In my journey, I am now being asked to do some things not only secularly within the Call Center industry here in the Philippines, but also within the publishing industry. My hope is to be salt and light in the world, in the market place. In order to be effective, I cannot be outwardly evangelistic. Below is an ariticle I wrote for a journal designed for college students. I know some people do not understand this approach, but please pray for me as I attempt to inspire this generation in creative ways, to think about and seek after God.
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“Good Karma”
We live in an age where language has become more
flexible, more adaptable, less specific but at the same time more impacting
through creativity… We freely and
intentionally break the rules of language in order to make our point clearer
and stronger. It is actually becoming
hard to determine what good sentence structure or grammar is anymore as the
languages of the world continue to progress, or according to many opinions,
digress. Personally, I love it. I love words and the power of them. I love the fact that we can be free in our
linguistics in a way that we can make a powerful impression with our words,
though we would have achieved an F in class.
And languages and concepts are now blending. In Asia, we have “Taglish”, “Singlish” and
others, there is British English, Australian English American English and
more… there really is even Filipino
English, Korean English, Thai English and more.
Just about every country which has embraced English now has their own
version where some of the same words have differing meanings from country to
country and culture to culture. It can
get confusing if you don’t pay attention, but I find it fascinating. Because when you know the way a person
speaks, you know more about the way they think.
For my subject today, I want to take the word “Karma”
which traditionally comes from East Indian and Chinese roots. www.M-W.com defines KARMA as “the force generated by a person's actions held in
Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical
consequences to determine the nature of the person's next existence.”
I find in the Western world that the idea of
Karma has become so popular that it is literally all over television and the
bookstores are filled with hundreds, if not thousands of books loosely based on
the topic. But where in Hinduism and
Buddhism, Karma is more about the ramification of a persons actions affecting
their “next life” as those religions believe exist, most people try to use
Karma to affect a person’s near term consequences also referred to by many as
blessings. In most Christian traditions,
the followers believe that they can by performing good deeds, improve their
life now and increase their “chances” in the after-life. Christians often refer to this concept as the
principle of sowing and reaping, which is farming terminology. Whatever “seed” (deed) you “sow” into the
ground (work you do), care for, water, etc., then it will grow and you will
eventually end up able to “reap” it (harvest it), thereby benefitting from your
previous effort.
Whether the idea of Karma or of Sowing and
Reaping, neither has to do with fate or luck, but they do have plenty to do
with destiny. What we need to remember
about destiny is that for the most part, outside of whatever divine
intervention you may believe in, you make your own destiny. So, how’s your KARMA? In other words, how are you doing, working on
your destiny?
Many people that I know when they speak of a
successful person with a hint of jealousy often refer to them as lucky or they
make some kind of an excuse as to why that person is successful and the one
speaking, possibly, is not. A friend of
mine who dropped out of medical school always speaks negatively of
doctors. He says, “they came from rich
families, they are more favored, they are lucky,” etc. But at the end of the day, every doctor that
I know had to sacrifice and work hard to get to where they are today. Of course they have talent, ability and
opportunity, but the point is that it wasn’t fate or luck. They are where they are today because they
took the resources and opportunities that they had and made the best of
them. I was at a Doctor’s office last
week and the two Doc’s who share the same office had their diploma’s on the wall
in the waiting area. One graduated from
Stanford University in California. One
of the finest, most famous Medical School’s in the world. It obviously cost his family a small fortune
to send him there. I believe that he
probably was born with a golden spoon in his mouth (that means he was a high
class baby). The other graduated from a
local University in the Philippines. If
you are not from the Philippines, you likely have never heard of it. He probably had a silver spoon in his mouth
growing up (middle class)… Or maybe a
wooden spoon (low class)… But today,
they earn and are respected about the same.
My point is this. They both made
the best of their situations, they both worked hard, and today in modern use of
language, they both have “Good Karma.”
They achieved this by working hard.
They made their own destiny!
Once when I was in a desperate financial
situation, just the right amount of money came from an anonymous source. It really blew my mind! But later, I found out that it came from
someone who I had years earlier, helped financially while he was a young
student. Was it Karma? Was it sowing and Reaping? Yes!
Because I had done something good in the past, something good happened
to me in the future! And that really is
how life often works!
We make the most of every opportunity to help
people, to work hard, to improve others lives and to improve ourselves. Later, there will be a reward. Invest in the lives of others and in your
future liberally and generously my friends!
Then you too, in the modern use of the word, will experience “Good
KARMA!!!”
So if you see me on the street and ask me, “do
you believe in Karma?” My answer will
be, “I’m not a Hindu, but if you mean that if I do something productive today,
I will benefit from it later, then the answer is YES, I believe in Karma!”
