I stood by the roadside and watched as cars sped by; sometimes the cars were forced almost to a halt by sheer virtue of their number. Then, a few drivers impossibly attempted to squeeze their cars past or in-between other vehicles; this elicited shouts, cursing, etc.
Navy blue suit at the wheels of the Honda Civic was on the phone nodding his head energetically, bobbing his head from side to side, and gesticulating vigorously with his hands. Music blared loudly from fair complexioned sun glassed Highlander as she passionately sang and very expressively squeezed her face, hugged her shoulders close and pointed to the sky; eyes rolling to accentuate the song lyrics. Primera struggled to keep the car straight as she wrestled to line her eyebrows, lips and apply lipstick. Power bike shot past like a missile on a mission to mars roaring like a hurricane as it wove from side to side almost touching rider/bike to the ground with every stunt-like veer (“waseere”1 go buddy! I always had a mushy for power bikes).
Rav4 panicked, hit the brakes suddenly; screeching tyres stopped short of green taxi by not more than a hair’s breadth. Green taxi eyes Rav4 through the rearview mirror, hisses irritably, mouths (&?@#%$!) as he slides out the already opened driver’s door. As he moved toward the rear to inspect the imagined damage, Mercedes Benz and Golf begin to honk impatiently motioning him to move his taxi. Traffic eased; cars moved more swiftly; taxi seemed very disappointed that his car was unscathed. He wags a finger at Rav4, scowls angrily, mouths on as he returns to drive off. Nissan weaves in and out of traffic like one gunning for first place in a formula 1 race; hawkers who had mysteriously materialized to peddle wares in the holdup hurry out of the way . . .
Tired faces, anxious faces, angry faces, cheerful face, beaten faces, sleepy faces, aged faces, peaceful face, frowning faces, longing faces, desperate faces, content face, cringing faces, defeated faces, gloomy faces, resigned faces, bold face, haggard faces, innocent face, garrulous faces, deceitful faces, contemptuous faces, compassionate face, battered faces, disappointed faces, resentful faces, sour faces, hostile faces, vengeful faces, bewildered faces, oblivious faces, idiotic faces, wild faces, joyful face, mean faces, withdrawn faces, disillusioned faces, ghostly faces, purposeful face, . . . the faces zoomed past in all shades, shapes and sizes; mostly impatient, in a hurry to . . . work, an appointment, and what else I wondered?
Morning, afternoon, evening, night time; all the time – same faces, same cars, same mission; all hurriedly going through the motions of going through life according to the standards deceitfully sold to men; yet mostly not living, mostly dead to life.
Evil is on the rampage! We all like Esau have preposterously put the cart before the horse and yet expect to gain landmark propulsion in all the affairs of life. Worse still, we have been deceived to envision the cart as the horse and the horse as the cart. Please indulge me; picture a cart before the horse and imagine the duo moving from one point to another. The horse is probably straining against the cart/ropes, trying to force it ahead, the cart rolls downhill the moment the horse takes a break; kind of like attempting to fill a basket with water? No wonder the faces -but God proposes a sure way out.
So, back to the basics–we are creatures skillfully fashioned with an inbuilt God-DNA by the self-existent, eternal God. We are eternal beings with a finite period of existence on earth. Our purpose is to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28). Our purpose is to love God and love others as ourselves (Luke 10:27). Our mission is to seek FIRST God and His righteousness; God’s mission is to add all other things to us (Matthew 6:25-33).
Do you see how so many of us live our lives backward and constantly place the cart before the horse? We have abandoned our purpose and mission and are in hot pursuit of God’s mission. Thing is since we are not God, how well can we execute the mission He alone should accomplish? Beware, God, is not an advocate of “lazy” – seeking Him first births eternal values in us that quickly establishes us as an eternal excellence – success is inescapable!