CHAPTER 26
TIME FOR CHANGE: NOW OR LATER.
You might have heard people talk about waiting patiently for God’s time. Every religion tends to portray God’s time in a future sense. It is common to hear people say “God will do it in his time” or “I’m waiting upon God to help me”. We often neglect the possibilities of “now” and throw our hands up to the future waiting for a supernatural help and remaining in the same position.
Even amongst people of little or no spiritual attributes, there is a strong tendency towards waiting. Everyone tends to look at the future in hope. Our strong allegiance and reference to God while it is a great attribute, has blinded our eyes to possibilities that are part of everyday life.
It isn’t wrong to hope. Hope is a great attribute. It helps us feed the future with so much to do. However, our weak characteristics now allow for mediocrity. Rather than work towards achieving our goals and dreams, we leave them to hope and God’s time.
It is saddening to note that our generation is increasingly failing to act even when acting is very possible. Because we push the present to the future, the kind of change that has to happen now eludes us. We fane strong spirituality when what we are suffering from is laziness and mediocrity.
The kind of future we want is the measure of the present we act. Our faith in God is a present faith not a future one. Our tenacious believe is not a future one, It is one which has capacity for a present impact. What this means is that while we pray so hard in expectation of the better life, the better life is us acting in the present too.
Every one anticipates change, most of all positive change. Your present state may not be the best state yet and you see it changing in the right time. Well, the good news is, the right time is when you choose to make of it.
“Now” has the capacity to enforce the expected. God’s time is when you are ready. It’s the time you accept to act in the direction of the change you desire. Think of a student who has the desire to turn his failure woes while sitting at the bottom of the class, to the number one student in class. That’s a whole lot of change. He can pray and hope on God but he will have to act in the direction of his goal by studying as a student who wants to be top of the class. He would have to watch what the top students are doing and do same.
Practically, our capacity to pray may give us spiritual insight and direction but it all falls on us acting in the direction of our prayers, else we may only have hope of a better future or situation but never reaching there.
You might have heard of very spiritual students who were very hopeful of attaining a goal but fell short of it because they slept after their prayers when they should have been working. It turns out that when they fail, they blame it on God. They are wrong. They were only mediocre.
The bridge between what we want and the present time is “act now.” It will be foolhardy to think that what we want will automatically come in the right time. You can choose to wait in anticipation of the time but the time may just come and pass you by. It is when you act presently and continuously that the time arrives to bring your actions to limelight.
Many a musical icon would tell you they had always pictured themselves as icons in their dreams. Some of them became celebrities only after years of churning out series of albums that had gone unnoticed. They were not sleeping on their musical talent. They kept at their songs till time caught up with them in the studio singing.
So now, you can hope for big things, hope for special things, hope for great things but they won’t come automatic however hard you believe in God. They will come when you act with your believe. They come when you accept that what you want can be gotten now and you act in such a manner as to get it now.
The time for change is your choice too. It’s not left to God or some spiritual force. It’s the two working at par.