Love Throught A Snapshot: Shot 5
Consistency.
It has been a word that has plagued me throughout my teaching career as well as a writer. It’s good for us, but we run away from like we’re a commitment-phobe to the word. It’s the reason why I have a dozen of half-baked stories in journals, some of them close to being finished but “not quite”. It’s also the reason that I would start off strong for the school year but always end up staggering in-between, creating a snowball effect of disaster by the end.
Those who master consistency in their lives are the ones who truly have inherited success: with their relationships, with their business, with their music, their art, studies, writing… everything.
For Jean, consistency has been a revolving theme with his walk with God. He was also raised Catholic just like Amy, but unlike Amy’s positive experience with her church, Jean and his parents found their church to be impersonal… God venerated in the form of mere statue and prayers spoken with the mouth but not with the heart…
His parents, along with Jean as a boy, exited the church in hopes to find the answers from God Himself.
Jean came from a humble upbringing, from well-meaning parents who lived in a village of Alsace. People content with their village lifestyle of simplicity and letting things be. Jean came from a world of love and simplicity, but one thing lacking: consistency and how to navigate in a business world.
When he went to college and began work in IT, Jean told me of the struggles. That even though his parents were generous with love, he felt lost in the maze of navigating himself in a world of business mentalities in the workforce… a stark contrast to the meadows and easygoing streams of thoughts of his village. “I was never taught…My parents didn’t know…” And I understood.
I could empathize and not just because my mother was from a village as well. It was for this reason that Jean decided to read voraciously and study the people who established fruitful habits in their lives to be a blessing to others.
“I want to reach success not for myself, but so that I can be a blessing, to be a blessing to others…”
“I want to make my parents proud. I want all of my work to be for the glory of God.”
Before some of you guys say that we shouldn’t seek success for the approval of others, if we are honest, we must realize that these intentions are pure.
It’s the dream I would often hear from my students in Arizona, Brazil, and Thailand.
Whenever I would ask my students why they wanted to be doctors or lawyers, the answers are often similar.
As much as they want to help the world…
They want to help their family.
“I want to make sure my mom has a good life.” “I don’t want my parents to have to struggle anymore…”
When Jean told me his big dreams, I tried my best not to get watery-eyed.
For that was my dream, too.
And for dreamers from “humble upbringings”, it truly is our secret treasure.
To see that our mom and dad could travel the world one day.
That we can afford to take our mothers and fathers (whether or not blood-related) to restaurants -whenever – without them worrying if it’s within the budget or cuts into grocery or money for the bills.
That you can afford to build the garden that your mother has always wanted.
That your parents no longer have to work until their arms no longer have the strength to produce the work of labor.
That you can give back 100-fold for the life that your parents gave you from the womb.
I know. Some of us don’t have parents, and yet we still seek approval.
From one dreamer to another, here is the secret.
We have to trust in God alone.
We have to trust that He is big enough to make all these things come to fruition with our dreams and with our families.
Once we have 100% trust in God, it’s on us now. No excuses. Yes – we might be at a disadvantage. We may have come from poorer families or from no family at all.
Life in the world is unfair. But we have a God that’s greater than all of the unfairness and inequality in this world. We have to be the ones that show the world that it does not define us nor who we are as God’s children.
We have to do the work. Jesus told us that:
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9:35-38).
The blessings that we seek are in the harvest. It’s in front of us. We are already blessed, but we have to work for it. If we do nothing with our blessings, then no result will come of it.
You can’t be a painter if you never pick up the brush to paint the first stroke. Without the first stroke, how will you ever create a mural?
We need to take consistent steps towards our dreams – towards our God – even if we feel and do things imperfectly. Consistent steps even when the world will try to break us. It will try. And it will be consistent.
Truly, with faith, not even the world will be able to break you from the love and dreams that are waiting for you. You need to have the faith that you are worthy to make a grab for your dreams.
And you are so worthy of your God and of your dreams.
Love Through A Snapshot
Shot 1 Shot 2 Shot 3 Shot 4 Shot 5 Shot 6
Leave a Reply