See Your Original Face

You have a toolbox.

There are certain talents or abilities you must develop to fulfill your purpose. Such a task does not allow quitting or giving up nor does it forgive lack of focus. To achieve what you’ve been put here to do is to diligently cultivate the blessings from your Creator.

Your greatness results from the regular pursuit of a means to get better.

Improving those skills, pushing on to express the very best of yourself is, at root, what your task is. You don’t have to be the very best of the best necessarily.

Be the best you.

Step into the gifts God has poured into your being. Ending up in a dead end job is a choice, whether you knew you were making it at the time or not; by limiting yourself mentally, by finding excuses to lay down when you could have stood up, you have become the reason for the season of your discontent.

You know what’s going on. You know something is amiss. You’re aware of the mystifying restlessness telling you something is just not quite right. It’s a clue, a voice speaking to you, “You are off point. Get back on purpose, I have created you for something else.”

Break down the walls between you and your designated role in this great play.

See your original face and remember what you are: the loving expression of a powerful creative force.

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The Best Won’t Come While You Wait

“The best things come to those who wait” is a common caution when impatience strikes.

It’s easy to give credence to the age-old phrase, as life can run on like an indefinite delay at the gate of Made-it Airlines before your flight “there,” whatever that means for you.

The words are usually accompanied by a wagging finger or admonishing look from the virtuous, those whose memories have clouded just enough to forget the wisdom of the poet and philosopher Tom Petty: “The waiting is the hardest part.”

How you linger at the gate determines if you sit in first class.

The phrase is deceiving, as a quick mental turn leads one to believe rewards are delivered to the stationary. It is as if, by staying in one place and remaining calm, holding out your hands will allow you to catch a break as it falls from the sky.

Vague cliches are hopelessly unable to demonstrate real truth.

There is a vast difference between “active patience” and “inactive hope.”

The first makes things happen while the second crosses its fingers.

Passion and purpose drive the former, warmth and whim sway the latter.

Persistent, directed action is the key ingredient in any successful journey.

Without targeted execution of strategic objectives each and every day, even the greatest organizations and people stagnate. Achievement is a fruit borne by the tree of activity. As Abraham Lincoln said,

Good things come to those who wait, but only those left over by those who hustle.

You can wait for the plane to take off and–eventually it will…probably…maybe–or rent a car and drive yourself.

There’s only one way to guarantee you’ll reach your destination.

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5 Truths for My Newborn Niece

Image Courtesy of KenRockwell.com

Yesterday, my second niece was born.

This is the first child for my youngest brother and sister-in-law, the Bay Area’s newest 20-inch long, 7-pound and 14-ounce resident. I received text messages throughout the day about how things were going, then was happy to finally see my iPhone ring with his picture and phone number on the screen.

A couple hours later, as I headed out to run, I wondered if I could come up with a list to guide her through life.

If you’ve read this blog more than once, you know I’m expressing what I see as truth through the lens of a grown man evaluating 30 years of decisions before moving into the next three decades.

What would I tell her?

1. You are a miracle.
You are the culmination of billions of perfect reactions in a precise sequence. Each one occurred in an exact manner, without fail, step by step. Every single event was extraordinary, not the least of which was your dad turning off Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and putting down the Wiimote.

2. It’s OK to fail.
Even with all your talents and capabilities, there will be times your results fall short of your expectations. You’ll skin your knee. You’ll get a bad grade on a test. Some unfortunate boy–assuming he passes Grandpa Clark’s thorough background check–will have the audacity to break your heart.

You will falter hundreds or even thousands of times before you succeed.

Learn something each time. Ignoring the lesson makes it easier to be hurt again.

3. Trust yourself.
When faced with challenges, you are the person you must rely on. You alone will reap the rewards or suffer the pain of your decisions. In those moments where your confidence wanes and fear grows, take a deep breath and remind yourself how amazing you are.

When your instincts tell you to go one way, pay attention. Unbridled and lasting joy is a good indicator of the quality of your choices. Live in the “irrational” area where buoyant mind and exultant love reign.

A full life comes from your head and heart working together instead of being at war.

4. Anything is possible.
Your great-grandparents wrote letters that reached a destination across town in days.

Your grandparents connected with people on the other side of the country by phone in minutes.

Your parents communicated by sending emails across the planet in seconds.

All his happened simply because someone thought it could, then expended the energy to make it so.

5. Faith means believing before seeing.
Over and over again, you’ll encounter situations contradicting what you hold as truth. Whether it’s something as trivial as the integrity of your favorite pop star or as overwhelming as the existence of a loving God, steadfast alignment of your actions and ideals–until proven false beyond doubt–will leave you satisfied regardless of the outcome.

Finally, my dear, remember this when you wake up: you are alive and loved.

It will be true every day of your life.

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There are crucial moments when you must embrace new information regardless of how nonsensical it seems.

The very enlivening of our souls is bent upon eschewing reason when passion necessitates it, stepping into the breach armed only with the sword of faith in a larger purpose that, in its grandness, is so ineffable as to be nearly irrational. These are the truths of which Aquinas writes, those which are felt instead of spoken and believed before they are seen.

And, that is how they save us.

The change can be instantaneous as a lightning bolt or progressive like the rising sun. Bubbling up from the seas of your subconscious, they animate your body and energize your mind. Your physical and mental postures change, bolstered by assured clarity and sharp focus.

Finally! THIS is my guiding idea, my central purpose! I am no longer lost!

At this moment, you are certainly saved. The aimless wandering has ended. Though there is much yet to be done, for the first time in a long time–maybe ever–a confident, determined calmness prevails. Gone are the questions and doubts and fears. You are at the point where “before” ends and “after” begins.

You are whole. You stride forward purposefully with a brain unburdened by misguided intentions and a heart swollen by gratitude.

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St. Thomas Aquinas

Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.

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