8/15/2015: Move like Water
10:01pm – 10:39pm
I have many things to write but, at the same time, I don’t
have a lot of things to write.
Today is a supernatural day, and yesterday was a
supernatural night. Supernatural days
and supernatural nights. Tomorrow will
be a supernatural day and Monday, with HOP (house of peace), will be a
supernatural night. I want supernatural
days every day!
There is a principle that I want to share that may be the
cause of many of my worries and stress.
The principle is to “Move Like Water” in The System Builder by Xuan
Nguyen. This book is supposed to help me
better my “financial” business but I find it useful for other applications as
well. Let me share it briefly:
-
The army’s disposition of force is like water. Water configures its flow in accord with the
terrain. Water has no constant
shape. –Sun Tzu
Keep flowing. Move
like water. Water doesn’t try so hard,
but it flows. When water hits a rock, it
avoids the rock and goes around it.
Water sees the high land and never tries to climb it. Water takes the low road. That’s how water flows.
This is also how you do the business. You always got to keep moving. If people don’t join, move on. If people don’t buy, move on. If people don’t want to build, move on.
Don’t hit your head against the wall trying to convince the
rock to buy, to join, or to do something it doesn’t want to do. Just move on.
-
Wow, how many times have I violated this concept and gave
myself undue stress and rejection. I do
want to say beforehand that there are exceptions to this rule. I can’t flow the easy way from a macro or
spiritual sense. The easy way is the
flesh but the flesh flows to death. The
direction of my flow, of my water, my river, needs to be towards life, righteousness,
and abundance. But from a micro-sense,
this principle is a piece of wisdom.
One of my fears is a fear of failure. Many times I’m afraid to try or don’t try or
give 100% because I’m afraid of making mistakes and failing. I’m afraid that people won’t follow me, that
they won’t listen to me, etc. I want
perfection but that is not possible because only God is perfect. The fact is I won’t be perfect but I must
still try. But once my course is set, I
need to focus on the positives and not spend too much time on the barriers or
my situation.
This can apply to evangelism. If people reject me, move on. If people won’t listen to me or try to
intensely argue with me, move on. It is
not the healthy that needs a doctor but the sick (Mark 2:17). I will invest in people that will listen,
that are promising, whose hearts are open.
This doesn’t mean to ignore people who are not interested. But, the principle is to spend most of my
effort and energy on people who are open and who bear fruit.
This concept can also apply when I’m suggesting an idea or
anything. I wouldn’t waste my time on
people who are negative. I remember
before, I would try to argue and debate with people who reject my idea. This is a waste of my energy. Most likely, these people are not going to
change anytime soon. What I learned in
social work advocacy is to spend the energy on people who support you and on
those who are “maybes” or those who are still open. I hit a rock I go around it instead of
spending huge effort trying to go through it.
This can also apply to investing. I read somewhere on Investopedia that most
people invest the wrong way. They invest
in negative wealth. When a stock goes
down, many would buy more into it, thinking that they are buying the shares at
a lower price. Then it goes down even
more and those people buy that stock even more, thinking it is a discount. But what happens? Stocks are not commodities (commodities will
be a different story since the value of it cannot be zero). When a company’s stock goes down, it is an
indicator of trouble. The foolish
investor would have invested most of his/her money in a business that is going
downhill. No, when a stock is going down
to a certain point, the wise investor will pull the money out and put the money
in a stock that is increasing or doing well.
Then, most of that investor’s money will be in successful stocks. Like water, go where the money is. Ignore resistance and focus on what can
build. Ok, I might not be making much
sense or my analogy might be off. I need
more experience in writing and I need to get back to writing my blogs.
This principle can also apply to making friends. If someone doesn’t want to be my friend, I
can’t force them. The best I can do is
to meet them halfway.
So, I’m not going to worry about whether this person or that
person is my friend or not, or listens to me or not, or follows me or not
(although they should follow God), or whatever or not. I’m not going to worry on the negatives. Like the U.S. strategy against the Japanese
in World War II, I will island-hop. I
will focus my efforts, time, and energy on my dreams (which needs to come from
God), and on positive things. I will not
waste my time on the negatives and on resistance. If I encounter resistance, I will just go
around it. If I can’t, or if going
around it is too lengthy, then I will just pray to God for the walls to fall
and then keep trying. I will ask, seek,
and knock. The main point in this
principle is to keep trying, and to keep trying positively. “If an expert says it can't be done, get
another expert” (David Ben-Gurion).
I need to stop worrying about my situation. I need to stop worrying about my
problems. I should just seek God. Seeking God is easy, or should be. Let God direct my flow. If I encounter resistance, I should give it
to God. Many times, when I do that, He
tells me what to do and it becomes easy.
If people say no or they reject me, I should seek God first and evaluate
myself. If I find myself blameless, then
I will just move on. Maybe I’m expanding
the flow like water principle but this principle reminds me of what I’ve did
wrong. (PS: I have been trying to do this but I need to work on my discipline)
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