Let opportunity find you already doing what makes you feel whole. Your time will come. Your chance will come.
From the very first time we open our eyes when we are born, we’re lost. At that very moment the journey to self-discovery and life discovery begins.
We do not choose to be born nor do we choose who our parents will be, everything seems like it was predestined from the beginning of time. Hold on to this thought.
As we grow, our very first lessons are taught to us by our parents. We learn a lot from these strange new human beings until we develop a very strange endearment towards them. Some things we figure out on our own.
Life goes on, we are then introduced to society and because we grow in intelligence every day, we start to try to make sense and learn from our different environments.
We go to school. We watch television. We make friends. Before you know it, we’re a lot more grown up, we can think and choose for ourselves, but we are also heavily indoctrinated.
A lot of the choices we make today have some influence attached to them. Very few of the decisions we make are without influence. We are somehow led to believe certain things, study certain things or become certain things.
Though naked and alone individuals we came into this world we end up like human pinatas made up of different kinds of flavored candy.
Then there is society, though a beautiful part of human existence, this very structure has led to the demise of many souls. There are certain things that happen behind the scenes, certain people who run the show, who have been running it for millennia, who have turned the beautiful journey of life into something a lot more hellish.
We now must deal with drug addiction, suicide, injustice and a whole lot more as a result of this invisible manual we all are hypnotized to follow.
Mirrors are wonderful aren’t they? They really open our eyes to issues concerning our appearance that we may not notice without them. In this world, there are many types of mirrors. For the Christian, their metaphorical mirror is the Bible. It enables them to gauge how near or far they are from God’s standard. Through reading the Bible they can see their flaws and pray to God for grace to overcome them. For a country or lawmakers, this mirror is embodied by the laws of the land. Going against any of them will leave you an offender and liable to face penalties.
You get the point.
There is this mirror most of the world’s population, if not all, follows to some extent and that is the mirror of societal attribution- in other words who are you to the world.
We know this. We study certain things because we’re encouraged by the world to. We seldom make this choice out of love or passion. Even our parents are in on the lie. We are told we will make more money, become important people in society or that we will be secure and in demand.
This idealism permeates through all aspects of our lives; who we marry, where we live, where we worship, who we know, where we work and even what we believe in. The guarantee is if we do things a certain way then everything will work in our favor. Great right?
If you’ve been living observantly for long enough, you will learn that all this is for the most part a lie (I say “for the most part” for the conservatives) but what I really want to say is that it is all a lie.
There is a lovely portion of scripture in the Bible written by a person who was known as the wisest in all the earth. God boldly states that the wisdom he had will be the highest ever given to man. I am not sure what this means exactly but I am taking it as it is. Anyway, it reads:
“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.”
– Ecclesiastes 9:11-
I’ve said a lot so far, but I wanted it to lead to the next few paragraphs I will write. Remember the thought I told you to hold on to? This is where it comes in.
There is nothing wrong with being a part of society, but it is important to realize that before you were a part of this flawed version of human civilization you were born to be a part of something greater. Our whole journey through life is all about us preparing to be citizens of a better city yet to come.
Look, I don’t want to preach (somebody hold me) but why should we define ourselves by anything less that our true origins? Believe what you will but I truly believe I was made in the image of God, by an intelligence and not some random throw of events. I am complex, science till today cannot fully explain how the simplest parts of me work, yet alone the complexities of inanimate objects.
In the book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, we are encouraged to repeat to ourselves that we are more than we make ourselves out to be. We are more than society labels us. You are more than your studies, your job, your influence or popularity rating. You are more than your successes and failures, the good and bad, you are a lot more complex than that.
Each year, we get the chance to welcome in a new year. We all make resolutions because we want to be and do better. Focus more on being better.
God is in control of every little thing. He allows the doors that open for you as well as those that close. He balances the good and the bad in your life.
There are many people who aren’t as educated yet they have the best jobs, I mean some of them are running our governments. We have slow people in charge of fast things. The not so brave heading up the most ambitious of projects.
Yes, hard work pays, ambition and all those other things but they too are subject to chance. We have PhD students who are jobless, doctors who are that by title but have never saved a life, we have brilliant artists who are unknown and no so great ones who sell their work for millions.
I guess all I am saying is this- time and chance happens to all and seeing that you only get this one life to live, a very short and unpredictable life, live it to its fullest potential. Overcome your fears. Climb those mountains. Be silly and awkward, live responsibly to your hearts desire because you do not know when strategy or success will knock at your doors. You also do not know when tragedy or death will come knocking.
Let opportunity find you already doing what makes you feel whole. Your time will come. Your chance will come.
