Es la Ley de la Vida

"Nothing to do but work and work some more, right?" I said.

"Es la Ley de la Vida," the McDonald's guy tells me this morning as I make my way through the drive-thru.  It is the law of life.

I laugh. In my forties I expect a comment like this to fly out of my mouth from time to time. Grousing is a right, not a privilege, after a certain age.  But my McDonald's friend? He's about nineteen.  The only law of life he should be adhering to is enjoying his youth.  We all come to the table with different life experiences. I'm sure he has a story that explains that weary look in his eye, but the drive-thru is a merciless place, with no time for chatting. So I pull away with the correct change, but feeling short-changed nonetheless.

I have just brushed up against another life. Not the same as the last one I brushed up against and not the same as mine, but a life it is.  If you really wanna trip yourself out stop for a second and contemplate the trajectories of all the lives around you; at work, on the freeway, at the Laker game. Each person is making choices: believing things, denying things, hoping for this, praying for that. At any given second they are stuck in the past, engaging the present or contemplating the future. We spend a lot of our lives looking for answers to a lot of things and contemplating the "laws" of our lives.


Isiah has a suggestion about the past: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past." (Isiah 43:18)

Solomon has a suggestion on the present: "So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 8:15)


Jesus tells us point blank how to handle the future: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own". (Matthew 6:33-34).


If God can track the trajectories of 7 billions lives and yet  provide us each with such simple advice in His law, maybe...just maybe?...we should listen to it.