Principles – “Be prepared to face the currents” – 12/12/2015

   Life goes by and years are passing, some of them leave signs in our life and others that leave only white hair. I am going to discuss a topic we regularly talk about when we end a year and get prepared for the coming one , it is about “Preparation”. I chose to talk about it many days before New Year’s Eve thus we have a chance to reflect on our life from all its sides. It is good to be prepared and when I think about preparation I find it a life principle we should all adhere to.
Be prepared to face life challenges as we experience that life is not easy but it is like the sea. Sometimes it’s rough and its turbulent storms may mercilessly throw you away, other times it is quiet and lovely, thus you should always be ready to face whatever problems and difficulties you may face, try to solve and get over them and keep going. As we know, quiet sea doesn’t make an excellent sailor and easy life doesn’t make a mature experienced person. As they say “A man doesn’t make life unless life makes him a man.”Let me say that life makes a person a true man through difficulties and problems.
   Thus, when facing currents, be like coffee. I recall a story of a girl who was complaining about difficulties of life. Her mother put before her 3 pots, the first contains a carrot, the second contains an egg, and the third contains coffee. After they were put in boiled water, the carrot became soft, the egg became stiff inside, but coffee changed water and gave it a special flavor. This is as similar to problems as its effect depends on the person himself. Don’t surrender to the problem, but rather face it bravely .It will be far better if you get more experience of life because of it. Albert Einstein said about the concept of facing problems “It‘s not that I‘m so smart, it‘s just that I stay with problems longer.”. Be courageous, bravery is the outcome of being ready to face whatever obstacles can be found and being steadfast before them.
   Be ready to be a unique person in all life arenas , you may find it hard and other may not understand you, but your strength springs out from your inner self and your faith in what you do. You have to trust yourself and be able to go on making chances of progress in life and not waiting for the chance to come before you. As life may goes by while you are waiting. Thus, it is said that some are swimming toward the ship, while others waste their time waiting for it. To be continued…

Anba Ermiah,
General Bishop& President of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center