Keep the Faith

Based on my experience, I believe that most opportunities are disguised as obstacles. I managed to recognize and benefit from them sometimes, and probably have totally missed them on others.

The precision with which a series of events have happened in one of my good friend's life in the recent past, made me believe that the Divine has created him all the right conditions, and is telling him pursue bigger and better things. I am writing this post (as always) wishing him the very best.

Here is a relevant story from Pastor Joel Olsteen's Sermon at Lakewood Church (that I watched on TV).

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost.

He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, "God! How could you do this to me?" Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island!

It had come to rescue him! "How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

Moral of the Story:

It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad or things have caused undue stress, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain, suffering, or stress. Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.

On reading a quote from the Bible on my blog last year, one of my childhood buddies (and a distant relative) wondered about my reason for quoting Bible, when so much wisdom is available in Hinduism.

My answer is, if we find some water when we are really thirsty, we probably will not be finicky and try to find if it was extracted from an aquifer or river of our choice. If it looks good and tastes good, we would gladly quench our thirst with it. Finally, I love the following song.