Between courage & fear, being lost & being found there lies a phenomenal force that binds everything together, that is love.
Without love; we cannot adequately understand our purpose in life, what we have been called for. We cannot even begin to get a sense of the horizons, our inner boundaries that need to be extended for us to fulfill our dreams. Let’s face it what you want ie: your dream requires a better you than you are at this moment.
It needs someone who can control their emotions; someone who can withstand common parlance, who can accept common things without ever indulging them, without compromising your own inner peace.
Let me give you an example: when you want to open up a construction company– you first want to expose yourself to the field. Eventually you find a mentor, highly successful in the industry. You are absolutely amazed by the way he thinks, his discipline, and goal-setting. He seems like all you would ever want to be in the construction field.
Suddenly you discover that he wins all his tenders/contracts by greasing the right palms. “What!” you exclaim, “he makes his money through corruption.”
You are left feeling disappointed, maybe even a little angry. You wish you could have known sooner. After cooling off, you confront him about it, and he says,”You won’t survive this industry without bribing.” He brings to you a compelling argument of why you need to do this if you want to remain in construction. By this time you are in too deep to turn back and find another field. What are you going to do?
1) are you going to walk away with bitterness against this guy?
2) are you going to just decide to be corrupt as well simply because everyone else is doing it?
These are binding situations, proving to be moral questions. Of course, you should choose to not be corrupt. But now how else can you do it? Does this then override the experience you have gotten from your mentor, whom you now no longer respect and have completely written-off?
Well I’m going to say that you will not be able to learn from his experience if you are still judging him for the poor choices he has made. I’m saying to you also that your ability to see beyond his shortcoming will largely be determined by whether you choose to love or hate him. You see hating what he does, does not imply hating him.
Love is a conscious choice, we choose to make. It brings us peace and authentic living.
By this I’m saying to you that your dream may demand of you to come across characters, and things that seem to be in common parlance. Of which you have to say no to them. But just because you have said no, it does not mean rejecting them altogether. In fact finding ways to overcome, pressing ahead is what life may be challenging you to do.
Remember also that if everyone is corrupt in the construction industry, you yourself will be accused of being corrupt when you have become successful in the field. What are you going to do then? Are you going to still love (to be rooted and secured in love) while confronting accusations? You may even be hated, the media may demand that investigations be carried against you. Are you still gonna walk in love, secured and rooted in it.
Amidst the pressure and stress, are you gonna go home and love you wife, give her a massage, and put your kids to bed?