Back in my days in the electronic security industry I would attend new product shows once or twice a year. It was good to get a way for a couple of days and on occasion, I would stay a bit longer and visit a monastery while in the area. The event lasted usually 3 days and ended with a new product show. Now these shows lasted several hours and always ended with a drawing of business cards. We were supposed to visit each sales rep and discuss and examine their new and improved products and how these products could be an advantage to us and our customers. And then of course you would enter your business card for the give-away prize at the end of the show. The sales folks got some one-to-one time with decisions makers from all over the country that are usually too busy to deal with sales folks.
The finale was at the very end of the show, the host would draw names or business cards of the folks that won the giveaway products from each manufacturer, some may be useful and some didn’t quite fit what we were doing or our specific cliental needs. At that time of the evening a third of the attendees had left and gone to bed, and if their name was called, I’m sorry, You Must Be Present To Win!!
I speak about this because it is somewhat the same with our faith! If we do not support the church with our time, talent and tithe, do we really expect to win or be successful in becoming more like Christ? It is ever so easy to allow our pursuit of financial stability to separate us from the flock, or attempting to live beyond our means! It is ever so easy to allow our management of our 24 hours days to just give God seconds of what is left-over! We are micro-managing ourselves into hell, a life without Christ, a life in the shadows and darkness, a life that ends in destruction instead of salvation. The Bridegroom came as we slept and we allowed our lamps to go out! (Matthew 25:5-13)
This Orthodox Life is a marathon, it takes practice, it takes time, and it takes commitment! Simply put, You Must Be Present To Win!! St. Nectarios writes: “We have within us deeply rooted weaknesses, passions, and defects. This cannot all be cut out with one sharp motion, but patience, persistence, care and attention. The path leading to perfection is long. Pray to God so that he will strengthen you. Patiently accept your falls and, having stood up, immediately run to God, not remaining in that place where you have fallen. Do not despair if you keep falling into your old sins. Many of them are strong because they have received the force of habit. Only with the passage of time and with fervor will they be conquered. Don't let anything deprive you of hope.” (St. Nectarios of Aegina, Path to Happiness, 3)
I’ll end this thought with these words from St. Philaret of Moscow in the year 1847: “Every Christian should find for himself the imperative and incentive to become holy. If you live without struggle and without hope of becoming holy, then you are Christians only in name and not in essence. But without holiness, no one shall see the Lord, that is to say they will not attain eternal blessedness. It is a trustworthy saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15). But we deceive ourselves if we think that we are saved while remaining sinners. Christ saves those sinners by giving them the means to become saints.” (St. Philaret of Moscow, Sermon of September 23, 1847)
You Must Be Present To Win!!
Fr. Gabriel Weller 5-3-2026
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