This article was one i did a while back. It ended up in the Oklahoma Christian News. Check it out.
I recently sat down and thought about my full life in general and that of everything and everyone around me. I looked at the small struggles we all go through each day. We constantly face ups and downs in our daily lives, and the only variation from person to person is in the proportion of up to down.
What can we do to thrive in a dog-eat-dog society? Do those around us, the tragedies we face, or the luck we encounter define our destiny, or do our very hands shape it?
A sculptor sits down and moulds his sculpture. What is the determining factor in how good or bad the sculpture becomes? He is inspired by what he sees in his environment but it is his hand that shapes the sculpture. So it is with us: our hands shape our destiny.
First of all, we need to believe in ourselves. It is important that we are very confident, for only then can we still have the energy to move on when faced with the worst situations. When we are low in faith and confidence, we give way to fear, pessimism and desperation.
These are cancers that can let us down. We must let go of them and take charge of our current situation. The above cancers result from either of these two things: past regrets and future worries. They result from worrying about the future (a future we can never know and are never sure about). When we have so much hope and so many expectations about what the future holds, we begin to worry about how we can bring it to fruition. An artist making a sculptor doesn’t focus on how many grand paintings he is going to make, but instead focuses on the sculpture at hand.
Do we ever stop to think about the fact that we may not even be a part of that future we talk about? We cannot control our destiny in this world of a million twists and turns. When we believe in the future we start worrying because the future does not lie in our hands. This worry, in turn, leads to fear, pessimism and/or desperation that definitely leave us none the better.
When we let in any of these cancers, we lose our way. Our success is limited to what we can do - now - with our own hands, and this is what we should focus on.
The second cause is our worry about the past. We sometimes feel unable to do something because we have previously failed to do that same thing or “we are just having a bad day.” To what extent does a past experience affect your success in the goals you set for yourself? What you did only affects you as much as you allow it.
Deep within all of us lies the ability to transcend all past mistakes. What matters is if we can put all that happened behind us, learn from our past mistakes and move on. Even if we feel pessimistic or weak because of what happened, we need to pick up the pieces and move on! If we move on and let go of our past burdens, we can succeed in conquering the struggles lying before us. A sculptor uses his hands to mould his current painting because worrying about what he did some time back does him or her no good.
All in all, we need to always be confident in ourselves and use our hands to make the best of our circumstances. It matters not what may have happened or what may lie ahead. The secret to our success is in what lies before us today. Should the sculptor feel sad about how poor his paintings have been or think about his next painting when what matters right now is the painting he is working on?
Every time has its own joy and sadness, and we must live each in its proper time. There is nothing better than using our God-given hands to make a better today! What matters at this moment is what lies in your hands. When you do what you are supposed to, and in do it in its own time, you have succeeded for that moment. Success is not a destination, but a continually varying achievement for a specific time frame…and your hands make it possible.
So dear reader, please remember your success is determined by your own hands, and nothing else.
Timothy Kaboya is an international student from Rwanda, majoring in computer engineering at Oklahoma Christian University.
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