By Boy Villanueva, BCBP Cebu South
Coming home after being stranded in a storm because of my work in one of the towns in Leyte, I tried to relax by reading a book “GOD HELP ME CREATE” by Claire W. One chapter in the book caught my attention. It was entitled “FINDING TIME.” It says, and I quote, the demands of our job or businesses, the burden of health and our obligations of family life makes us at times postpone or shelve our acceptance of service for another time.
Starting last month, I have conducted one-on-ones with the various recommendees to become chapter heads on the eight (8) chapters of Cebu to replace the present chapter heads whose term of service will end this December. Most of these recommendees who are capable of becoming chapter heads have the same reply, they are busy with their work and don’t have enough time for the service.
We tend to forget that It is during this time when we doubt ourselves in doing the service that have been assigned to us that we should have more faith in God who is faithful to us. God will always provide us everything we need in order to complete the work He has given us, including our time.
It is said that service is a test of how effective we are in scheduling our time and an opportunity for us to learn and grow. Helen Schuman says, “Every situation, properly received, becomes an opportunity of learning.”
It is true that we have limitations in doing our service. It is also true that we use these limitations as an excuse for not doing our service effectively. We even invent excuses in order to avoid some work assignments, especially in the brotherhood. Sometimes we do these things without even being conscious of why. We may not realize that we are simply afraid to accept responsibility in our service, because we forget to call on God to help us overcome these fears.
In the words of Reinhold Niebuhr, “God give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from another.”
Now is the right time for us to accept service. Start with arranging our schedule, for without it we can never be an effective servant of the Lord. Some of us avoid work scheduleforreasonsthatwebelieve that we can effectively work best under pressure. Even if we manage to produce quality work, it may be at a great cost to our emotional and physical health.
Howard Newton says, “Peo-ple forget how quickly you did a job — but they remember how well you did it.”
Each of us has individual gifts from the Lord. It is up to us to use these gifts effectively. Being members of the brotherhood, we are requested to use these gifts to spread the word of Christ in the marketplace and fulfill our mission and vision.
Now is the time for us to arrange our schedules and do the best we can in every service that has been given to us in the brotherhood.
Again, it is difficult; but with God on our side, who can be against us. All we have to do is to give our best and our time in every service, in every opportunity that has been offered to us in the brotherhood.
In closing, let me share with you the words of Jacob Riis when he says and I quote, “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it — but all that had gone before…”
Just like in every service that we have accepted in the brotherhood, all of us don’t know what to do. But if we try our best in doing the service and FINDING TIME to do it, all things will be possible.
