Father, IMBA!” The student council officer surprisingly exclaimed after I said an extemporaneous prayer to open the sports festival of a school’s maintenance crew.
I had no way of clarifying exactly what he meant with ‘imba’ since I was running late for an appointment. Was it a complement? Did I hear him say what I thought I heard him saying? Later, I had the chance to share it with a friend.
“Father, haven’t you heard that before?” He was quite amused at my ignorance.
“Frankly, no,” I said.
“I find it funny, that being acquainted with video games, you aren’t familiar with the term.”
“Correction! Liking video games doesn’t make me a hard-core gamer.”
“Well, gamers are fond of using it to refer to someone who’s awesome at playing multi-player games like Counter Strike.”
“I wasn’t playing a game…,” I clarified. “I was saying a prayer!”
“I know,” he eyeball-rolled at me. “But the phrase has acquired a broader significance amongst the youth to mean that ‘you’re great’, ‘you’re fantastic’ or something to that effect.”
“But what’s the real origin of the word?”
“It’s actually short for IMBALANCE!”
“Huh? That sounds more like you’re bonkers or nuts.”
“I know what you mean, Father. It’s like someone is sooo fantastic that he outbalances everyone around him, or creates such an imbalance due to his awesomeness.”
* * *
It’s amusing how we constantly ‘invent’ news ways of expressing old realities. I guess, back in high school we would have said ‘astig’ instead of ‘imba’.
Imba, however, seems to have a slightly richer content that may be applied to our spiritual life: striving for an impact of a ‘spiritual imbalance’ in our relationship with God and others.
In the first place, we must allow God to create a positive ‘imbalance’ so we may not fall into the subtle danger which Pope Francis calls ‘spiritual worldliness’. He warns that this dangerous spiritual condition “hides behind the appearance of piety and even love for the Church, consists in seeking not the Lord’s glory but human glory and personal well-being. (Ap. Ex., Evangelii gaudium, no. 93)”
He goes on to describe it as “a subtle way of seeking one’s ‘own interests, not those of Jesus Christ (Phil 2:21)’. It takes on many forms, depending on the kinds of persons and groups into which it seeps. Since it is based on carefully cultivated appearances, it is not always linked to outward sin; from without, everything appears as it should be. But if it were to seep into the Church, “it would be infinitely more disastrous than any other worldliness which is simply moral. (Ibid.)”
Our Lord, through the words of the Holy Father, is now inviting us to step out of this ‘spiritual comfort zone of appearances’. We must courageously destroy the ‘wall of appearances’ that prevent Him from asking more love and sacrifice from us.
Sometimes God’s ‘imba’ could come in the form of trials, separations, misunderstandings, etc. But being the loving Father that He is, He prefers to patiently wait for our own generous response and conversion.
This is especially true when we pray sincerely, when we are docile to His promptings through the graces he sends us daily, and also through guiding individuals who instrumentally lead us back to Him.
We would be short-changing God, and ultimately ourselves, if we think that we could simply live our lives in some form of ‘comfortable spiritual equilibrium’. This state of passive contentment reduces our spiritual life to only ‘doing good’ and ‘avoiding evil’. In the end, this equilibrium stagnates into pride, vanity, envy and other worse vices.
The other side of ‘imba’ is the effort we place to constantly and sincerely examine ourselves if we are falling into some form of ‘spiritual worldliness’. With the help of God’s grace we struggle to create a state of imbalance in ourselves and others as well.
This is readily done when at the end of every day, we forge small and concrete resolutions focused on a particular virtue or apostolic goal. Once conceived, we ask God’s help to be able to live it the next day and carry it out in the best possible way.
If we persevere in this daily spiritual exercise, one day, God may look at the balance sheet of our life and say, “IMBA!”
* * *
SAMPLE BALANCE SHEET OF LIFE
(author unknown)
Our Birth is our Opening Balance!
Our Death is our Closing Balance!
Our Egoistic Views are our Liabilities
Our Creative Ideas are our Assets
Heart is our Current Asset
Soul is our Fixed Asset
Brain is our Fixed Deposit
Thinking is our Current Account
Acts of Self-giving are our Capital
Character & Morals, our Stock-in-Trade
Friends are our General Reserves
Values & Behavior are our Goodwill
Patience is our Interest Earned
Holiness is our Dividend
Children and Followers are our Bonus Issues
Education is Brands / Patents
Personal Formation is our Investment
Experience is our Premium Account
The Aim is to Tally the Balance Sheet accurately
The Goal is: To make God smile when He looks at your Balance Sheet.