Last week, someone close to me told me that I needed to better my exterior life. I've been comfortable of my bed, books, silence and alone moments. I look forward for it every single day after work. This is what introverts want.
This is not easy for me. Things like introducing myself to new people, attending socials, initiating conversation, approaching people who seems to be very outgoing, in short what extroverts are natural of, are my awkward moments. And somebody says, maybe that's what you can offer in this Lent season.
Lent season offers up new opportunities to change ourselves, to desire not to stop at being good but to strive to be better and eventually be the best version of ourselves.
Sometimes, it become our preference to stay at where we are because we feel good and comfortable. Even more so, we don't see any compelling reason why go to the other side of the river. And if we don't strive to sail to the other side, we don't realize we are stuck. Most of the times, a turning point in our life is needed to push us to say yes to sailing and leave the comfortable side of the river.
As a human, I am convinced that we have the obligation to ourselves and to others, not to stay at where we are because if we do it, we are not able to give what is due to ourselves and people around us. We cannot serve the justice of our human nature.
As a Christian, I am convinced that we are to strive for holiness every single day. There are many moments of everyday life that we are given the opportunity to say yes to God and no to ourselves. From the time we wake up in the morning up to the time we go to our daily work up to the setting of ourselves at rest at night. God is gracious to give us many opportunities to be holy and if we fail, opportunities to amend and go back again to holiness.
There are also thoughts that will bring us into question that why we strive while others are just so easy with life. When this thought come to you, remember that first we cannot judge other people because most of the times we don't fully know the thoughts of their mind and the works of their hands and second, it's not a good spend of energy to compare our lives or efforts to others because we all walk or run in different tracks.
If you are the person who think that you are already in a good and comfortable side of the river, pray to God to tell you where is the other side of the river and pray to God to give you the desire to go there.
If you are the person who have been told that you need to explore the other side of the river, pray to God to give you humility to accept your new adventure no matter how difficult it is and pray to God to give you the strength to carry on and the joy to sustain you in the adventure. Ask God to gear you up.
If you are the person who are already in the adventure in the other side of the river, pray to God that your senses are open to learn from every step of the adventure, pray that the learning will not be only a mere learning but will lead you to conversion and transformation. Every life adventure has a goal to change and make us better. That is the reason why it was given to us. Ask God to help you carry out this transformation. If you struggle because you fail to better yourself or you fail to get the lesson and so your boat was turned upside down, ask God to help you in your drowning and struggling. Call for help and keep on holding to Him. Let the tears fall down and grip at the rope until you're back again at the boat. Continue to sail again with renewed strength.
If you are the person who have finished the sailing to the other side of the river, offer up the fruits of your conversion and transformation to God. Raise your hands to the sky and thank God. Savor the sweet life moments and keep the better you. Pray that your better self will be a fresh offering first to God, to others and to yourself.
As you are now in the other side of the river, ask God to lead you again to the better side of the river. By getting to all the rivers of life, we get the new and unique freshness of the waters in each river which can lead us in satisfying our longing for purpose and meaning. Being in the best version of ourselves is an adventure of a lifetime. This exciting adventure is a gift to ourselves, to others and most especially to God.
I'm sailing to the other side of the river. In my journey, I've connected with new people and will continue to do. I hope that those connections will be meaningful and helpful to them. As for me, I hope that I will be able to offer a better version of myself to God, to others and to myself. No other way I can spend my finite life than being in that way.
Photo taken while walking in Mckinley road. One lovely late afternoon while sun is setting in and this eager biker keeping his wheels.
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