seeing results made the feeling of frustration weigh heavily upon him, and he felt the failure of having strived in vain. Even so, there sprang up in his chest a hope that everything would still be rewarded for acting in harmony with the will of God. It was this consciousness that gave him the strength to not give up.

We know that the universe is trillions of times greater than Isaiah thought it to be. Our present day crisis is unprecedented and covers aspects that Isaiah never dreamed of. It even threatens the existence of the whole human race. Globalization has produced a global crisis: water and air pollution, depletion of natural resources, economic and political inequalities, loss of ethical values, religious conflicts and the development of weapons capable of destroying most of life on Earth in the blink of an eye.

Faced with our chaos of the early twenty-first century, the crisis of Isaiah seems small. Can we draw inspiration from that remote past? I believe so.

With a more ample vision of the universe (multiverse) we need a broader vision of God. We could identify God as being cosmic, as being the consciousness of the whole multiverse and present in every atom and every cell of our body. We are an integral part of this multiverse. Our existence is a part of the scheme of things and fits into the whole. We influence the whole and are influenced by it. Life is an interchange. The sacred and the multiverse are one and the same.

By being in tune with the sacred whole we reach our fullest potential without exhausting our strength. Harmony is letting ourselves be integrated into the mega system of life. As we act on behalf of others, we are acting on behalf of ourselves! To be instruments of the welfare of others, we are also benefiting ourselves.

Being useful and being preserved at the same time is one of the principles of life! To act against others and against love is to act against ourselves. Sin kills, but justice quickens. By practicing goodness and walking according to the principles of the universe we are promoting and strengthening the system of life. By practicing evil and walking against the principles of life, we are actually destroying ourselves. This being true, humanity seems to be marching to its own destruction.

Using biblical symbolism, the union of Jesus with the Father is the ultimate example of the dynamics of salvation. For Christians, the presence of the Spirit of Jesus in them makes them agents of salvation in the world. They are called to be "light" in the world and "salt" on the earth. They are called to come out of the temples and act where the masses are and where danger threatens.

We may not be able to see immediately that by acting in accordance to the principles of love and justice that we are really making any difference in the world, but we can do so, trusting that we are not acting in vain. We can only do our part and leave it up to the future to germinate the good seed that we sow. We may feel that we are acting in vain, but we can hope that what we are planting will bear beneficial fruits.

ISAIAH 49:1-6 – NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV)

Listen to me, you islands;

    hear this, you distant nations:

Before I was born the Lord called me;

    from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.

He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,

    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me into a polished arrow

    and concealed me in his quiver.

He said to me, “You are my servant,

    Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”

But I said, “I have labored in vain;

    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.

Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,

    and my reward is with my God.”

And now the Lord says—

    he who formed me in the womb to be his servant

to bring Jacob back to him

    and gather Israel to himself,

for I am[a] honored in the eyes of the Lord

    and my God has been my strength—

he says:

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant

    to restore the tribes of Jacob

    and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,

    that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”