Do you want to test your commitment to a process? How about completing the nine-day Simbang Gabi this Christmas season? - Daily Reflections December 17,2014

SUCCESS IS A PROCESS

 

It is common knowledge that Thomas Alva Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors of the 19th and 20th centuries. To his name is credited more than 1,000 patented inventions, the most famous of which is the electric light bulb. A story goes that when Thomas Alva Edison presented to the public his newest invention called the light bulb, a reporter asked him, “ How do you feel that you failed a thousand times before you perfected the light bulb?” Edison responded, “I did not fail. It’s just that the invention of the light bulb is a one-thousand-step process.”

         What is not common knowledge is that Thomas Edison did not invent things swiftly. When he wanted to discover something, he’d begin by reading up everything that had been done along that line in the past. He’d gather data from many thousands of experiments as a starting point, and then he’d make thousands more. Edison was committed to his vision.

         Now listen to what Matthew says about God and His commitment to His vision of salvation: “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah” (v. 17). Don’t read today’s Gospel as simply a list of meaningless names. It took God three sets of 14 generations to carry out His plan of salvation. The long period of time is not about God’s failure. It is about God’s patience with frail humanity — God patiently redoing what man undoes with his stupidity, offering again and again His vision of salvation. That is commitment to vision. But more than that, God was committed to the process that will realize His vision.

         The genealogy reminds us that salvation is not an event but a process. And success is determined not so much by commitment to a vision as to a process. The problem is, most of us are committed to a vision but hardly to the process. Whether it be in everyday life or in the spiritual life, it is our commitment to the process that will carry us through. Fr. Joel Jason

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Do you want to test your commitment to a process? How about completing the nine-day Simbang Gabi this Christmas season?

 

Grant me patience and perseverance, Lord, in attaining Your vision for me. Help me not to give up when the road seems rough.