If only we could realize how our future can be better if we don't spend all that time in the present worrying about the future! All the bad things that could happen, all the good things that could fail to happen, all the ongoing things that could cease to be, we hunt these thoughts all the time... And to make it all worse, we particularly worry about things in the future that are completely out of our hands with nothing we can do about them, which distracts us from working on other things we can do lots of things about! And then when the anticipated future finally arrives, we would be experiencing another sort of pain which is far more worse than the pain of worrying about the future; that's the pain of regret. We would remember all sorts of things that we left undone or half done just because we were so busy hunting the unhuntable. At least the pain of worrying can be soothed by the hope that things might turn out in our favour after all, but the pain of regret, after the time for doing the right thing has escaped forever and there is no hope for its coming back to soothe you, that would be unbearable. If only we had seen this moment. If only we had seized the day.
Our priorities, whether we like that or not, are the things we wake up in the morning thinking about, are those we frequently dream of, are the things we spend most of our time planning or working on. They are not, contrary to what we sell ourselves, the things we name as our priorities all day to everyone. Some people can get the "thinking, doing, talking" triad straight, pull their lives together and move forward. Others think and do one thing, and convince themselves and others that they are focusing on something completely different. This way you are torn up between what you're doing and what you think you're doing, ending up arriving at nowhere at all. If only you hadn't lied to yourself at the very beginning, if only you had put first the things you really wanted to put first.
If only we could get right the balance between the right amount of self preserving next to the right amount of self sacrificing. The prevailing rule of self preserving is only broken at certain correct times, for the sake of certain people or certain principles and beliefs. At times, we get just one chance to decide when to shoot and what target to hit. Shooting at the right target at the wrong time, or the wrong target at the right time is not tolerated. That mistake means a prevailing vital rule has been violated for nothing, a lifetime thrown away for nothing. If only we had the wisdom to recognize the right time. If only we had the wisdom to recognize the right target.
If only you hadn't listened to others when they told you that you can't, that you are not strong enough to take the path you've chosen for your life. If only your will hadn't weakened, if you hadn't given in. If you had had the courage to believe that you have enough sense in you, just like them, to judge for yourself and peruse your judgement, and have used their words as the force that pushes you forwards to prove your view of your own life right, instead of allowing them to make you turn your back on your dreams and then blame them for your failure. If only you had faith, if only you had persisted.
If we could understand that the consequences of what we do in the present may not show until very late in the future. If we hadn't looked around us at all those who have won because they have chosen the wrong easy way, and thought that we've lost because we have chosen to do things the right difficult way. What seems now like their winnings will turn out some time later to be just their ruin, and your losses will turn out to have placed you where you most properly fit. If we could lead our lives with full faith that God is all justness, that we can never be punished for doing the right thing and other can never be rewarded for their wrong. If we had stood steadily, if we had trusted Him.
But it is still the present and the future is yet to come with all its possibilities and strange turns. We still have time to set things right.
No comments:
Post a Comment