“Que Sera, Sera” may be a nice song, but is a lousy way to live.

Probing Proverbs 10:26 Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, So is the lazy one to those who send him.

We have been on this Proverb for a while, because laziness is a cancer over taking our society. This is especially true with spiritual laziness. Nothing is more difficult to take than when you have entrusted someone with something, and because they are lazy, things are handled sloppy and carelessly. God has entrusted several things to His creation. First is life, second is His Truth and third is the stewardship of a decision that determines Who is in charge of our life. If we are wise we take seriously all three of these entrustments from God. Sadly, many are lazy and do not view the Big picture, they only see here and now.

Laziness expresses itself in various ways, we have looked at two:

·      1. When we want something for nothing.

·      2. We expect results to just happen.

The third I call - Unconscious living! Interestingly there is a Tagalog term that I have heard throughout my 20 years in the Philippines,  “Bahala na” – There is debate over what this really means I actually read several papers on it. However, the way it is used predominantly in this culture is “Que Sera, Sera” (what will be will be). Whatever happens…happens. I lived in Hawaii for ten years, there was a term the locals used: “Its no big thing.” The good side of that was that many times it is not a big deal and we need to chill. The down side to that was that some issues are a “big thing” and we need to be very alert as we navigate those waters.

It is hazardous to walk around in an unconscious stupor thinking that what will happen will happen so no need to pay attention. My introduction to “Bahala na” was a difficult one. I was ministering in the poorest area of Marikina, right along the river.

One morning I was at Barangay Hall. They invited me to join in a meeting. As the meeting went on a woman came in and spoke to Eugene and the other counselors. They came to me and asked if I would go with them to her home. Eugene felt it would be good for me to see the conditions that they were dealing with. They informed me that her 7 year old had died just two days earlier. When we arrived at the house I entered and saw the little coffin with her 7 year old son in it. On the couch laid her two year old, all dressed up, stiff and cold, He had died just that morning. I asked Eugene why she had not taken either one to a clinic. He responded with “Bahala na” and explained that many Filipinos live with a fatalistic philosophy that what ever will be, will be. Three days earlier she had 5 children, now she had three.  

To this day when I remember the scene, my heart aches for her and for her misunderstanding of the stewardship God has given us.

I want to challenge you to consider how your living – this is the only shot you have at this life! As an example let me share some Scriptures:

2 Chron 34: 1-3a  Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. He did right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.

Josiah took no side trips – He walked straight for his goal! We need goals, it leads to conscious living; which means we are thinking about what we are doing as we do it! This is not dictating the future, but trying to plan for it.

2 Chron 34:3b For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David;

Josiah began to seek! This is the first step in conscious living! It will not just happen, you have to decide if you want to go after something or not.

What does it mean to seek? Just this: To search for with the intention of finding! If you are going to seek after God…Do It! Don’t wait around for someone to explain Him to you, because they cannot!   

Many times we act like the husband in the kitchen that can’t find the pot or pan. The truth is we don’t want to find it because we would have to use it, it’s better to play dumb and let your wife find it and cook you something! J That may make us laugh, but we are not talking eating now, we are talking about matters of eternity!

When was the last time you discovered something new about God?

Here is something interesting:

2 Chron 34:3b and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images.

When you seek…you will find. When you find…you will purge! This is the reaction every human being has when they truly seek God and find Him. We see our sin in a new light, and it is not attractive.

Job 42:5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; 6 Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”

Isa 6:1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said,“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips,And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

When a very greedy man came face to face with His maker look at his reaction was:

Luke 19:8–9  Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.

Sadly, it seems we do not see conversions anymore - instead we have decisions. A conversion is not a moment – it is a life!

The most important thing to notice is that Josiah did not stop half way. We need to learn a huge lesson here. Josiah took ownership of his part of the reform needed, he knew God expected him to do his part!  

2 Chron 34:4 They tore down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars that were high above them he chopped down; also the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images he broke in pieces and ground to powder and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. Then he burned the bones of the priests on their altars and purged Judah and Jerusalem. In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, even as far as Naphtali, in their surrounding ruins, he also tore down the altars and beat the Asherim and the carved images into powder, and chopped down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Josiah cleaned up everything with a vengeance! We need to understand what Josiah understood, Romans 6:23 is true.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Understand, this may not be physical death, but you will experience a death with your fellowship with God. What concerns me, is that many are not convicted about sin anymore, but even worse many are not even conscious of it!

Let me encourage all of us, the best way to become conscious of our sin, is not to walk an aisle, or make a decision…we need to become accountable!

When was the last time you wept over your sin?