On Life 213 – Thomas Cruise – April 23, 2018

He said to me I have read your two previous articles on the late Pope Kirollos VI and Pope Shenouda III. Each one of them owns a great credit of love not only in the hearts of Copts but all Egyptians as well. I also follow up your series articles “On Life” and see the hope you seed in hearts through your stories about the lives of great people. But I also see some people who were gifted by unusual talents, in my opinion, or those who those who find supporters to help them overcome life’s obstacles and run toward success. This might by unaffordable to all people. I stopped a little before his words and asked him. “Do you believe that God is fair?” He said, “Yes”. I said, “Then let us put things in perspective. Indeed problems vary from one person to another but every person is gifted by abilities that can help him overcome his obstacles, to be more accurate, soar above them.
They just have to realize their real problems and trust God who gifted him with what helps him to overcome them. This is not the end of it, he has to use these abilities which undoubtedly need hard work and great toiling. When man honestly takes the first step on the road, he will definitely find a hand stretching out to help him. Here he said, “…or rather to make him stumble”. I smiled saying, “My friend, man is the one who chooses either to trust in God and think in positive way which will help him keep going or to let despair dig deep into his soul so he stops trying and take the first step on the road of failure. Man has to learn and realize that life is not messy and meaningless but rather deeper than people imagine and they have to shoulder its responsibilities. They have to realize that its existence is not out of coincidence but it truly planned accurately for a role and mission for every person. Let me offer you an example, far from the religious sphere, who walked on the path of life and achiever success in his acting career. He belonged to a poor, unstable family due to its many journeys from Canada to America and vice versa. His father travelled a lot searching for a job so the result was that he moved from a school to another till he studied at 15 schools when his family discovered that he suffered from Dyslexia which deeply affected his psyche and his learning process. HE SAYS, “My childhood was extremely lonely and kids made fun of me because i couldn’t read”. At the age of 11, he became responsible for a family of four persons after the departure of his father. At the age of 16, he lost his athletic capabilities due to an injury in the knee. Negative emotions found their way to his heart and made him feel he is not able to be a successful person or to achieve success. He decided not to surrender. Meanwhile, one of his teachers encouraged him to join acting activities. He chose visual learning, so he could memorize his roles. He says, I trained myself how to create mental images to comprehend what I read” till he achieved great success among his friends discovering a great desire to keep going.
He started his career at age 18 when he went to Newyork to achieve his dream. He was rejected in an audition after an audition till he became able to be a successful shot and one of nominees to Oscar.