My job gives me a limited number of Sundays to indulge in. Being a Catholic, I remember to keep holy the Sabbath Day (the 3rd commandment). Today, at church, I got an unexpected message about success that deepened my perspective.
I always allot a break relieving myself from e-mails, cellphones, social media and work to allow myself to rejuvenate. A fresh start in dealing with the week ahead. Like any parent, I see to it that I converse with my daughter without distractions during these days to fill up the time I spent outside during the work week. While my daughter is busy on school days too, weekends are the perfect time for me to put full focus on her. Come my days off, I include her in planning a day together giving her the liberty of being in control with minimal guidance. This gives me a sense of awareness on how she progresses as a human being. I approach it in a special way though. The night before a full day of nothing to do, like today for Sunday, I asked her to choose one activity to do or a place to go. The one that she likes the most provided she goes to church with me first. She agrees.
While I share to you about the no-work-part-on-Sundays, discreetly, my energy exudes productivity. It will always be drawn to ‘so-what’s-next’ thoughts. What could be a next book to read? A new song to add to my playlist while I run? What to cook for dinner? These thoughts I guess run 24/7 along with that of many moms and wives.
While I recharge and engage with family, the universe and God converses subtly as well.
I have always regarded the Almighty engaging when I call on Him. Even an unexpected sense of humor. I have felt how His timing is impeccable and I know how challenging He could be with what I pray for. Surprisingly sometimes, He provides in the nick of time. God knows I love puzzles and subliminal messages that sometimes, He gives me lessons, big and small this way. Today, He knows my attention to what eats up most of my time during ordinary days (business venture) are suppressed because of what I assigned myself today (family time). So, He sent me a message, oh so subtle that I almost missed it.
LIMITATIONS
I know majority of the Catholics would agree with me that when the sermon is laid out to the people through the priest, it aims to communicate on a simpler level.
They use metaphors to compare it to present situations, biting realities and common settings for us people to fully understand the message of the readings. But sometimes, it goes on detours that the message gets tangled along the sermon because it’s either, the listener is sleepy, distracted with the priests’ delivery and or is just thinking of something else. This happens and I don’t exempt myself from having these limitations. Today, it was the accent. The priest was Indian and there’s reality to what Russel Peters said about his own race, “they have the tendency to deliver anything in a funny way and head movements”. And this makes him the highest paid stand up comedian of his time. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Indians. Like I said, I have my own limitations too in understanding the message filtering out the accent.
THE MESSAGE
But here’s the best part of it all, no matter how hard it took me to understand some bits of the sermon, his ender blasted an impact on me. He said,
“SUCCESS is not about attaining what you aimed for. It’s not reaching your goal in the end but how much FAITH you had given it to happen.”
Believe it or not, putting up a business reaches a point that you doubt it. You believe it 100%, your team is charged with the same intention and your investors are supportive but it gets shaken up right at the moment you’re convinced that it’s doing great. These challenges could be so simple but huge enough to hinder you from getting through the next step.
Some of these bits are, (1) banking communications. Simple office hours propel you to put a day’s operation on a halt. (2) Logistics. You have the supply, you have the demand, everything in between to making a sale, becomes a question mark – another puzzle. Or (3) compatibility of your electrical supply with the utilities you put in your shop. Whew! The list could go endless but it’s actually the unexpected knickknacks that hold you back. It feels like food stuck in between your teeth. You can’t enjoy the next bite of your meal because of it. Yeah! Exactly like that.
And so, here is how subtle the communication between God and I becomes so loud. With this past week’s endless exchange of how-to-dos and meetings and ideas and solutions, I step back. I take a breather and there comes God encouraging me to put FAITH in it. You might be asking so believing in something is not enough? Yep! The ender left an impact but this last bit is what gives my perspective depth.
There’s a thin line between believing and having faith.
As per definition, belief is accepting something is true, most especially, ‘accepting something is true without proof’. On the other hand, having faith, is having confidence and trust in the things you believe in. And when you’re confident about something, you become resilient.
I hope this message resonates to your doubts and fears as it did for me. It’s true that God communicates back. It was never one way through prayer. As long as you are more than willing to listen, your prayers will be answered…. one way or another.
