Archbishop’s Pause for Thought message

nativity scene:KT Bruce

(The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has spoken on BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought programme to reassure listeners that however imperfect or ‘messy’ their Christmasses may be, God will still be there for them.)

You know how every year you say, 'This year I'm going to get Christmas sorted out. I'll have the cards written by December the first and I'll work our properly what we can afford and do the presents in time, and I'll know exactly how many people are coming for meals and when, and...'all the rest of it. Lurking somewhere in our minds is the idea of the Perfect Christmas (probably with snow, only not the kind that closes down airports and messes up our travel plans).

And every year, mysteriously, all our plans seem to evaporate and it's the usual mess, with all the last minute panic. There'll be a good few people concerned just now about what they can afford for a start.

Yet it's odd in a way, this business of Perfect Christmasses. The story of the first Christmas is the story of a series of completely unplanned, messy events – a surprise pregnancy, an unexpected journey that's got to be made, a complete muddle over the hotel accommodation when you get there...Not exactly a perfect holiday.

But it tells us something really vital. We try to plan all this stuff and stay in charge, and too often (especially with advertisers singing in our ears the whole time) we think that unless we can cook the perfect dinner, plan the perfect wedding, organise the perfect Christmas, we somehow don't really count or we can't hold our heads up.

But in the complete mess of the first Christmas, God says, 'Don't worry – I'm not going to wait until you've got everything sorted out perfectly before I get involved with you. I'm already there for you in the middle of it all, and if you just let yourself lean on me a bit instead of trying to make yourself and everything around you perfect by your own efforts, everyone will feel a little more of my love flowing'.

I'm never sure whether to wish anyone a peaceful Christmas, because it hardly ever is. But I can wish you joy in the midst of the mess, and every blessing from the God of ordinary, untidy, surprising things.

source: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2283/archbishops-pause-for-thought-message

KNOWING WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW

There are four clear states of knowledge and understanding in which you can find yourself.

1. You know something and know that you know it. 

2. You know something, but you don't know you know it. 

3. You don't know something, but you don't know that you don't know it. 

4. You don't know something, but you know that you don't know it. 

All of us live part of our personal and professional lives in each of there areas at one time or another. They each have their advantages and disadvantages. If you know something and know that you know it you can act with confidence and profit from the experience; however. it is important to not rest in this knowledge as the state of the art will always change, and the rate of change is accelerating daily. People who know a computer program and knows that they know it will be forced to upgrade their skills as new generations of software are developed, or they will be left behind.

All of us from time to time, know something but don't know that we know it. This is caused by a lack of perspective. There is probably a piece of property near where you live that you have driven by countless times. Then, all of a sudden, it becomes extremely valuable and is developed in such a way that the owner or speculator profit greatly. If you will look back at the situation, you may realize that, had you thought about it from a different perspective, you knew - or at least should have known-that that property would increase in value. You simply didn't compile the knowledge in such a way that you could recognize the value and act upon it. 

The most dangerous people in the world are those who don't know something but they don't realize that they don't know it. These are the people who go through life and fall into every pitfall and obstacle along the way. They think they know it all, but in reality, they only learn from the mistakes that their ignorance causes them to make. They are over-confident, and you simply can't tell them anything. The best you can do for them is to stand back and help pick them up after the inevitable crash and burn. 

The greatest potential is held by those people who don't know something but understand that they don't know it. This is a powerful concept that they can understand that there is something they don't know and recognize that they need to know it. These individuals rarely make mistakes, and they are always growing and developing. The world doesn't belong to them yet, but it probably will someday. 

As you go through you day today, act on the things you know and build on the things you don't know. 

source: Excerpt from the book "Today's the Day, Jim Stovall, 2007 

2011 Christmas

The Ten Happiest Jobs

1.  Clergy:  The least worldly are reported to be the happiest of all

2. Firefighters: Eighty percent of firefighters are “very satisfied” with their jobs, which involve helping people.

3. Physical therapists: Social interaction and helping people apparently make this job one of the happiest.

4. Authors: For most authors, the pay is ridiculously low or non-existent, but the autonomy of writing down the contents of your own mind apparently leads to happiness.

5.  Special education teachers: If you don’t care about money, a job as special education teacher might be a happy profession. The annual salary averages just under $50,000.

6. Teachers: Teachers in general report being happy with their jobs, despite the current issues with education funding and classroom conditions. The profession continues to attract young idealists, although fifty percent of new teachers are gone within five years.

7. Artists: Sculptors and painters report high job satisfaction, despite the great difficulty in making a living from it.

8. Psychologists: Psychologists may or may not be able to solve other people’s problems, but it seems that they have managed to solve their own.

9. Financial services sales agents: Sixty-five percent of financial services sales agents are reported to be happy with their jobs. That could be because some of them are clearing more than $90,000 dollars a year on average for a 40-hour work week in a comfortable office environment.

10. Operating engineers: Playing with giant toys like bulldozers, front-end loaders, backhoes, scrapers, motor graders, shovels, derricks, large pumps, and air compressors can be fun.  With more jobs for operating engineers than qualified applicants, operating engineers report being happy.

source: Steve Denning, Contributor; http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/09/12/the-ten-happiest-jobs/

"GIVENS"

It will not, it should not, it must not - but the real thing is, it happen. It’s given.

I noticed myself quite emotional watching the last friday episode (Sept 30,2011) of 100 days to heaven aired by ABS-CBN. The dialogue between Sophia ( Jodi Sta. Maria) and Anna ( Coney Reyes) was so realistic and so real that it truly captured my emotion. I was surprised with my own uncontrollable reaction knowing for a fact that I don’t have any similar experience like that of Sophia.   “Sino ba ako?” Sino ba mga magulang ko? Bakit nila ako ipinamigay na parang tuta? – Such lines evoked in me the desire to write this simple enlightenment which emanates from a disturbed emotion.  

What truly disturbed me was the thought that many young, innocent individuals who have been desperately searching for their own identity because of some conflicting realities – be it a marital conflict, unwanted pregnancies which resulted to adoption, economic inability for child rearing or from any other unthinkable circumstances.  In Anna’s case, it was a desperate move to hide her incapacity to handle a painful love affair, which in effect, resulted to a lifelong separation.

How many of our brethren who are facing such scenario, how many of us who are now suffering because of some mistakes, lapses caused by unreflective decisions in life? Whatever stories we have, whatever background we came from – the truth is, this is part of who we are, this is part of the many ‘givens’ in life. All of us are born to live with the given realities in our lives no matter how painful or shameful it may be.

Together with such realization, is an invitation to be courageous in accepting that we don’t have the capacity to change what was given. To be born with the kind of parents we have, to be born as a Filipino and not as a Czech or Slovak, to be male rather than female, to be born on this century and not on the future -these are all natural realities which are part of the givens of life. If we dare to look closely to the realities of life, we would probably discover many wounding experiences endured by many because they are caught into situations that they themselves has no capacity to rectify and it gradually affect their lives even at present.

Are there still hope? YES!... – To live and accept  the many  “givens” in life but mindful that we can still do great things beyond our horizon. We may have bitter childhood upbringings, hurtful family background, but it would not deter us from moving forward - to dream for more, to search for more, and to live for more.  Accepting the ‘givens’ of life is a sign of great humility to acknowledge the fragility of human existence yet hopeful to gaze at the future.