Why do you think you are here?

I was searching for various things online, and I ended up at Successful Blog -> http://successful-blog.com - and while there, I searched around, and found this interesting question that interviewees get asked all the time. I have been asked that question my fair share, but I have never given it much thought outside the job scenario. The question may go something like this: Why should we hire you? or What separates you from all the other candidates that seem to be equally qualified for the position?

One way to approach the question, is to think about the things that you have or you are, that is common to all other candidates or most of them, and cross those out, and whatever remains, is what separates you from the others, good or bad. Usually people will focus on the good (because that’s what the interviewers expect). Usually.

That is about work, and the public image. How about privately? If you were to look deep inside, and try to find out why you are here, what would you come up with? Why did God find it necessary for you to be here? How would the world be different without you? How is the world different with you in it? May be those questions may be hard to answer, and they may focus on the past. How about going forward. Why should you still be here? Why should God give you another instant, second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year… to live? How would you like to be remembered when you die? How would you like your impact (i.e. past) to be when the hour comes? Answers to the last four questions may provide a platform for effective living.

I will spend sometime answering those questions. I think that if those questions are answered, applying for a job would not be just applying for a job, spending time with family would have a different meaning, etc. Life takes on new meaning. We now have different motives for our actions.

God answers both hidden and unhidden prayers

God answers many hidden (and unhidden) prayers, only if we learn to look.

Example 1:

A person, X, goes through a test for which one of the conditions for success is to be free from any life-threatening diseases. Most of the diseases being tested in this test are infectious. It will take months or years for the person to get results back as various people are testing the samples, analyzing the results, and sending their recommendation to a central unit that makes the final decision on success or failure of the test. X is worried that through contacts with another person or other persons, contraction of one of the diseases may have occurred. X starts to pray for mercy and grace that everything turns out well. At times X is worried and stops praying because, what can it change, and other times, prayers rules the day or the week, for another (selfish) reason.

Coincidentally, P, one of the people with whom X had contact goes through a test that has a few tests similar to what X had. P’s results will come out much quicker because for one reason or another, the decision-makers on P need the results as soon as possible. It is an expedited case. P is congratulated on being successful in the test. P shares the results with X. X is happy for P, and excited for X-self. God has indirectly answered X’s prayers, or has at least provided solid evidence for hope.

 Example 2:

P has a problem that will take several hours or days or months or years to be resolved. P prays to God for guidance, strength, faith, and a happy ending, if it is God’s will. Most prayers are like this one, whereby the solutions may be wanted now, but it usually will take a while for the situation to play itself out. Thus, when one prays for success or happiness in such cases, one is asking God for so many things, usually without knowing it, and God answers those unknown, but vital, prayers without the person knowing or acknowledging that tons of big time prayers have been answered. Let me go through examples of prayers which are loaded with hidden prayers.

Prayers:

-          A dear one is sick and everyone is sick. P prays for the dear one’s recovery. That is the unhidden prayer. Now with this unhidden prayer, come at least the following hidden prayers. That P lives long enough to see the recovery. That anybody who is negatively affected by the sickness, for example, caretakers, workmates, of the dear one, will be given relief.

-          P is waiting for interview results that will take weeks to come out. The results will be sent through international mail. Prays to get positive results and that the feedback period should be normal (that is, no delays). Here are some hidden prayers. That all the critical people in the process live, at least until they perform their part of the process. That all the hazards against the mail do not happen. That P lives to see the results.

-          P needs shoes. P prays for God to provide the shoes from whoever, soon enough, if it is His will. Other than the hidden prayer for life, there is hidden prayer for the legs to be there, and to be functional, and for the things that the legs and the person need the shoe for to continue being there. If it is to walk to a job, a hidden prayer is for the employer’s life, P’s continued employment, and so on.

 One can add more to the list of prayers and the hidden, tag-on, appended unexpressed prayers that go with it. A critical aspect of the hidden prayers is that if you remove the hidden prayers, the clear unhidden prayers do not make sense. Since God has purpose for everything, we have grown to assume that He will take care of all those other things as well. If one needed proof that God is Omniscient, the hidden prayers that are answered as well should provide a little bit of proof, or at least food for thought.

Test Taking and Adaptation

I was reading some an interview that the Atlantic did with one of the participants in the “Harvard Grant Study”. The participant is Ben Bradlee, who is quoted as having said, “I haven’t been unhappy in my life“. It is amazing to read about people’s lives. Here is an except, one of the many parts of the interview that I liked:

“And I graduated so sloppily. As a matter of fact, I got out and “graduated” and then they told me that I hadn’t, which I knew, I hadn’t taken one exam that was required of people who majored in English, which was the English, Shakespeare, Greek exam, there was a special exam you had to take in all three of those subjects. So, when I was on a destroyer in the second war, and my dad was anxious that I graduate really, he arranged to have the exam sent to me on my destroyer. I got it right after the Saipan campaign was over, and we were coming back, we had been hit in Saipan and we were coming back, so I took the test and I was in the Captain’s state room all by myself, and the entire ship knew I was taking a test. At one point there was a knock on the door, and some seaman came in and said, “The officer of the deck presents his compliments and the shortest verse in the Bible is ‘Jesus wept.’” And that was the message. But, I mean it was considered a great joke. So six months later or whatever it was I got word that I had passed.And then I got my degree.”

Here is the full interview.

Here are more links about the Harvard Study.

Sad Letter from the President

Steve — Michelle and I were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of our dear friend, Senator Ted Kennedy. For nearly five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts. His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and reflected in millions of lives — in seniors who know new dignity; in families that know new opportunity; in children who know education’s promise; and in all who can pursue their dream in an America that is more equal and more just, including me. In the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle. His seriousness of purpose was perpetually matched by humility, warmth and good cheer. He battled passionately on the Senate floor for the causes that he held dear, and yet still maintained warm friendships across party lines. And that’s one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy. I personally valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the Presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I’ve benefited as President from his encouragement and wisdom. His fight gave us the opportunity we were denied when his brothers John and Robert were taken from us: the blessing of time to say thank you and goodbye. The outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories to which we’ve all borne witness is a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives. For America, he was a defender of a dream. For his family, he was a guardian. Our hearts and prayers go out to them today — to his wonderful wife, Vicki, his children Ted Jr., Patrick and Kara, his grandchildren and his extended family. Today, our country mourns. We say goodbye to a friend and a true leader who challenged us all to live out our noblest values. And we give thanks for his memory, which inspires us still. Sincerely, President Barack Obama

Humility – lessons from past mistakes

I have remembered a couple of times when I probably made a fool of myself without knowing it because I was trying to act as if I knew enough or a lot about a subject that I did not, and there were subject-matter experts around who could have called my bluff! Such memories alternately fill me with remorse for my acts, laughter for the naivety and stupidity, and wonder at how patient and accommodating the other people were with me during my acts. The last point fills me with humility. First to prevent future acts of the same because by pretending to know more than you truly do, you lose face instead of saving face! Second, a determination to “pay it forward”. I need to learn to be patient and accommodating and kind to people who are now going through the phases that I went through. Sometimes we don’t look back enough at our life experiences to see that we are not perfect. I am not. I can only hope to become better as flashes of my imperfect past resurface in my mind.

Sometimes you don’t appreciate how “dumb” you were until you become truly knowledgeable and/or experienced.

So, it is my prayer to act and be humble regarding my “assets”.

As a parting note, this reminds me of Jesus’ instruction… that when you are invited to a party, do not sit yourself at the high table, because when a more important guest arrives, you may be asked to give up your seat for the guest and you would be embarrassed; if on the other hand, you sit yourself at a lower level table, and the host sees you and thinks you should be at a higher table, he will come and get you to be seated at the higher table, and you would be elevated in the eyes of your peers. (Of course, I have paraphrased.)

It is a wonderful life.

How long did it take God to create the world?(or Man?)

How long did it take God to create the world? How long did it take God to create man? People ask these questions usually because they doubt that it is possible to create all that there is in several days (i.e. less than 7!) and also because there is “evidence” for evolution, and also because there is “evidence” showing that certain things in the universe or universes are several billion years old. Before I try to explain what my thoughts are on how long it took God to create the world, or to create man, I would like to look at several things as they have been or documented to have been.

If somebody asked a Physician today, how long it would take to cure a person with full blown AIDS, or cancer, or leprosy, or whatever “incurable” disease, he or she would probably say, it is not possible to cure such a person. They may also say, we can try to contain the disease,… or in the case of cancer, that we could try chemotherapy and hope for the best. All of this is reasonable, and is consistent with our understanding of life and disease and medicine as we know it today, 12/25/2008. Let us assume that there was “evidence” that it took 45 years for a person to be fully cured of AIDS, or Cancer, or Leprosy, then with that “knowledge” we could say that there is no way, God could cure somebody of any of these diseases in less time.

If somebody asked a Chef how long it would take them to prepare meals (from scratch) for several thousand people. They may say, several hours, or days… depending on what you are preparing, how much help you have, how many microwaves, stoves, etc. With the knowledge that we have today, of how long it takes to prepare food, (well done, medium, or whatever) – it is reasonable to say, that nobody can have food for several people prepared from scratch within seconds… Now, if I think I am ready to share my answer to the question of how long it took God to do anything – for example, create the world or man.

First, I must say that I believe whatever is written in the bible about Jesus… that the essence of the Old Testament points to Jesus – and everything after that points back to Him. With that belief, I see that the things that are beyond human understanding or capacity, for example, healing a person from leprosy, or knowing people’s hearts, or feeding multitudes from a few fish and bread, or bringing the dead back to life, Jesus accomplished instantly, perfectly, with His word. He said it, and it became as He willed it. It didn’t take forever. It did not conform to human understanding, nor was it limited by it. Thus, I can see how it is possible for God to create the Heavens and the Earth and all that was, is, and will be in it, unlimited by time.

So, the idea about God’s time, for  example, His day being a billion man-years, does not really make sense to me… and it is not necessary to explain how or when He created this or that. God does not need time to accomplish anything. He is not limited by it. Our ancestors saw Him in action when He healed the sick, fed the hungry, or bring back the dead. (I think time and space are things for creatures to deal with. The more we become like God, the less we have to worry about time and space limitations.)

How did I “live” without you?

In the past couple of days and weeks, I have read a couple of books that have made me wonder how I lived without the knowledge newly obtained. It was not the first time that I had read a book and felt really blessed to have read it; but it was the first time that a question like that crossed my mind with regard to knowledge. There have also been times when I have spoken with a friend or an acquaintance or watched or listened to something and I end up being grateful that I got to live through the past couple of minutes or hours or days… however long that experience took.

So, in trying to address the question – how did I “live” without you? – there are several ways to look at it.

First, notice that live is in quotation marks, ” “, because sometimes the new knowledge or experience changes the way one is going to live one’s life forever. It is almost like one has come to the realization that prior to this knowledge or experience, he was dead, and going forward, he is going to live. Hence, if one was “dead” prior to the experience or knowledge, one cannot ask the question – how did I “live” without you? – for one never lived prior to living this new life.

I had several responses to this question… among which were – “you lived the best way you could, without this knowledge” – or “you lived a sub-optimal life because you didn’t know how best to live without this knowledge” – or “it does not really matter” – sort of dismissive.

Whatever the case, I decided to continue on this path or these paths of discovering more and better ways to live (life). For me, of the major avenues is information/knowledge. For others, it may be interactions with people; prayer; new skills; meditation…  HOWEVER, I believe, that without thinking and seeking understanding of that avenue, the potential new life can pass one by. What I am saying is that, as I walk, I have to think about the step I have taken, why I have taken that step, how the step feels, where the step is taking me, and how my life is going to change with this new step… and then take next step. Is that the best way to walk? I think so.

“We were better off as slaves in Egypt!” (Really?!)

A few weeks ago I had blogged about Waiting on God. I must begin by saying that things worked our great. Well, great as in, “what I was hoping for happened”! Thank God! Since then, I have found out that what I thought was a great deal, was great compared to what I had before, but not as great when I factor in new information and what it could be. Fact is, it is not bad at all, but my thoughts and wishes and comparisons get me into a not-so-happy state.

About 10 days ago, I told myself to ignore all the new information that has come in, and look at the present compared to where I was, and work/move towards where I want to be in the next couple of months or years. AND make sure that I enjoy the process of moving towards my new goals.

My thoughts and feelings of dissatisfaction with a surely much improved situation reminded me AGAIN of the Jews during Exodus. At some point, they said that being slaves in Egypt was much better than being free and walking towards home. Of course, I will be first to admit that my situation is not as “dire” as what they experienced in order to be ungrateful for their new found freedom/opportunity. But ungratefulness is ungratefulness regardless of its cause. My 2 cents.

A great article: The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Diamonds

I do not know what I was looking for… but in my searches, I ended up finding and reading the following article: The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Diamonds, by Rabbi Dov Greenberg. It is one of the greatest pieces I have ever read about life. You can find it at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/8087

Accounting for Heaven and Earth

Sometimes I have “insights” that are not fully formed, but I just want to write them down so that I don’t forget the ‘idea’. This is one of those times. I am just saying that what I am about to say may not make sense, not just because the reader has a different point of view, but because I have not clearly communicated my thoughts and impressions. Caveat lector!

I rarely think of my work as being related to spirituality. However, the past couple of days, several things have happened that have made me review or revisit how I look at Accounting. For example, there are times when a report or statement is one Cent off, and I cannot go forward without finding where that one Cent belongs. It is easy to “fix” things, but it cannot and should not be done, because: first, it is wrong, second, it just doesn’t work at times. For example, if you are paying $3 million and the report you printed out says you are paying $2,999,999.99, one may think that you can just give one of the payees 1 Cent. No, not really? If you overpay one of the people, they will come back and ask (may be), but surely if you underpay somebody, you might as well not do it in the first place. What if you narrow it down to a particular person? You see to whom the 1 cent needs to go, do you just throw it in there, on her account? Not really, it may belong to a particular invoice, or period (month, quarter, or year)… Things like this make accounting hell sometimes. You cannot check off something as okay (it foots) when it does not. You can bet on it that it will come back to bite you; well, most of the time. Most of the “checks and balances” that you find in life, have their source in Accounting. For example, if you make $1 million during the year, and you make this money from work, gifts, and businesses, you are expected to report that you made $1m to the tax authority. You may wonder, how would they know if you told them that you made only $0.9m? Well, for starters, your employer tells them how much they paid you. Second, the gift giver is supposed to report how much he has disposed of in gifts. Third, the people that made payments to you need to have backup for the claimed expenses, so there will be receipts with your tax id on it showing money flowing to you. Fourth, if you deposited any money in an interest-earning account, the bank has to report the interest that they paid you, and of course, the money you deposited will show. Last but not least, you cannot spend what you don’t have. By looking at your statements, the tax man can have a good idea of how much income you made. Of course, my list is not exhaustive, but it gives you an idea of how, given time, the tax man can figure out how much you made (or spent).

Accounting has another basic side to it, which may or may not be looked at as “checks and balances”, the double-entry system. For every transaction, there is a debit and credit to it. A simple example would be if you bought a one dollar pen for your business. This is an expense. Your cash would go down $1 (credit your books), your supplies (expense) would go up $1 (debit your books). At the end of the day, your debits and expenses should match.

One last point that I need to bring up, is budgets. It is hard to imagine a functioning business that does not have an accounting budget. This just shows you what you expect to make or spend for the year. The fun is in the details. But as the year goes, you periodically look at items in the budget and see if you are where you thought you would be at a certain point in time. If something is so below/over-budget, you investigate it before the year ends (well, usually).

Well, enough accounting. So I thought about that and I wondered if the principles of accounting are applicable to other non-monetary issues. For example, if somebody hurt my feelings, what would be the equivalent in accounting? If I sinned, what happens in Heaven that is similar to accounting? So here is what I thought of as a possibility.

Assume that we are dealing with Cash, and the normal (or good) balance is a debit. Let’s also assume that good acts are debits. Then if you help somebody out and you feel good and the other person is appreciative of your actions, and Heaven is also rejoicing, then:

Debits: your good account in your heart; the recipient’s view of you; your good accts book in Heaven.

Credits: effort needed to do the good act; the recipient “pay it forward” account; your sin book in Heaven(?).

Similarly, if you hurt somebody’s feelings intentionally for no good reason, you can make the necessary entries.

At the end of the day, how you feel, the financial health of the organization, you and your fellow men, will depend on how accurate and how good your books are. Just like in accounting for businesses, the accounting for both Heaven and Earth, doesn’t lie.

The closest I could come to relating the accounting budget to life in Heaven and on Earth, had to do with expectations and potential. I think that’s what an accounting budget does, it sets expectations for performance with the conviction or commitment that the organization has potential to live up to those expectations, whether it is to cut costs or increase revenues or both. So what are our expectations and potential. On the expectations side: we are expected to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we are expected to work as if we are doing it unto the Lord, we are expected to discover what we are good at and devote it to the betterment of ourselves and of the human race, we are expected to discover our potential… It is not an exhaustive list. I presume that God and our fellow men, from their exposure and intimate knowledge of us, have a good idea of what we can do/be. That being the case, I do not think it is outrageous to think that each one of us has a budget of good works that we are expected to perform.

What if, in God’s budget, He saw that for the world to be a good place to live, I would have to help one person every day or every week. I would also have to give 20% of my income to my church, etc. If I help twice that number, and give less to the church, I am sure it may throw off the budget, but I cannot say by how much. It is not for me to know what the budget is. All I can do is my best. Just like at a company, the presidential team may have the budget, which the man in the warehouse does not know of. The man in the warehouse just has to do his best; make the best nuts and bolts for himself and the company.

If men can plan things with extraordinary precision, be it accountants, rocket scientists or Chess players, why would God do any less? Why wouldn’t God have a plan or budget for enough food or medication for everybody? Why wouldn’t God have enough leaders and doctors and followers and … for the world to function properly? I believe God has it all properly budgeted. It is just that we don’t take time to figure out what’s important and how best to allocate and manage the resources that we are. We are self-managing resources in God’s budget.