Parable of the Pencil: A Reflection

There are only five rules to become a great pencil:
1. You can do great things if you allow yourself to be held in Someone’s hand
2. You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time
3. You have the ability to correct any mistakes you might make
4. The most important part of you will always be what’s inside
5. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write

I remember my favourite inspirational speaker Mr. Zig Ziglar say “You are born a winner”, and I think that this is one of the most basic truths. God created us to win, to be a witness of His greatness. But to be a winner, we also have to work hard. Keep focused on our Goal and know our mission in life. I love to share this with you, to learn more about Mr. Ziglar you can visit www.ziglar.com or download the Ziglar Inspire Podacast.
I think for us to realize our true greatness, we need to open ourselves to others who can guide us and teach us. These are the people that God gave us to help us reach in the true winner inside of us. These people are our parents, our teachers, mentors and coaches. They all teach us valuable lessons in life and equip us with the right mind-set and values to reach our goals. Even as grown-ups, we still have people around us that can greatly influence us towards success. These people are everywhere but we need humility to see and recognize them. Even the Desiderata says “listen to the old, they too have their stories” and we can learn from them. Like the pencil, we can only achieve our purpose if we let God and the people He sent to guide us, to handle us and to direct our path.
In life we often are left wondering what our real purpose is. Especially at times when problems are abounding, we feel helpless and hopeless, and we ask ourselves, “What is there in the world to live for?” We then become more disconnected with our Maker. We open ourselves to more temptation and for lack of a better term, we become less human.
When we are at this point in our lives, when we hit rock bottom and we have nowhere left to turn, we do either of these two things:
1. Give up
2. Give God a chance
It’s funny but that’s our reality. Especially, for most of us, “work in progress Christians” we think that God is a suitor that’s always there but was never our first option. So, when we are faced with our greatest failures, we turn to God and give Him a chance instead of us asking Him for another chance to be in His favour.
We can see this in a brighter light though, God gives us tests to strengthen us and for us to see our weaknesses and improve on them. Much like our examinations at school, we don’t get them just so the teacher can torture us; it is a form of sharpening. If we look at things in a positive perspective, everything changes. Even problems become adventures. It’s also a sign that we are still at God’s list, because if He doesn’t care, He wouldn’t even bother, right?
We oftentimes makes mistakes, and when we are raised in a family that punishes for every mistake that we do, we feel that we should be punish every time we fail or when we cannot conform to the norms. This, however, should not be the case. Jesus tells us to forgive our enemies and we should also learn to forgive ourselves, learn from the mistake, move on and be better. As with the pencil, we are equipped with an eraser to be able to start again.
Most importantly, it is what is inside of us that matters. As Zig Ziglar puts it, “it’s not where we start but where we end that is important.” As long as we keep our values and we know that we are morally straight, we can get up from any mistake or failure because what is inside is intact. And we can always get better and end up in the destiny that we are meant to have. We might be born poor or with a disability, but if we strive to hone our innate talents and skills we can still make despite all odds.

So let us remember, the pencil’s maker has a clear picture of what his creation would be and what great things he can accomplish. What more our Maker who made us in His own image? We are born to accomplish great things but we must humble ourselves, like the pencil, so we can be what we are born to be.