Expressions of Faith
Desire, duty can be in sync

By Pamela A. Chun

The Tyranny of the Urgent has lost its grip on me. I've grown immune to In-Your-Face Have-to-Do-It-NOW tirades, knowing full well that whatever begs my attention today will still be there tomorrow. In every succeeding day, my life brims fuller with unremitting demands which I frankly cannot and will not keep up with. I refuse to enslave myself any longer to The Urgent. I have given myself over to The Interesting.

The Interesting is what catches my eye, tempts me, lures me. It baits me, hooks me, reels me in when I ought to be doing something else. I am easy, open prey. I don't want to be doing What I Ought to when The Interesting is so much more ... well, interesting.

The innovative and the provocative ply my imagination. New ideas and images lure me to a world of possibilities. When the proverbial light bulb goes off, the Urgent grows dim. The Urgent makes me feel guilty; the Interesting makes me feel alive.

We are living life at the speed of change, termed "acceleration" in physics. Acceleration is about change, and we have become addicted to an accelerated lifestyle in which we measure our lives not by the question "how are you?" but by "what's new?"

Call it progress. Is it?

In the shift from modernity to postmodernity, we've clipped past the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Laissez-faire commerce has evolved from free markets into fierce marketing, and all us global villagers have developed attention deficit disorder. Constancy doesn't grab our attention; change does.

How ought we deal with the Tyranny of the Interesting? The apostle Paul gives us this in Philippians 4:8-9: "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you."

Paul is telling us we need to filter The Interesting through the Grid of God. Focus on what is true, honorable, just and pure as our lives pass through the exotic. Use as our sieve that which is commendable, excellent and worthy of praise. Whatever gets caught in the trawling mesh, consider and contemplate.

The God of Peace trumps both the Urgent and Interesting. He is Peace because he is always there—the fabric underneath change. We cannot pass him by, only choose not to see him. What a shame if we do. We will have missed the whole point.

Pamela A. Chun is vice president and co-founder with her husband, Dan, of Hawaiian Islands Ministries, and can be heard weekly on the "Hawaiian Islands Ministries Radio Magazine" on KAIM-AM radio.

Expressions of Faith is a column written individually by pastors, lay workers and other leaders of faith. If you want to contribute, e-mail faith@honoluluadvertiser.com or call 525-8036.