Photo copyright 2013 Allister Roy S. Chua

For us workers in innovation, social innovation at that, uncertainty is always something we will face. In fact, innovation itself is all about uncertainty, or rather, beating it with a novel – or improved – concept.

Actually, merely going beyond yourself, leaving your comfort zone, is already enough to give you a sense of fear and uncertainty. We can’t help but feel nervous at the many possibilities – negative, mainly – that could happen. Even with careful planning, something could still disrupt the entire thing and send us crashing down to square one. It’s a valid thought, really.

If we’re being called to do something beyond and greater than ourselves, and we actually accept it and go for it, this thought gets even scarier, because our entire beings are in the balance, so to speak. For us purposeful livers, especially if we recognize the higher being that our purposes come from and are directed towards, it’s particularly nerve-wrecking.

That’s why we call on that higher being to help us. For me, it’s God, especially God the Holy Spirit.

In what is as of this writing my favorite song, the narrator acknowledges that God has called him to do things beyond himself, represented by the big, blue ocean. Oceans are deep, and bigger than landmasses – and therefore the perfect symbol for uncertainty. Yet they are also the perfect symbol for adventure – and guided adventure, if you keep the faith. Faith in God, that he will protect you and show you the way in the midst of so much uncertainty and danger. For the purposeful liver who is Christian (or simply theist), this song is our anthem of anthems, our morning call, our daily prayer.

The bridge of the song goes, “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders / Let me walk upon the waters wherever you would call me / Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander / And my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Savior”. In living lives of God-commissioned purpose, we are actually being called to go beyond ourselves, to leave our comfort zones, and to grow – to grow in, and rooted in, God’s love. We are called to be rooted in consciousness and in service – to have a stable, eternal root – but at the same time emerge from the soil of comfort and grow into the open world, just as a tree does.

Photo copyright 2011 Allister Roy S. Chua

God created the world to be big and wide. But he created it not to be a place of fear and uncertainty, but a testament to his majesty and greatness. Through the prayer asking for God’s providence, we are reminded that God is always in control of everything and will never let anything bad happen to us – if only we ask him to do so!

This has been my theme song ever since my colleague, a devout Christian and Hillsong fan, shared it with me. She said that this is her morning reflection everyday – and I should adopt this mindset too. As a Catholic, I pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet every morning, which contains the image of an ocean of divine mercy. I don’t think this is coincidental – “Oceans” is definitely a must-reflect in the morning for every serious Christian, and every serious social innovator out there.

So let us not worry about getting lost in the ocean where feet may fail, and instead choose to get lost in the ocean of Jesus’s everlasting mercy – to ask him and his holy mother to be our Good Shepherd and our Lighthouse who will never cease to guide us home.

Have a blessed and purposeful week ahead!