When God Tricks Us

Most people lose their Vision by the end of their college years, or at least by the end of the first year of living in the "real world." Certainly I do not mean they have lost their physical ability to see, but rather their ability to see great things and a bright future ahead, a specific one of their own making. Vision is the foremost of prerequisites for successful entrepreneurship--sometimes it is the only thing we entrepreneurs even have. Without it, we are lost at sea, adrift and directionless.

Entrepreneurial vision (which I mean broadly--one can be an entrepreneur in many fields, including law, medicine, education, politics, etc.--it is not limited to people who are in the world of commerce) is the engine that drives the progress of mankind, and although all entrepreneurs have a vision of changing the world, there is always some specific personal gain we all seek. For some, it is money and material possessions, for others, it is the satisfaction gained from the work itself, and for yet others it is leaving a "legacy." For most entrepreneurs it is some combination of all three of these things, but this desire for personal gain does not obliterate the astounding humanitarianism that always accompanies the Ethical Entrepreneur.

I have come to realize, though, that entrepreneurial vision is not something we are born with, but is rather something we are called to. The word "vocation" comes from the same Latin root as the words "voice" and "vocal." It literally means "calling." Some of us are born with a sense of vocation to entrepreneurship generally--to change the world. But coming to and realizing our specific vocation (or, as is often the case, series of vocations) is a winding path with twists and turns that we would never have signed on for if we had known it all at the beginning. But this is one of the mysteries of God--his "trickery." I do not mean this pejoratively. The Divine Person is undoubtedly a witty and creative fellow--how else would we end up with animals as strange as Giraffes and Elephants and simultaneously foods so utilitarian and ordinary as the potato?

As the Old Testament prophet said "[God's] thoughts are not our thoughts, nor his ways our ways. For his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways higher than our ways." Sitting in the midst of the trying times of our vocation, we must all step back and look objectively at the circumstance, marveling at how we got to where we are. Rarely, if ever, the path is not only something we wouldn't have chosen, but it isn't even a path we could have expected or imagined. Sometimes we may even feel that God has tricked us into going down our present path with some short-term taste of the beauty that is life when we answer our calling.

In this way, we must find it in ourselves to detach from our own narcissism and our desire to have accomplished things in our own time and with our own strategy and give Thanks for the mystery of God's methods, which at time may seem to us unorthodox at best, and cruel at worst. But when our calling is clear, it is that we must cling onto, and accept the pathways that are presented to us. There are many lessons to be learned along the paths we wouldn't choose for ourselves, and that is of course why we are called to go down them--so that we are prepared for the next run, whether here on Earth or in the hereafter.

Posted via email from skinnerlayne's posterous