Calling from God

Calling and life passions may play a pivotal role in the life and living of many while pursuing their careers and endeavors.  

To many young adults, growing up is just all about success and failure—that also paradoxically defines the meaning of life for many of them. Unfortunately, in the pursuit of their careers, only some succeed, while many fail or simply fall short of their own expectations. With faith, you may see how your failure can transform your passion into something else that can ultimately change your life, making you more spiritual.

An Illustration

Shon Hopwood was a young man who had his passion for basketball, earning him a university scholarship. But a year later, when he realized that he was only mediocre and a failure in basketball, he soon became disillusioned and dropped out of his class.

Shon’s failure and frustration made him become involved in bank robberies in Nebraska that finally landed him in prison with his sentencing of 12 years.

While in prison, Hopwood became interested in the law, and began helping prison inmates write their petitions to the Supreme Court for legal justice and other legal matters.

In 2009, Hopwood was released from prison, and he continued his new passion and pursuit for law and order. In 2015, he became a licensed attorney. As a criminal justice advocate, Hopwood had written much more about the need for federal sentencing and prison reform.

Hopwood eventually became a prominent law professor at Georgetown University of Law. 

Living by faith: God always helps believers set their life goals and overcome their setbacks in their careers. For those unbelievers living in the flesh, they always see the world out there as a projection of what they feel deep inside themselves, as well as a reflection of their own inherent desires for success and wealth that seldom come true, giving them attachments to evils and wrongdoings. 

Stephen Lau

Living By Faith Is Living In Miracles

Dealing with Failures

Failing to achieve anything that the mind has set on doing is a setback on the developing mind of any teenager.

For example, dating someone for the first time seems mutually satisfying. A teenager then expects that someone will respond to the teenager’s phone call the next day. If that doesn’t happen, the teenager then feels "failure" with emotions of regret, remorse, and even wishful thinking.  

Other examples of failures in teenagers are poor academic score and loss in a game or a sport competition. Failures often result from unfulfilled expectations.

Failures in early life can lead to the development of low self-esteem and the loss of self-belief. These negative impacts can adversely affect the rest of the life of an individual.

Living by faith: Trusting in God will give you new perspectives of your failures. Your failures can become your "blessings" because God can transform you, making you “strong, firm, and steadfast” (I Peter 5:10). Your failures can open new doors of your services and commitments in your community; your failures, shared in multiple platforms with others around you, can change their lives for good. Most importantly, your failures can reveal your own sins and wrongdoings, making you feel penitent to seek His forgiveness and divine instructions. On the other hand, “failure deprivation” doesn’t provide any resilience to confront many challenges and difficulties later in life. So, a believer in God not only embraces “failing well” but also understands his or her own imperfections that need God’s help and guidance. God has given you your own being that doesn’t require your comparison of yourself with others. Just trust God and be obedient.

Stephen Lau

Living By Faith Is Living In Miracles

Doubts

Your conscience, which often tells you what's right and what's wrong, may create doubts in your mind when you're hiding the presence of the dark side of life and not sharing it with others, and not knowing whether others are just doing the same.

You may even begin to tell lies about the things happening in your life, and doubt if others are also doing the same. Doubts only make you less confident about yourself, depriving you of self-belief, which is self-efficacy. 

With faith and trust in God, you gain your freedom to trust yourself and others, instead of lying and not telling the truth about anything and everything in your life. Your belief in honesty is everything in your belief in God.

Yes, others may distort and lie about the truths concerning you and use them for their own selfish purposes. With faith, you give them the benefit of the doubt—God teaches you about not judging others. In real life, there’re many things that are beyond your control. With faith, you control your own doubt of self and of others.

With the gift of self-belief from God, you can accomplish anything in your life destined by God. Accordingly, you won’t compare yourself with others; or with your own past; instead, you’ll focus on your strengths, your goals, and your values that all come from God.

Living without faith and in the flesh, many are doubting others and themselves, and thus creating unknowingly their stress response, preparing them for the stress ahead, that is, others are also not telling them the truths. Stress is the prelude to their anxiety, fear, and worry—all the negative emotions of depression and other mental disorders.

Living by faith: You know the truth of telling the truths. No one can change the behaviors of others, let alone their own thinking minds of doubts and not telling the truths. God will always nudge you to tell the truths, and nothing but the truths because God is the truth of all things.

Stephen Lau

Living By Faith Is Living In Miracles

Doing, Non-Doing, Over-Doing

In everyday life and living, there're certain things you must do, as well as things you don't do or over-do. 

With faith, you prioritize your time and understand your need to spend more time in prayers and in reading God’s Word than on the Internet. Not knowing what to do next may create your inexplicable self-pressure of anxiety, doubt, fear—the so-called “angst” personality or state of mind.

Controlling is the natural human response to the “angst” feeling. Controlling others and the surrounding circumstances is often perceived as the "solution" to many life problems—control is power; power is pressure; and pressure is solution. But pressing others, as well as self, to do certain things to get the desired result is only self-delusion because it always generates rejection and resistance not only from others but also, ironically, from self.

Pressure has its origin from expectations—for example, the expectations of parents with anxiety about the good grades of their children; the expectations of those socializing with fear of rejection by others; and the expectations of those participants in sports and competitions with worry of defeat and not winning.

With faith, you understand that God is in control, and you just do your best and let Him do the rest. With no expectations, living everyday life is joy and peace with no worry.

Without faith, and living in the flesh, many want to control others through pressure, or being pressured by their own expectations to do wrongdoings.

An Illustration

Lance Armstrong, the once-celebrated-but-now-disgraced cyclist, had won seven consecutive Tour de France titles and the Olympic bronze medal. His initial success "pressured" him with his expectations of more future success that led to his “wrongdoing”—using performance-enhancing drugs to win all his subsequent races. His expectations to win ultimately brought about his downfall, and he was stripped off all his previous winning titles.

Living by faith: Desiring for success, which is pride, distances you from God. Giving up your control of your destiny is your trust. Accepting the outcome of anything is your obedience.

Stephen Lau

Living By Faith Is Living In Miracles

 

A "LOVING" Person

 Are YOU a "loving" person?  

Loving

While growing up, most probably, you’ve been living with your parents, stepparents, adoptive parents, or those close to you. In the first few years of your development phase, they all create your personality and shape your thinking mind.

If you’re blessed with having loving parents and people around you, the love of God will make you respond with your hugging, kissing, and your godly love.

Becoming a person of faith, you’ll also look at living very differently. For example, if your parents asking you to tell a “white lie”, such as saying you “love” some food that you really don’t like, you must say "No!" because of God’s truth. Your faith will also stop you from forming the habit of lying in your life.

On the other hand, if your parents or those around you are controlling, dominating, and even abusive, your faith will help you respond "positively." God says you should not only “honor your father and mother” (Exodus 20:12), but also “obey” them. Your obedience may not lead to their “love” and “approval” of you, but it will lead to the help of the Holy Spirit in changing them. Remember: God is “a father to the fatherless.” (Psalm 68:5) So, surrender your will to God, and let His Holy Spirit work in your heart throughout your life. The next step to take is forgiving your loved ones for their abuse and wrongdoings and praying for them. Then, let go of any expectation of their immediate change of misbehavior; instead, accept them as who they are with their imperfections, and cultivate your love and compassion for them. 

So, continue to focus your own relationship with God to experience your own healing. Your faith in Christ gives you salvation and hope not just for yourself but also for the repentance of your loved ones. Yes, as a believer, you could be the light that leads your unsaved or wayward loved ones to their own repentance and salvation. God can do anything and everything in your life. With God’s love, just wait and be patient.

Without God’s love, an unbeliever could become so obsessed and preoccupied with the things loved that would lead to an irrational act. 

Living by faith: You love yourself and love others, no matter who they're. A 'loving" person is loved by God, because God is of love. 

Stephen Lau

Living By Faith Is Living In Miracles

Spirituality and Transformation

Spirituality

For a true believer, spirituality is the belief in the existence of God, who is in control of the believer’s life in this world, including the duration of the believer’s lifespan. However, to many “so-called” believers, the presence of God is no more than the existence of the sun or the planets. Yes, they know that they couldn’t survive without the sun, but they also know very well that the sun would always be there for them no matter what.

For those who don’t have a specific religion, but who still believe in the existence of a Being greater than themselves, spirituality is their understanding of the inexplicable control of and the natural cycle of all things. They believe that certain things in life are beyond human control and understanding; certain things in life follow a natural cycle or order, such as life is inevitably followed by death.

For many unbelievers, spirituality may still be present in their hearts in the form of love, joy, and peace that are often expressed in their actions and behaviors toward others. Yes, spirituality is the conscience that tells many what’s right and what’s wrong, providing them with direction, guidance, and understanding in their daily lives.    

So, in many ways, humans may all be spiritual in some ways. Spirituality is like a shadow that they sometimes see more of it, and other times less of it, but it’s always there, following them wherever they go, whether they like it or not. 

How can you enhance your spirituality?

(1) Strengthening your faith in God with trust and obedience—trust to show your humility and submission; obedience to show your endurance and perseverance.

·   (2) Reading His Word every day, meditating and remembering some of it.

·   (3) Praying throughout the day.

·   (4) Living in His Presence.

·   (5) Connecting with others to spread His wisdom.   

H  Have you become more spiritual with each day passing?

Hopefully, spirituality has transformed you before your death and dying.

Transformation

The spirit has the power to transform any individual into a better being.

At some point in life, an individual may begin to feel and sense his or her incompleteness, limitations, loneliness, and disillusions about human vanity. That inner longing for change may begin the process of transformation.

So, what is transformation?

Change is external, while transformation is internal. Change may have a negative connotation—getting rid of something undesirable to receive something desirable. Transformation is enhancement of something good, which is already inside that individual—rediscovery of something that has somehow become invisible to the naked eye.

So, transformation can make any individual more spiritual, that is, having a better relationship with God, which requires quality time, deliberate effort, and right doing with accountability.

Living by faith: Use your humility to surrender yourself to God. Then transform yourself with your trust and obedience.

Stephen Lau

Living By Faith Is Living In Miracles

 

The Sins of the World

The Sins of humans are their failures in choosing their actions, their thoughts, and their emotions to love God and to love others. Their failures in choices lead to their misbehaviors and wrong judgments, with their self-deceptions and self-illusions stored in their subconscious minds living in their flesh. 

The truth is that all humans, without any exception, commit sins every day because they all rely on their minds to tell them how to think, what to do, and when to act or react according to their thoughts.

Repeating Sins

Humans always repeat their sins, which’re their failures to love God and to love others around, even though they might have already received their forgiveness from God.  Satan, the Devil, is an expert in creating doubts in human minds, causing them to question in their hearts if God had “really” forgiven them.

Denying Sins

Many humans, living in a sinful world, simply deny their committing sins with no victims, such as stealing a pair of sunglasses from a grocery store, instead of stealing money from someone’s home. But on Feb 23, 2023, a Washington, D.C. man was shot dead by a police officer for stealing a pair of sunglasses.

Accepting Sins

Many humans have accepted sins as social norms, such as watching pornography on the Internet, indulging in gambling, or even lining up to buy their lottery tickets out of greed. Acceptance is based on “everybody is doing it” and “it’s not against the law.”

Rationalizing Sins

Self-justification is finding “excuses” for committing sins, such as “pointing fingers” at the sins and crimes committed by those distinguished celebrities around to justify their own commitment of sins.

Rebuking Sins

Rebuking sins can surprisingly lead to committing more sins, instead of stopping and restraining sins.

As an illustration, in Houston, Texas, a man using his gun robbed diners in a taqueria restaurant. The robber was on the verge of leaving that restaurant when he was shot 9 times by a vigilante diner, who then helped diners recover their money robbed at that restaurant, before disappearing. The police later found that the suspect's weapon was only a "plastic gun." Texas police began searching for that vigilante diner, with that "you-took-my-money-I-took-your-life" mindset of rebuking sins.

Indeed, many in the process of rebuking sins commit their own sin. That's a testament to the prevalence of sins in everyday life and living.

Rejecting Sins

Rejecting God and refusing the offer of forgiveness and the offer of a new life is a major mortal sin in humans. Unfortunately, many are vulnerable to rejecting not only God but also their loved ones.

Enjoying Sins

Nowadays, there’re many who indulge in sins, such as serial killers and rapists, because they derive excitement, pleasures, and smartness from their sins.

To illustrate, John Wayne Gacy, who grew up in an abusive family, became a notorious American serial killer and rapist, who had killed more than 33 young men and boys at his home in Norwood Park Township in Illinois. He was also known as the “Killer Clown” who had many public performances as a clown to attract young children and to lure them into his home to be victimized and then buried in the crawl space of his home. Eventually, Gacy was caught by the police, prosecuted, and sentenced to death in 1980. His execution took place in 1984. After four years in prison, Gacy showed that he had enjoyed his killings with no remorse. His final words on the day of his execution were: “Kiss my ass!”  

The Bottom Line

Had you committed some or all the above sins before your exit from the world? 

Living by faith: You're vulnerable to committing sins. Only God can save and deliver you with spiritual wisdom, which gives you trust and obedience.

Stephen Lau

Living By Faith Is Living In Miracles

The Beginning of Sin

The Beginning of Wrongdoings

Being spiritual, an individual must have been accountable to God, that is, not doing “all” the wrong and unrighteous things in life. Unfortunately, the reality is that any individual, irrespective of the intensity of spirituality, must still have done “some” of the wrong and unrighteous things at some point in his or her life simply because that individuality has been living in the flesh.

So, how do humans begin to sin?

Many begin to sin while thinking that they’re “committing no crime or wrongdoing with no victim.”

A hypothetical illustration

Say, two men were sitting close to each other, and they were the last two persons at the bar. The man had just paid the bartender who returned with his credit card. Now, the other man paid the bartender who just left with his credit card. Then, the man, who just got back his credit card, left some cash on the table, said goodnight to the other man, and left the bar.

The other man looked at the cash close to him. Now, he “pushed” the cash left by the man who had just left “a little bit closer to him.” The bartender returned with the man’s credit card, looked at the cash in front of him, and said: “Thank you, Sir.” The man responded: “You’re welcome. Good night.” And the man left the bar.

Here are the realities:

The last man who left the bar did not give the bartender any tip.

The bartender received the same amount of tip.

With or without the last man pushing the cash “a little bit closer” to him, the bartender would still have said: “Thank you, Sir.”

So, nothing had changed, except the position of the cash.

Here are questions for reflection:

Did the man do anything wrong by changing the position of the cash? Yes!

What was wrong with changing the position of the cash? Changing the mind and the perception of the bartender made the man feel “respected and important” (the Sin of Pride). And changing her mind was also controlling (the Sin of Lust for Power and Control).

Was the man able to pay the bartender the tip? Most probably yes! Subconsciously, however, the man might be envious of the man who had paid his tip so voluntarily (the Sin of Envy). And withholding the payment of his tip was also covetousness (the Sin of Greed).

Changing the position of the cash might seem trivial and insignificant—a "crime with no victim." But that’s how all humans begin committing their sins because all humans have both a conscious mind and a subconscious mind. The conscious mind with clarity of thinking may know what’s right and wrong, but the subconscious mind with its misbeliefs, myths, and untruths not only dominates the conscious mind but is often controlled by Satan because humans are living in their flesh.

Worse, one minor sin often leads to another and yet another more serious one. The freedom of choice is often held hostage by its bondage to the flesh, where the corrupted body dwells and the origin of the desires and wants of the thinking mind that ultimately change the freedom of choices. No matter how soft or strong the human bondage may be, one bondage always leads to another. The more bondages, the greater their control on the freedom of human choices and decisions, and the more wrong things humans will subsequently do.

One human bondage may lead to another. The more bondages, the greater their control on the freedom of human choices and decisions, and the more wrong things humans will subsequently do.

As an illustration, on July 4, 2022, a 25-year-old Black man in Akron, Ohio, was shot 60 times by 8 policemen. The news was widely reported in the media because the victim was a Black man and the police had presumably used “excess force” to gun him down. The victim, who had no criminal record, was initially stopped at a routine traffic stop. The man didn’t like it, so he decided to choose to get away. Driving away his car and then being chased by the police made him angry, so he chose to fire his gun to stop the police chase. After stopping his car at some point, the man decided to flee on foot. While running, his subconscious mind told him to turn around to do whatever he chose and decided to do. But he was shot dead. The above tragedy could have been avoided if the victim had not taken his initial wrongdoing” to get away, which led to another and yet another wrongdoing that finally led him to his own death.

Living by faith: Acknowledge to God that you're a sinner, and ask for His forgiveness. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the way to walk away from sin. 

Stephen Lau