The good things, with true good, ie from God, come when we least expect.
They are always surprises.
We do not know that they will come…but if they come…we understand that we were prepared for them.
And the continue surprise…or my life lived as a surprise…is the one of the definitions of the Orthodox life.
In 1989, in the middle of the Romanian revolution, when there was an amazing religious effervescence, I realized that people on the streets were carried by Someone above them…and that He was their point of cohesion.
And it took me several months, until August 6, 1990, to understand that what I lived is called religious conversion.
And the Transfiguration of the Lord became my day of entry into the Church, by conscious input… although I was baptized as a baby.
Followed five years of research seminars, one year by professorship, four years of theological studies, 2 years of Master, 4 years of PhD in Theology…and 7 years of priesthood.
Theology for Today (the present editorial project) entered into the 6th year…where we have over 9.000 articles and 65 books edited online.
But nothing has been…programed…
I left myself worn by the hand of God…and I was intuiting what He wanted to do with me…I subjected to Him.
But this is the miracle: that then when you do not want to do your will…you get to do more than you have imagined.
And God surprises you always…than when you leave yourself surprised by Him. On each day He shows you how important is the output from you…to others.
He teaches us the dynamism of the Orthodox life. That the state on place means out of life whiles the ascesis, the work continues means a continuous source of joy and spiritual fulfillment.
This is the motive for that I and my wife, presbytera Gianina (Doctor in Letters), consider the online creation as a continuous ascesis.
Because the time that is given to others is treasurization in creation. It’s not wasted time…but won both for ourselves and for others.
And as you give more…you understand the richness of God’s gifts.
For that God teaches us step with step that the beauty of human relationships consists not in how you receive…but in how you give.
And when you enjoy giving…you feel, in fact, how God fills you with His gifts.
But if God surprises us…He demands from us that sensibility and attention through which we surprise others at the pleasant mode.