Organic innovations

There’s no doubt that if we want to survive in our increasingly complicated times, we need to be flexible, adaptive, versatile and innovative. This should be our constant mindset. We should not get stuck with the modes and ways of the past that, while helpful in their own time, may be impractical today.

Just the same, we should not just discard the things of the past in indiscriminating way. That would lead us to a lot of dangers. We have to know what are still useful, because the new things just cannot arise out of thin air.

The innovations can only come out from the ground of the past. They bud and flower from the rich soil of our traditions and especially of the absolute truths of our faith and morals that serve as the ultimate criteria of what are deemed good in our innovations.

Yes, we need to be innovative always, but of the kind that is organic, knowing how to blend the old and the new. It’s good that we develop the skill of thinking out of the box, but neither should we forget the things of the past that can serve as launching pad for new things.

We need some structure—like a daily schedule or plan of action, etc.—to facilitate our innovations. We have to remember that we also should not be too schedule- or plan-bound because surprises can come anytime and we have to be quick to make adjustments for them.

Thus, we need to be prudent and discerning of things, and especially of what the Holy Spirit is actually prompting us to do. We should not forget that the Holy Spirit is always intervening in our lives and that we need to be most sensitive to his promptings.

We may also have to do some consultations with the appropriate persons. For this, we need to be humble and open-minded to acknowledge our limitations and our need for help.

It also helps that we practice a certain degree of restraint in our eagerness to innovate. We cannot deny that sometimes we can be over-eager and we may have to exert extraordinary effort to deny ourselves in some innovations that are clearly sinful.

In all this, we just have to be sport and game. We should not be afraid to do some experiments and suffer some failures. As someone said, if Plan A does not work, we still have a lot of letters in the alphabet that we can use to continue with our experimentations. We just have to learn how to begin and begin again. Our failures and setbacks are actually good sources of precious lessons.

The important thing is that our motives are earnest and sincere, founded ultimately on our love for God and for others, not just some personal interest. We may have to take some calculated risks. They are unavoidable in the adventure of our life.

We need to pause from time to time to see how things are going. Are we still on the right course? Are our motives and intentions still pure, or are they slowly contaminated by egoistic impulses? Is everything done really for the glory of God and for love of the others, or is already driven by a me-first attitude? Are we still humble and simple, keeping our right spiritual and supernatural bearing, or are things deviating from that course?

It’s good that we be demanding in our self-examination so that we don’t spoil what otherwise is a good initiative to be innovative, and so that we can map out the relevant strategies to pursue the ideal of organic innovations.