Give me a simple life

Satan called a worldwide convention of his evil angels. In his opening address, he said, “we can’t keep the children of God from reading the Bible and we can’t keep them from knowing the truth. But we can do something else. We can keep them away from forming an intimate abiding experience with Christ. If they stay away from Jesus, we will have power over them. So, let them go to Church, let them continue their conservative lifestyle. But let us steal their time, so they can’t gain experience with Jesus Christ. This is what you should do, my fellow fallen angels: distract them from being close to their Savior, and distract that vital connection throughout the day!”

“How shall we do that?” shouted the fallen angels. “Keep them busy with the non-essentials of life and invent a numbered schemes to occupy their minds,” he answered. “Tempt them to spend, spend, spend; borrow, borrow, borrow; or loan, loan, loan (loan pa more). Convince the wives to go to work and the husbands to work six to seven days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day so that they may sustain their lifestyle. Convince one of them (husband or wife) to work abroad to keep them away from the bonding and spending time together and with their children. Without bonding, without quality time with each other, without prayer because of the pressure from work, soon there would be crack in their relationship that will lead to broken marriages and broken families.”

“Overstimulate their mind so that they may not hear the soft voice of their conscience. At home, entice them to play the radio or television loud. Entice them to play video and watch movies from their laptops, tablets and cellphones even when they are traveling. Entice them to put their phones on so that they may listen to their favorite music without distraction. Entice them to continuously open their Facebook, YouTube, and e-mails. These will jam their minds and break their union with Christ.”

“Feel their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with new 24 hour a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mails, sweepstakes, mail order catalogs and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering, free products, and services offering false hope.

“Even in recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, lethargic, and unprepared for the coming week. Don’t let them go out to spend some time with nature and wonder with you at the beauty of God’s creation; send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts, and movies instead.

“And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk and so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotion.

“Let them involved in soul winning. Crowd their lives with so many good causes that they may have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon, they will work with their own strength, sacrifice their health and their family unity for those good causes.”

It was quite convention, indeed. At the end the evil angels eagerly fulfill their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy rushing here and there. “Excuse me, I have to go,” “excuse me, I have an appointment,” “excuse me, I have another schedule,” “excuse me, somebody is waiting for me,” “excuse me, I have to attend to an emergency.”

Sa binisaya pa, matinapol ug langayan moingon, “Kung naa pay panahon, nganong magdali? Kung wa nay panahon, unsay dalian?”

Has the devil been successful in his team to tempt us away from Jesus? YOU BE THE JUDGE. (Story from an Unknown Author | Msgr. Edito Baño, Apostolic Administrator of Mati)