On Life 6 – the Lamp – December, 27, 2013

   On life and its school, we started our talk till we tackled the point that our life mistakes are lessons we should learn to overcome the next obstacles. We spoke about the man whose mistake caused his company to pay a lot of money; when he was ready to meet his manager; resignation was at his mind trying to say how he will say this. After he stood in front of the manager until he began apologizing for the mistake he caused, he explained the reasons that led him to make this decision, and that he realized his wrong decision as it was based on one view that did not take into account some other aspects. He ended his speech by asking for resignation because his decisions brought loss to the company. The manager was listening, but when the young man announced his decision to submit his resignation, he said: Are you really serious about resigning, after the company incurred this high amount of money of your education?!

   Then he continued: “It has already caused a great loss that could have been avoided, but this mistake has been a lesson to teach you in the future how to deal with problems, and how to make the right decision. So how come after the company has incurred the price of what you learned, you will leave your place?! It was the manager’s point of view that the mistake the young man made in his work is only a lesson he learnt, and his company paid for teaching him such lesson which will undoubtedly benefit him and then the company in the future.

   So consider every mistake you make in your life as a new experience you add to your days so it give them a new meaning, and this experience is undoubtedly better than “nothing” for those who do not do anything! Some say, “A life with mistakes is much better than a life that ends without doing anything in it.”

   Also, you ought to learn from the mistakes of those around you; as they are lessons in the school of life. Those who wish to achieve progress in their path ought to learn from everything they experience in their lives, and also from the mistakes of those who walk with them on the way to gain experience to add to his.

   And some believe that to make a mistake in life, this is failure, so he stays on the margins, and try not to learn or experience anything again, this topic is what I liked about what the inventor “Thomas Edison” in his invention of the electrical lamp that lit the world. The idea of ​​this invention began when his mother was seriously ill, the doctor had her to undergo an immediate operation, but the night had fallen and there was not enough light to conduct the operation, which forced him to wait till sunrise!!

   Edison began his attempts to invent the lamp and each time he met failure till he tried for 99 times. But he said after every attempt that he proved that he had not failed, but had discovered unsuccessful attempts to reach to the invention he dreamt of.

   He did not call his attempts, ‘failed’ but” ‘unsuccessful’ till he succeeded on New Year’s eve and light has continued till the break of dawn of the first day of 1880.On life we are to sail on words…

General Bishop

Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center