Sunday, September 21, 2008

Living Contented Or Living With A Purpose

I had a friend who would constantly remind me to do my best, push myself to my limits giving my all in whatever I do. I firmly believed in that and encouraged my friend to do the same. But at that point in time, I was so clueless on what to do to the extent of not even knowing what my goal in life was. So I thought about it for a very long moment, considering all the values and lessons I have learnt in life to come up with a dream which I could present to my friend. Or at least allow me to have some aim in my life at that point of time. It was difficult for I have lost all my childhood dreams after realizing all my shortcomings throughout my stages in life.

It is amazing to see how easily people are able to lose their dreams after realizing their own restrictions may it be financially, intellectually, physically, emotionally, and sometimes in terms of education. People simply just give up when they find out that their big dream is sad to say, close to impossible. Society often encourage us to dream big, but when we start having dreams of epic proportions reality starts to kick in and then they’ll say “ok, slow down there, not so far off, perhaps a little more close to earth?” Or, perhaps it’s just me…

But somewhere along those lines, I had already lost my dreams in life. I was just waiting on God to instruct me on my next move. Earnestly waiting doing pretty much nothing but gratifying myself temporarily because I was so lost, and thus the name Wandering Minstrel.

One can say that I am a person without dreams, having the mentality of crossing the bridge when I come to it. I can see that it was not very assuring for my friend when I said I do not have a dream. So after a long duration of critical thinking, I finally concluded that living up to my name is my dream. Although it was still very unclear what my dream actually is, at least I have something to work on…

Kind of… Until now…

My dream is clear, I have my focus, and I know what I want in life. But it is hard to share it with others; it is just too big for them to comprehend…

I know of a very God loving and contented person, he is simple, lives a simple life, keeps simple goals, and have simple ideals but are founded firmly on God’s word. Even though I am not without God, my beliefs are usually at a conflict with him. I had a conversation with him regarding investments and how to become wealthy (In Robert Kiyosaki’s definition in the book Rich Dad Poor Dad), and yet again we had different thoughts.

So I have some questions that are related to the Bible: God promises that He will provide, and He says that we should let tomorrow’s worries worry about tomorrow.

My questions are: Didn’t God give us intellect? Didn’t God give us the ability to perform our duties? Is it wrong to do the best that we can do by our own capacity and then let God do the rest? Is it wrong to invest with the money that we have to give us additional funding when it is also within our capacity? Most importantly, is investing considered worrying for our future? Or is planning considered worrying for our future?

I don’t know, but in my opinion, if God wishes, He can allow our investments to grow or take it away whenever He wants. I want to be like the two servants in the parable of the talents, who multiplied the talents which the master gave them. Not just in the area of finance, but also in the area of my personal growth. If I want to be successful, I will have to mingle with successful people, if I want to be a leader, I will have to mingle with leaders. These people have the right characteristics that I look for, they have the right attitude. No, not just that, they have the winning attitude that motivates and gives the drive to achieve the impossible. That is what I want…

No longer will I conform to the ideals of a contented man, living day by day perfectly well adapted with his comfort zone. That was how I was, but it got me nowhere. Now that I have found my direction, I will pursue it until God says otherwise.

May God so help me...

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