Category: Words of Wisdom

There was once a very poor man named Jose who wanted to win the lottery. He prayed, “Lord, I really wanted to give my family a better life. I want to be able to send my daughter to school. And I want to buy medicine for my sick wife. Please help me win this lottery.”

With full trust in God’s power, He bought his lottery ticket.

The next day, he was so excited to read the lottery results that he didn’t even eat his breakfast. He quickly got out of the house and bought a newspaper, hoping to find the answer he was looking for.

To his total dismay however, not one of his numbers matched the winning results. Disappointed and frustrated, he looked up to heaven and asked where he had gone wrong.

Later he found out it was his neighbor who won the lottery. His neighbor was so happy that he couldn’t help but broadcast his fate to his friends.

Jose felt even more frustrated. He knew the man who won. The man was a drunkard, one who beat his wife and his children. How could God have blessed that man when He ignored Jose’s plea?

Some years later, a shocking news reached Jose. The man who won the lottery was murdered by thieves that tried to rob his house, and rumor has it that the man’s own friends plotted the incident because they were jealous of his good fortune.

Some more years later, Jose’s daughter received a scholarship, and she was able to graduate later on and find a stable and high earning job. She supported her father and gave him a business of his own.

Jose now lives in a decent house, earning a good sum from his business, and surrounded by family and friends who love him.

One quiet morning, as Jose spends some quiet time at the garden, he recalls the time he prayed for God’s blessings. Thinking about it, Jose realized that God had indeed heard his prayers and answered them, just not in the way he expected it. If he had won the lottery then, maybe he would have told his neighbors too about his good fortune. Maybe he had also been robbed. Maybe he too, would have died and lost the chance to enjoy his wealth with the ones he loves the most.

Indeed, only God knows the things that are bound to happen. And in times when we feel He’s disappointed us, He may just be working out another plan, a better plan that would give us greater happiness and peace.

Have you ever felt irritated by the weakness of other people around you? We don’t want to admit it, and we’d rather see ourselves having sympathy for the weak, but the truth is there are times when we do feel an uncomfortable dislike for people we see as weak. Why?

There are two things I’ve realized:

1. We hate seeing weak people because we don’t want to be reminded of our own weaknesses. We’d rather be in the company of strong and beautiful people as though by seeing them, we become strong and beautiful ourselves, we forget the scar of our hurts, our insecurities, the blemishes we don’t want other people to see.

2. We hate to see the weakness in other people because we feel that we’d be obligated to help them, and helping them is such a hard thing because we see nobody helping us anyway. We feel alone, even as weak as they are, and yet not being able to rely upon anybody else. Why should they in turn rely on us?

The weaknesses of others remind us and challenge us to overcome our own weaknesses. They are but mirrors we often don’t want to look for fear of seeing what we don’t want to see. Their weaknesses also remind us of our need for someone else, someone stronger than us, someone who can carry us when we can carry on no more. People have failed us many times, and that is why we often feel alone. Yet let us remember that there is a God who sees us just as we are and loves us just the same. There is a God whom we can count on to even if the whole world hates us for all our weaknesses.

There are times when nothing seems to be happening, and all we could do is wait. It isn’t a particularly easy time, many times it’s even easier for us to be busy doing something rather than wait for the next step or wait for the results of our actions. Yet waiting is a precious time. It is a magnificent pause, a blessed moment.

It’s a time when we can recuperate our strength, a time when we can look back and give ourselves a little pat on the shoulder for a job well done.

Not every moment can be as quiet as this one, so let us avail ourselves of the quiet and the ability to prepare for the exciting challenges to come.

Meanwhile

The rain is pouring
The sky is dark
There’ll be no hills to climb today
There’ll be no seas to cross
But I’ll sip my coffee
and I will be cozy
and enjoy the cool wind
blowing by
meanwhile.
The land is plowed
The seeds are planted
Yet harvest time has not arrived
But I’ll watch the sunset
and my fields of gold
and I’ll take
a sweet little nap
meanwhile.
Yea for those who wait
for their tomorrows
let none then waste
of their todays
For all is well
and all is fine
for those who pray
and smile
meanwhile.

This Is The Great Pause In Between

This is the great pause in between work and play
the great silence between a song, and another song
This is Selah, this is s p a c e
This is the point at which the earth neither slumbers nor wakes up
This is the great pause in between crying and laughing
between getting sick and getting well again
This is the time of waiting
without expecting for something soon to come
This is the space between heartbeats
between a heartbreak and a new-found love
This moment is silence
but this is not worth nothing
Everything is stored in this very moment
where everything else proceeds,
and where every great dream is born.

Is Love Selfish?

By nature, we have an instinct to survive, to protect ourselves and to feel good. Love however, calls us to be beyond nature, and to think about others even more than we care for ourselves.

Some people may say that by loving others, we also make ourselves happy, we FEEL good, and so we continue doing so. We do a lot of good works, with the end product of making ourselves happy. In a way, we conclude that love is also selfish.

However, reflecting upon the dark night of the soul, especially one which Mother Teresa has experienced, I was able to dig deeper into the mysteries of love that clearly separates itself from the self-seeking love we have known from the world.

“Such deep longing for God – so deep that it is painful – a suffering continual – and yet not wanted by God – repulsed – empty – no faith – no love – no zeal. – Souls hold no attraction – Heaven means nothing – to me it looks like an empty place – the thought of it means nothing to me and yet this torturing longing for God.”-Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa didn’t FEEL good. She couldn’t even grasp the feeling of hope nor faith. And yet she continues to give her all for the God she loves, for other souls that could be saved.

How different the heights of such love from the easy and fun-filled shallow love the world recognizes. Today, it’s seems so easy to say I LOVE YOU, to say that one is filled with love. What kind of love do we profess to claim? Is it a love that cares most for its beloved? Or is it a love that cares only for the self?

I remember the sacrifice being made by millions of Filipino Overseas Workers who leave behind family, safety and comfort in order to give a better future for their loved ones, in order to earn enough money to give their children a good education.  In their loneliness in faroff countries, they do not experience the presence of their loved ones, they couldn’t feel their warmth, their joyful embrace.  And yet, even in that loneliness, they choose to sacrifice their personal happiness for the good of those whom they love.

“Pray for me, pray that I may have the courage to keep on smiling at Jesus – I understand a little the tortures of hell – without God. I have no words to express what I want to say, and yet last First Friday – knowingly and willingly I offered to the Sacred Heart – to pass even eternity in this terrible suffering, if this would give Him now a little more pleasure – or the love of a single soul. I want to speak – yet nothing comes – I find no words to express the depths of the darkness. In spite of it all – I am His little one – & I love Him – not for what He gives – but for what He takes…” – Mother Teresa

Do You Desire To Stand Out But Afraid Not To Fit In?

“A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.”-Fred Allen

Do you desire to stand out but afraid not to fit in? Which is more valuable for you, to be special, or to belong?

We Are Unique

We are all unique. No two people, not even twins, are exactly the same. No one else could walk this earth with all your talents and gifts. No one else could think in exactly the same way that you do. No one else could love with the same passion as you could love. We are all special.

“Like seashells along the shore, no one is entirely alike, each is crafted with an imprint of God’s hand, each has something to share, and each has something to admire and long for in another.”

Og Mandino in his book “The Greatest Salesman in the World” put it this way:

“I am nature’s greatest miracle. Since the beginning of time never has there been another with my mind, my heart, my eyes, my ears, my hands, my hair, my mouth. None that came before, none that live today, and none that come tomorrow can walk and talk and move and think exactly like me.”

We Have a Desire to Stand Out

Because we are unique, there is an innate desire in us to stand out. Hence, our seeemingly tireless efforts to be the best in our fields – the best athelete, the richest businessman, the most excellent singer, the greatest painter, the most powerful leader. It’s as though by reaching such a status, we remember our significance, we are no longer just one more face among the crowd, we are looked highly upon!

We Want To Fit In

What makes it difficult for us is that though we want to stand out, we also want to fit in at the same time. We feel awkward being singled out. We’re afraid to be the only one whose opinion is different from the group. We don’t want to feel like we are outcasts.

How It All Fits

Why do we have this dilemma? Are these two needs of ours, to stand out and to fit in, truly desires from opposite poles?

I’ve realized that these needs stem from but one need in us, our need to be LOVED. Hence, we thought that by being the BEST, by standing out, we’d be able to catch the admiration of others, we’d be loved. Hence also, by not being so DIFFERENT from the rest, by not taking an unpopular side, we’d feel as though we really belong with the people we want to please.

There is nothing as frustrating as being able to discover your passion,  your dream, only to find out that the people closest to you are the ones who cannot believe in you.  It feels bad not to be able to share your joy at the treasure you have found.  It feels just as bad as to be the only one to have your hopes up in ever realizing your dreams.  But it happens.  And you’ve got to be prepared when it does.

When it happens, it is not the time to be angry at people, or to be hurt as though they no longer care for you.  They do.  It’s just that they were not the ones who received your VISION.  You were the one whom God entrusted with your gift, and it is in your hands to share it with the world, even if at the start you feel so alone and deserted.

What We Can Do

My friend, no matter how hard we try however, we could never please everybody. There would always be people who couldn’t see the good in what we do, who couldn’t appreciate the gifts we are all so willing to offer them.

We must never let our actions and happiness depend on them. For in the end, if we follow this road of trying to please everyone, we’d only find ourselves exhausted in trying, but then never being able to win their hearts anyway. We’d still feel rejected. And worse, we’d feel we have betrayed ourselves, because we have sacrificed our worth and our uniqueness for whatever it is we wanted them to say and think about us.

God has put his unique plan in each of us, in our hearts, when our hearts are able to rise up from deceit and doubt. We have only to be true to who we are, to take off our masks so we can reveal our beauty and our gifts.

It doesn’t matter anymore whether people fail to recognize us. It doesn’t matter whether we find ourselves along the unpopular side of an issue. Learn to stand up for what you really believe in! Find the courage to be the UNIQUE YOU even if it means not fitting in, even if it means you’re the only one who is willing to stand up for your PASSION and your truth.

Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. -John 12:42-43

 

Author: Jocelyn Soriano