Embracing your destiny

The reason most people get lost in their search of destiny is because they think of it as a destination akin to an airport or the end of a long trip. Considering that we all end up in the “box” or on the ground, associating destiny to destination may not be very exciting or challenging.

 I often sought out destiny but always bought the wrong ticket. I am usually too wrapped up in the sights, the ongoing things, and what’s before me, that I often get a shock when the bus stops. It’s like sleep walking on the bus and wondering how you got to the next stop.

The first rule of destiny is it’s not about you. You’re a passenger on a very significant trip with a purpose but it’s not you. Sorry to disappoint you but destiny is greater than you and concerns more people and a greater purpose than to answer a riddle or your mid-life crisis. Self -centered people cannot go beyond their galaxy and therefore will never enter true destiny. “Self” is too restrictive.

Rule No. 2: Destiny is like a train set. There are many tracks, many caboose or wagons, many stations, and many people involved. You need to take the trip, ride whatever, meet whoever and stop wherever to complete the journey. Each stop is equally important just like every town and tourist spot that trains go through. They all add up to the experience, the knowledge and enriches your mind. Every person adds to your understanding of mankind. Rich or poor they all tell you something. As my pastors like to repeat: “You are where your future needs you to be.”

No. 3: Making travel plans is nothing like surfing for your destiny. A destination is pre-planned endpoint of your choosing not God’s. Destination is an end purpose while Destiny is the beginning of a growing and expanding purpose as in your destiny is to influence people, impact society, go global etc., etc.

I met several young executives this year who wanted out of the family corporation and line of business because it was not glamorous, exciting or was too restricting for their young lifestyle. I met police officers who did not like their posting to a desk job instead of fieldwork where promotion was quick and easy. I met government officials who treated their jobs as dead end situations until their retirement. The destiny bus was taking them north but their hearts were set on going south.

That caused them unhappiness and prevented them from understanding why they were on the bus going north, what they could learn, accomplish and benefit from going north and getting to know the other people they may be working with when the bus reaches the destination or make the full circle going south.

#4 Understanding the purpose often makes the course easy to comprehend.

If you appreciate destiny then appreciate that you have certain skills, relationships, education, frustrations, passions and even fears that are all relevant to your destiny. That’s rule 5. You may have been born to a family of frustrated musicians who pushed you to music. Many of us were born into families of “frustrated Americans” or Pinoys who want to become US citizens and they were the ones who put you in a box marked “New York.” But that is not the endpoint. It’s just a place, destiny comes after that.

I wanted to be a veterinarian but I was born to be a journalist and an English major. After a frustrating journey to vet school I landed in Mass Communications where I got substantial training in broadcasting while majoring in Journalism which prepared me for radio and TV and subsequently newspaper. So why would God in his infinite wisdom put me in the one industry I had no desire for and swore never to be in?

Why not? Media and mass communication is one of the best ways to reach people, share views and express opinions. People spend more time on Facebook, watching cable TV, surfing the net than being in church. Media speaks the marketplace language. God is strategic and sets things up by placing us on the right platform or soapbox when we’re ready to do what he needs to get done his way.

Like I said; It’s not about you. Actually it’s not about what you’ve become through contact, exposure and influence of the world. I reckon we were all pre-programed for a “mission” but the recorded instructions self–destruct just like in the movie, even before we heard it loud and clear. We were programmed body, mind and soul to do the “mission” but not knowing what it is has driven us batty and in a constant mid-life crisis! That is why we’ve been playing “Hit & Miss” while opening fortune cookies and doing Bible flips to figure out our destiny!

Just like Mission Impossible, there are alternative means of contacting HQ, our handler, or God to get our bearings back. And sometimes, the Almighty simply takes pity and gives us a break by sending messages or people our way. In my case God used drama: he sent three persons, three nights in a row, same time, same place, one sentence, same message, directly in front of my father’s coffin to tell me to give up the resort life and prepare to be in media. That was 20 plus years ago. Recently he sent a foreigner to tell a room of over 50 people: politicians, government officials and pastors some very personal details and hurts in my life just to make me realize that this “prophecy” was the real deal. This time the instruction was not a recording in a telephone booth. It was “live” but it was still very much about taking the mission and it was still for “God and Others.” That’s rule No. 6: God’s Got Your Back!

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