Sufficient for each day is its own trouble …

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” ~ Mother Teresa ~
Mother Teresa’s words reflect a life lived in the moment and such a life orientation can seem strange and even ill advised to the serious, planning, in-control professional business person. We are taught and encouraged to plan and execute, to visualize and strategize in all things professional. Plan your work and work your plan - right?

Something in our hearts is drawn to Mother Teresa’s words and we know deep down that it is right and good. One cannot deny that Mother Teresa lived a life of high impact and the difference between her and, say, a die hard professional business achiever can be summed up in her goal orientation. The world generally rejects wisdom such as Mother Teresa’s or writes it off as good advice for those "in ministry", wonderful anecdotal spice for a greeting card - heedful for those disconnected from the “real” and more important and more “desperate” work at hand. Her wisdom may present as impractical. And so, lifestyle statements such as Mother Teresa’s largely go un-reconciled as we move on with our business until the circumstances of our lives bring us back to them.

Mother Teresa tells this story;
"When once a chairman of a multinational company came to see me, to offer me a property in Bombay, he first asked: ‘Mother, how do you manage your budget?" I asked him who had sent him here. He replied: ‘I felt an urge inside me.’ I said: other people like you come to see me and say the same. It was clear God sent you, Mr. A, as He sends Mr. X, Mrs. Y, Miss Z, and they provide the material means we need for our work. The grace of God is what moved you. You are my budget. God sees to our needs, as Jesus promised. I accepted the property he gave and named it Asha Dan (Gift of Hope)."
Did Mother Teresa have NO plans? Of course she had plans. But she did not invest time or energy worrying about them. The chairman’s question about budgets comes from a heart in need of control over uncertainty, doubt and trepidation. Outcome control. Mother Teresa refused to live with such anxiety – turning it over to God’s providence. What a luxury - eh? One must ask if this only works for Godly projects and, if so, are our projects, our lives and our businesses un-Godly? Not necessarily.

Come to think of it, if you examine a bit closer you will discern that, while a “live in the moment” mindset involves a healthy measure of trust, relinquishing of control, patience and confidence, it is not at all a “wait and see and hope” approach to life. Indeed it very much requires a “carpe diem”, tremendously adaptive, agile and change-ready constitution. Practical but not for the faint of heart. For a scorekeepers approach to a life of faith in the moment that any Accountant would endorse, read about the life of George Mueller some time.

Take a turn back in time with me for a moment to February 1862. The American Civil War is raging. President Lincoln has lost friends and colleagues to the war and now he loses his 11 year old son “Willie” to typhoid. Nothing is going right. In that vulnerable moment of grief and despair the President’s perspective of control is rocked. Historians say that the words of a Presbyterian Minister, Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, at Willie’s funeral penetrate the heart of an already reverent Lincoln. In his eulogy Gurley says, “In the hour of trial one must look to Him who sees the end from the beginning and who doeth all things well.” Lincoln asks for a copy of the eulogy. Shortly thereafter he writes the Emancipation Proclamation and the moral trajectory of our country, and it's greatness amongst nations takes a decidedly positive turn upward thereafter. God has plans.

The tide of our times takes us with great velocity into vast mazes of information and opinion, greater interconnectedness and a consciousness of myriad potential outcomes. Such a frenzy of information can drown us in a cocktail of variables, fear factors and imaginings that can paralyze even the stoutest of souls. Ironically, it is from that same cloud of swirling chaotic uncertainty and uncontrollable variables from which unforeseen opportunities come.

Mother Teresa was an opportunist! Let that sink in.

Not long ago, in meditation, these words came to me which I wrote in my journal; “You are being taught humility, patience, to depend on Me, to hear Me when I whisper to you. Do what is before you. Not for any end that it may represent but for what you will discover along the way. Nothing you are doing is for waste. Do it. Experience it. Explore, discover and express who you are. This is the adventure! I will keep you along the way. Be anxious for nothing. Let opportunity present itself. Seize it when it does. Rest in this.”
Funny how life sometimes puts a string of related pearls before us – to consider. Oh, that we would be of a mind and heart in the moment to recognize these strings of wisdom so expertly crafted and personalized for each of us and so gently and unobtrusively dangled before us as if to say – “this can be yours – put these on - you are worthy of them”.

Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not yet come, pause and be still, stand firm in the torrent of the nervous frenzy around you and contemplate.

All the best!
Bill