What's Real? Part 1: Real Life
This entry and the next two will feature my devotional to the GCF Ortigas youth on October 21. Feel free to pick whatever you find useful for your own youth talks.
WHAT’S REAL?
By Grace Gaston-Dousel
Text: Psalm 90
INTRODUCTION: What is real? Can someone describe it for us? What would you consider real in your life? Moses, the man of God, wrote Psalm 90 which is actually a prayer. It is a prayer of a man who knew what is real. Let’s learn from him.
REAL LIFE
Psalm 90:1-3: Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. You turn man back into dust and say, ‘Return, O children of men.’
God is the author of our lives. It is by His will that we exist and have our being. Our birth and our death are all within in His control. Nothing happens to us without it having passed through His hands. But how real is our life to us? Are we living the way it is meant to be lived or are we living a surreal life?
Reality Check: Though God intended for us to live life to the full the way He designed it to be, many in this world fail to experience abundant life. Many actually don’t know that there is more to this life. Take for instance, Flor. She was raped by her own father. When she went to the police and had her father imprisoned, her mother kicked her out of the house. Since then, she has been living in Osmena Park at the heart of Davao City. In search for love and meaning, she fell for one of the street youth she always hanged out with. She got pregnant at 17.
Your life story may be different. Yours may be more blessed than Flor. Yours may be emptier than hers. Or maybe like Mira, you have lots of bitterness in your heart. You may have been betrayed by a person you trust, let down by your parents, abandoned by a friend. Looking through and beyond your life, what is it that makes your life real?
Psalm 90:10: As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years…
God has apportioned, on an average, 70 years to a man or a woman’s life. To reach the age of 80 is a bonus.
Reality Check: We don’t know when we are going to die. Truth is more and more die young these days. Recently, we hear on the news young children dying of dengue. Everyone was shocked when Rico Yan died at the young age of 27. We once again have to remind ourselves that the strength of youth fails and that you are actually not invincible.
So, what makes your life real? Are you living a life of pretense? Are you assuming that you will be strong forever? Are you thinking that the pleasures you are enjoying now, in this life, will last? Think again.
Psalm 90:3-6 says, You turn man back into dust and say, ‘Return, O children of men.’ For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night. You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades and withers away.
If our lives are like grass that’s here now and gone later, then we really have to start thinking about what we do with our time!
WHAT’S REAL?
By Grace Gaston-Dousel
Text: Psalm 90
INTRODUCTION: What is real? Can someone describe it for us? What would you consider real in your life? Moses, the man of God, wrote Psalm 90 which is actually a prayer. It is a prayer of a man who knew what is real. Let’s learn from him.
REAL LIFE
Psalm 90:1-3: Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. You turn man back into dust and say, ‘Return, O children of men.’
God is the author of our lives. It is by His will that we exist and have our being. Our birth and our death are all within in His control. Nothing happens to us without it having passed through His hands. But how real is our life to us? Are we living the way it is meant to be lived or are we living a surreal life?
Reality Check: Though God intended for us to live life to the full the way He designed it to be, many in this world fail to experience abundant life. Many actually don’t know that there is more to this life. Take for instance, Flor. She was raped by her own father. When she went to the police and had her father imprisoned, her mother kicked her out of the house. Since then, she has been living in Osmena Park at the heart of Davao City. In search for love and meaning, she fell for one of the street youth she always hanged out with. She got pregnant at 17.
Your life story may be different. Yours may be more blessed than Flor. Yours may be emptier than hers. Or maybe like Mira, you have lots of bitterness in your heart. You may have been betrayed by a person you trust, let down by your parents, abandoned by a friend. Looking through and beyond your life, what is it that makes your life real?
Psalm 90:10: As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years…
God has apportioned, on an average, 70 years to a man or a woman’s life. To reach the age of 80 is a bonus.
Reality Check: We don’t know when we are going to die. Truth is more and more die young these days. Recently, we hear on the news young children dying of dengue. Everyone was shocked when Rico Yan died at the young age of 27. We once again have to remind ourselves that the strength of youth fails and that you are actually not invincible.
So, what makes your life real? Are you living a life of pretense? Are you assuming that you will be strong forever? Are you thinking that the pleasures you are enjoying now, in this life, will last? Think again.
Psalm 90:3-6 says, You turn man back into dust and say, ‘Return, O children of men.’ For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night. You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades and withers away.
If our lives are like grass that’s here now and gone later, then we really have to start thinking about what we do with our time!
posted by grace gaston-dousel | 12:04 PM
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