Neculai Fântânaru
Everything Depends on Who Leads
Everything Depends on Who Leads
On the fourteenth day of my journey through the desert, I reached the ruins of an ancient monastery. The wind seemed to carry echoes of forgotten prayers, and the stones still breathed the memory of saints hidden in silence. On an inexplicable impulse, I stopped to rest in the shade of a collapsed wall, when I noticed that the sand around this place had a strange texture – it was fine as powder, but it seemed to vibrate under my steps. In fact, it was not ordinary sand, but a matter transfigured by time and prayer. Rather, it seemed like a "Terra Consecrata" that preserved the imprint of ancient revelations in a merciless desert that does not forgive weakness.
As I sipped some water from my pitcher, gazing out at the horizon melting in the afternoon heat, a blinding light exploded in my mind like a divine flash. It was as if the sky itself was splitting in two, letting an understanding other than this world fall upon me. It was no ordinary vision, but a revelation that brought with it not only understanding but also a profound existential pain. Suddenly, with a clarity that froze my blood, I saw the truth about the nature of the relationship between man and the Creator. Namely: that drawing near to Him is not rest, but an endless struggle with one’s own shadows and with temptations that increase in proportion to the grace received.
The vision was in the form of a cross of broken light, expressing the paradox of suffering that gives birth to knowledge. I understood then that the closer you get to God, the more cruel and sophisticated the trials will be. And the more spiritual potential and creative talent you have, the more you will be tested by forces that will try to bend or break you. It would be said that there is an implacable cosmic law: the further you advance towards the heart of divinity, the more intense the challenges become, because only by testing yourself to the extreme can you prove that you are truly worthy of this closeness.
Do you remember the movie Life of Pi (2012)? After surviving a shipwreck, the protagonist, Pi Patel, is stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger. He is forced to overcome his fear, develop incredible inner strength, and learn to coexist with a ruthless wild animal. He goes through hunger, storms, and despair on the Pacific Ocean. In his darkest moments, when it seems he will die, he continues to pray and give thanks for each extra day of life. This experience, which seems like an injustice and an absolute misfortune, turns out to be a divine test that refines his faith. At the end of the journey, Pi understands that all these seemingly cruel hardships were the tools through which he discovered a deeper relationship with the divine, transforming him from a fragile survivor into a bearer of divine victory.
This is the law of the cross: only those who survive all trials can experience the miracle of God's intervention. And only by performing a miracle that is completely out of the ordinary, which everyone recognizes as authentic divine intervention, can man be placed among the elect. In fact, union with God is not achieved through theological study, but through the manifestation of a power that clearly exceeds normal human capabilities. It is an authentic miracle that can only be achieved by those who have passed through all the purifying fires and remained steadfast in their faith.
Finally, I understood the vision, that everything that happened in my existence – evil, misfortune or injustice – came from God. Not from dark forces or chance, but from the same divine source that has always confused my paths, leaving me wandering in a labyrinth of hidden mysteries. It is an Incomprehensible Providence that uses both light and darkness to shape the soul of the chosen one, to perfection. In the end, only those who go through all the tests without doubting the divine nature of the trials will succeed in truly knowing the Creator, and not as an abstract theological concept, but as a living and all-encompassing presence that works through all the circumstances of life.
The monastery was the hidden witness of the vision that revealed the divine mystery: if you want to know God in His full immanence, you must be prepared to face all the evil in the world and prove that you are stronger than it through spiritual resistance, not by avoiding the fight. It is a fight to the death, in which the soul must prove capable of remaining pure even when surrounded by darkness. God will always be by your side with His invisible support, but He will leave it to you to make the crucial decisions in moments of balance, precisely when you have to face evil directly and choose between giving in or remaining faithful to divine principles.
The decision to enter the fight is yours alone, but the power to see it through to the end comes from God.
That's right. The desert forgives no one, and the old ruins of the monastery showed me the extent of my fragility. I learned that day that I am not a victim of circumstances, but a participant in a process of spiritual refinement. Each trial was a chance to prove to myself and to the universe that I am capable of endurance that exceeds ordinary human limits. In fact, this is faith, an echo of the desert that calls the soul to the test. In the end, man must become so strong that he can stand next to God not as a servant, but as an equal partner in the eternal struggle for the triumph of a light that never sets.
Probatio Suprema teaches us that the trials of life are not accidents of fate, but tests designed to prepare us for a sacred mission that transcends ordinary understanding. He who accepts this perspective no longer sees suffering as an injustice, but as an opportunity to prove himself worthy of the highest possible calling—that of becoming a conscious instrument of the divine will in the world. For in the spiritual economy of the universe, not all are called to the same responsibility, and those who receive greater gifts must also pass through greater trials to demonstrate that they can honorably bear the burden of a mission that will affect not only their own existence but also the destiny of other souls who will be inspired by their example of authentic spiritual endurance.
As for vision, I would add one more thing: authentic vision does not come before the fight, but after you have proven your strength to withstand all trials.
Why read this book? Because it is critical to optimizing your performance. Because it reveals the main coordinates after that are build the character and skills of the leaders, highlighting what it is important for them to increase their influence.
The essential characteristic of this book in comparison with others on the market in the same domain is that it describes through examples the ideal competences of a leader. I never claimed that it's easy to become a good leader, but if people will...
For some leaders, "leading" resembles more to a chess game, a game of cleverness and perspicacity; for others it means a game of chance, a game they think they can win every time risking and betting everything on a single card.
I wrote this book that conjoins in a simple way personal development with leadership, just like a puzzle, where you have to match all the given pieces in order to recompose the general image.
The aim of this book is to offer you information through concrete examples and to show you how to obtain the capacity to make others see things from the same angle as you.
Without considering it a concord, the book is representing the try of an ordinary man - the author - who through simple words, facts and usual examples instills to the ordinary man courage and optimism in his own quest to be his own master and who knows... maybe even a leader.
