The Wasp

Shalom Aleichem, my beloved readers. May God bless you with all the best. For my past articles, they are published on my?LinkedIn, you can also check my profile there.

On my recent journey, our Church member went on a short pilgrim/vacation. We went to pray and attend the mass and then lunch and shopping before returning.

It is a simple fun trip and always attracts quite a number of participants. At one stop, a wasp found its way inside our closed-off full airconditioned bus. This is one of the large wasps at around 3cm in length and the creature is determined to go out through the glass window. No matter what I did to chase it out through the door, it determined to went back and do its best to break through the glass.

The door is dark, but it is the real opening for escape. The windows, although it is transparent and seems to be the obvious way out, are an impregnable barrier for the wasp.

Sometimes in life, we see a very obvious solution or way out but once we go through it, it never works. Have we stopped to pray to God to guide us? Through His way, not our way. Even when the way seems dark, scary, or unlikely according to our thinking? What if we try to see Jesus but are never actually able to meet or personally be with Him? Probably we are doing it our way and it is not His way, the right way. Do we have enough faith to actually let Him guide us through the dark, unlikely passages according to His will to meet Him? Maybe through unpleasant, boring, unlikely person or events? Do you trust Him enough to guide us? It took a lot of faith to accept Him and let Him guide us.

When we run a business and our products failed in the market or something just never works even though it looks so good and suppose to be a big deal on paper. Why does it fail? Why it did not work? Probably it just does not work according to His will.

Don't discard the products as a total failure yet, better pray up and ask for guidance, and wisdom to maybe re-apply that product in a different field, in a different way, or modify it to fit the market perfectly.

When Corning created Gorilla glass, they have absolutely no idea how to sell it or where to implement it. They shelved it and later, and many years later when Apple created their iPhone, that is what they need to make the touch screen work well. Gorilla glass become an instant success, but it has been sitting on the shelves for years, can we call this instant success? Or just going according to His will? A failed glue experiment That never dried by a 3M, applied, and used with different takes, gave birth to the Stick Notes. When Shimano introduced its dual control technology into the mountain bike world, it did not sell. The idea of changing the gears with the brake lever just did not work for the Mtb. People were constantly shifting while braking. It did not work for the horizontal brake lever position. When you are moving through rough, uneven terrain, it is very easy to make accidental shifting when braking. It just did not work. Fast forward several years, Shimano put it into the vertical position and the integrated brake lever and shifter become the new standard in the road bike world. Every other major brand follows suit because of how good it works for road bikes.

When things did not go according to our will, step back, and pray for wisdom or patience. You never know what can be done with "failed" products.

What happened to the wasp? I finally have to smack it and throw it out as it won't go out with persuasion, instead, it began to get agitated and ready to attack. If God seems to smack us in life, probably because we are too stubborn to follow His not-so-subtle persuasion.

Have a blessed week and please do share this article if you find it interesting. You never know who will be blessed, God bless.