This article is about my favorite topic these days and it is SUCCESS!
I have found that the way we live our spiritual lives drives every other aspect of our lives. I have read a lot about success and one of the first I read by an author who spent over 20 years studying the most successful people of his time. It was a task given to him by Andrew Carnegie, who at the time was one of the most successful and richest people in the world. The man’s name is NAPOLEON HILL and after 20 years of study he wrote a book THINK AND GROW RICH. He followed it up with a book called THE MASTER KEY TO RICHES and by riches he doesn’t necessarily mean money. It means richness of life.
IN the second book he talks about the COSMIC HABIT FORCE. It is that force that allows us to create and maintain clothing. You’ve probably heard that if you do something for about 28 days it becomes a habit. In the book MASTER KEY TO RICHES, Napoleon Hill recounts how many of the world’s most successful people experienced that success only after some major failure or catastrophic event that had the effect of causing them to change their failed habits. This is evident in a story about a friend of mine who always wanted to be in politics. He only went to Law School as a “fallback” in case he failed in politics. Well, during and immediately after law school, he was able to get a “political” job. Then, in a scandal involving the person he worked for, he was forced to practice law privately. He had great political habits, but now he had to unlearn them and learn good “Law” habits. My friend had several of these life events, the biggest being getting fired from a corporate job. He forced him to study business and now he is a very successful businessman. One of the things my friend has told me is that through all the seeming “failures,” it was his faith and devotion to his spiritual life that kept him going.
What I recently learned is that success can only come after we have straightened out our spiritual lives. This is what I mean. You have heard that we are made in the image and likeness of God. Well, do you think that means that God has hands, feet, fingers and toes? Of course not! God is a spiritual being and therefore if we are like God; it is in our spiritual nature. The way we meet God is through our spirit. That’s where prayer comes in. Prayer is not just talking to God, “Our Father or Glory”, but meeting God intimately. Now God can meet us in any way he chooses. The reason I am ordained a permanent deacon is because God actually called me one day, using words. I heard the voice of God. It’s only happened once in my life, but I listened.
In Pope Benedict’s recent book, JESUS OF NAZARETH speaks of the Essenes. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, we learned a lot about them. This group existed around 500 years before Jesus and, in fact, many scholars believe that the Essenes taught Jesus. In one of the writings discovered with the Dead Sea Scroll it says that when our minds, spirit and body unite as one we can tell that mountain to fall into the sea and it will obey. In the Gospel we hear Jesus say that if you have the faith of a mustard seed you can tell the mountain to fall into the sea and it will obey you. Lately I have been reflecting on the question of whether faith comes when our minds, spirits and bodies come together. We are all called to imitate Jesus and we know that he often went out to pray and when he did, he tried to go out alone to pray in silence. This prayer is what sustained Jesus and it is what can sustain us. Some would not use the word prayer, but meditation or quiet time. Whatever you call it, it’s crucial to your success. I call it prayer.
I believe we should start each day with prayer. When I was first encouraged to start each day with a prayer, I didn’t think I could do it. Was occupied. Then I read a quote attributed to Cardinal Newman, “Pray 30 minutes a day and if you don’t have time to pray 30 minutes, pray for an hour.” I have come to know that this time of prayer is the key to inner peace and on a grand scale. It makes my whole day different. If I miss my quiet time, my morning prayer time, my day just isn’t the same. In the same way, it is important to end our day putting something positive in our mind. Our mind works all night on the last thing we put into it. If you put some negative thought in your mind, it will ruminate on that negative all night and you won’t sleep as well. Without rest, the next day is going to be much harder. When we’re having a good day, people notice. They can see that peaceful nature in us. If people see in us a peaceful nature, then they will want what we have. In that way, we can change the world around us. If we change the world around us, it could become contagious and we could end up changing the world.
Maybe it’s true, it all starts with me! And that goes for each of us.