To be or not to be

What’s gonna be is gonna be

What goes up must come down

What’s gonna be is gonna be

There’s nothing you can do about it…

This old tune just popped into my mind and for the first time since I’ve been hearing it, I saw something wrong with these lyrics. Truth is: what’s gonna be is gonna be only if you let it be. Hmmm... pregnant statement if you ask me.

The submission that what’s gonna be is gonna be, there’s nothing you can do about it is fallacious in all its ramifications because it tactically abdicated the responsilbilty placed on our shoulders as the ultimate determinant of our predicament to some unknown forces. Don’t be deceived friend, if it must be then it is up to you. You are so powerful that what you allow comes to bear and what you disallow cannot come to fruition, the sad thing however is that we seem to have lost consciousness of the latent power resident within us such that we live our life to chances. Listen to me life is not governed by chance it is ruled by choice, there is no such thing as luck in the school of success (if there is anything called luck I believe it is more like preparation plus opportunity that we so call for want of appropriate nomenclature) hence the concept of luck as something that falls on one’s lap without his input is alien to the principle upon which the world operates. The gospel that God has pre-ordained everything that must happen to happen even without any human participation is very far from the truth because the dynamics of the workings of God dictates that nothing is to be forced on man else he is no longer a human being but a robot. You are not just some inanimate object tossed here and there by every wind of circumstance, that you have a will is indicative of the fact that you are not just to assume a sit-down-look-posture accepting whatever life tosses at you as your fate, you can choose to either accept or reject whatever it is - every operation requires your cooperation.

Arise mate, stop been docile in the game of life, get active and begin to influence things with your willpower as life does not respond to those who go through it hands akimbo expecting to wake up one day to find things taking shape on their own accord. Shape it for it to take shape, keep at the back of your mind that what will be will be if you let it be… and if you don’t want it to be, stand your ground and turn the tide in your favour.

SHALLOM!

THIS TOO SHALL PASS

Reading through the holy writ you'll come across this phrase

"…and it came to pass in the process of time…"

A statement pregnant with deep meaning that if we spend some time to unravel we’ll be amazed at the rich message embedded therein. Let’s take some time to x-ray this two-pronged phrase shall we?

The first life changing lesson to be learnt from this phrase is in the 'not-too-spectacular' statement 

"...And it came to pass…"

My dear friend,

In what situations have you found yourself today?

What impregnable mountains are staring you right in the face?

What challenges do you have to grapple with in your life’s foray?

What ravenous wolves do you have to confront with every passing day?

Whatever it is, find solace in this my dear…it has only come to pass; it did not come to stay. It might have lingered on for so long with no solution in the horizon, I have a good news for you, weeping is only permitted to endure for a night; the dawn of a new day is just by the corner. The challenges of life have only come to make you better not bitter so stand your ground and ride out the storm. We’ve all had to at one point or the other in our life confront some seemingly insurmountable situations, occasions when we want to smile but we can only sigh, circumstances when we want to dance but we are weighed down by loads of challenges and encumbered by myriads of encumberances, listen to me friend this too shall pass. Hold on to your conviction and confession of faith for no matter what it is, it has come to pass. I think the popular axiom 'no condition is permanent' is apt in this circumstance, that unpalatable situation may be lasting but it is not everlasting. Very soon, you shall be singing a new song.

I’ll also like to draw your attention to the second part of the phrase…in the process of time.

I have come to discover that everything that must stand the test of time must be processed by time. It takes a process dear. Hear me friend; those who take a lift when they should have trekked will trek when they should have been lifted. There is a time for everything. That your mates and contemporaries seem to have gone ahead of you does not in any way mean that God has forgotten you; it only means that your time has not yet come. Why don’t you exercise some patience and wait for your turn or should I say wait for your time? Remember dear friend to everything there is a season and a time to every activity under the heaven. Don’t just go through time allow time process you so you can come out shining in the process of time.

Take some time to study gold, look at the different process it had to go through right from the time it was discovered and mined up until the time it spent in the furnace but alas it didn't get destroyed in the furnace, it made a grand exit from the furnace shining and sparkling becoming something of high value just because it went through a process. This storm will not swallow you my friend, you are coming out like the hero that you are 'cos you are work in progress. Go through the process, come out a finished product manufactured in the process of time.

Shallom!

WHAT IS THAT IN YOUR HAND?

Just after hanging my jungle boot having collected the piece of paper on which was boldly written ‘certificate of national service’ attesting to the fact that I have donated a year of my life to serve (don’t ask me if it was voluntary) my fatherland then came the time for reality check. Few days down the line the message began to sink that the era of monthly ‘alawe’ was over. There is no doubting the fact that though the monthly stipend could hardly meet my needs it was better than not having a source of income at all after all 'half bread is better than 'poff-poff' but with this half bread gone and the fact that ‘man must wack’ which means by implication that man must work hence came the era of job hunting which I must confess was not funny at all. I remember travelling the length and breadth of Nigeria writing aptitude tests: both the ones I was invited for and the ones I had to ‘gate crash’ (by the way that word was introduced into my dictionary during that period). From NLNG to first bank to access bank to firstinland bank to…the list is long, i kept on writing hoping that at least one will 'click' – by the way these aptitude test centers became my point of rendezvous, meeting several schoolmates that I had lost touch with after graduation. So apart from going to write aptitude test, it presents a platform to catch up on old gist which a times could be therapeutic giving the psychological trauma one was going through at the time.

A direct fallout from this job hunting experience is its clear indictment of our institutions that has been busy churning out tons of graduates – brilliant minds who have been well groomed and prepared for a bright future save that they were not prepared for such eventualities as having to stay jobless or out of job for a long time. The question then remains how do we handle such circumstances should we be confronted with them? I am all out for having a positive mentality and approaching everything with a ‘can do’ attitude but truth be told there are times when things refused to go the way we want it. If anybody had told me when I was passing out from NYSC that I’ll be jobless for more than one whole year I’ll simply refer the person to a psychiatrist to have his head examined because apart from graduating as one of the best in my class, I also have innate potentials which I know will give me a hedge coupled with the God factor – common with this trio on my side I should land a dream job almost immediately, but alas to my greatest chagrin, there was I writing one aptitude test after another without getting the job.

If for anything, this episode taught me to get back to the drawing board and redefine my expectations. Believe me the moment I decided to look inwards I was able to open a vista of opportunities which eventually landed me a good job. I suddenly discovered that I was at least good at something – talking, so I decided to go into motivational and public speaking cum event compeering and trust me there was no need to look for job any more. So when eventually I got a job, it was more like the job came to me. I stopped being desperate about getting a job, I focused more on developing myself and building my business even though I still wanted to have a working experience but now my value has changed, I saw getting a job more like an opportunity to learn and garner the requisite experience to build my own organization as opposed to looking for job just as a means of livelihood.

What led to this paradigm shift in my mentality?

Simple; looking inwards.

We are apt to look up, look around, look down…look everywhere but within.

If only we turn the searchlight inwards we’ll be amazed at the latent potentials we carry. You’ll be shocked to know that the solution to your predicament is in your hands, if only you can stop running back and forth invest your time in some deep thinking you’ll be surprised at the myriads of solutions that you’ll come up with which will eventually land you in your place of rest. I for one believe that we are all born naked but no one is born empty, so I ask you my dear friend “what is that in your hand”? Take it from me, it’s in your hand just go ahead and use it or like peak milk will say “it’s in you”.

 Let's meet at the top shall we? it's up to you yes you.

THE ‘ME’ I SEE

I’ve always wondered what life has in store for me

I’ve always wondered what lies beneath the surface

I’ve always wondered what will become of me

I am extremely anxious about my tomorrow

I am constantly hunted by the thought of not maximizing my potentials

I have fears, load of them

Chief of which is departing without impacting

Every passing day I strive to make my life count

Peradventure I can also be counted among the great

But a fundamental truth I seem to be ignoring

That the ‘me’ I see is the ‘me’ I’ll be

Then came the Eureka moment!

When finally I got the ancient secret

Consequent upon which I began speaking another language

I see me affecting my world positively

I see me putting smiles on the faces of millions

I see me being the answer to the question of many

I see me being the solution to the problem of many

I see me providing the leadership that my world needs

I see me being a voice in my generation

I see me being the change that my world has been waiting for

I see me lending a hand to millions of helpless folks around the world

I see me being the catalyst of global revolution

I see me being the hero of my time

I see me facing my creator with a sense of satisfaction

Cos the me I see is the me I’ll be

Take a look into the mirror my dear friend

What exactly do you see?

Begin to declare that which you have seen

Cos the ‘you’ you see is the ‘you’ you’ll be

SHALLOM!

EMOTIONAL BANK ACCOUNT

It’s incredibly amazing the principles by which life on earth is governed – simple yet profound principles. We seem to look at things from a complex stand point simply because we have succeeded in complicating our simple world (Hmmm, thought provoking if you ask me). One of the fundamental simple principles of life is that of saving – it’s a culture that is as old as man. You only need to remember the great famine that ravaged the then known world and the wisdom with which the world was preserved shared by Joseph a man that knows the benefit of saving in time of abundance to be enjoyed in time of adverse scarcity.

In our life’s foray, we’ll always have seasons of plenty as well as periods of scarcity, there’ll always be booms and dooms just as the world is experiencing right now. However, it seems we have ignored this timeless principle or we simply don’t have a saving culture in our time such that we enjoy (or over enjoy) the period of plenty only to be greeted by a global crunch and alas we have to endure the excruciating pain because we’ve got no reserve.

Quick one: Don’t serve all, reserve some.

Sincerely, I for one think that this attitude has permeated every department of our lives such that even in our human relationships we treat people like thrash. I doubt if there is any justifiable reason why we should relate with our fellow men as though the whole world revolves around only us. You know for some folks, the only definitive article in their dictionary is I, Me and Myself, but either we like it or not we all have an imaginary (but real) account with everyone in our world – it is called the emotional bank account and truth be told, we need to continually make deposits in this account because either we like it or not, a time will come when we need to make withdrawals; woe betide the individual whose account is in the red at such hour of need. Your cash bank account might be in negative balance and there won’t be much qualms but for your emotional account ensure that you are always in credit.

A tree can never make a forest just as no one is an island on his own hence in whatever you do friend remember that the principle of seed time and harvest governs our world so make sure you are planting the right seed for posterity sake. The American writer Wilson Mizner says “be nice to people on your way up because you might meet them on your way down” how do you intend to face those you practically trampled underfoot to attain that height when the chips start making their downward descent. Let me borrow you a gem of wisdom friend: despise no man, be good to all because after all said and done just as I use to say “as powerful as a microscope is, you can’t use it to see a man’s future” the nonentity of today might have a great identity tomorrow and become a some-entity that holds the key to your breakthrough.

I charge you mate, put a smile on someone’s face today and always remember that your candle loses nothing by lighting up another.

I ask you have you made deposit into your emotional bank account today?

Peaks, Valleys, and Rails

Many of us long for mountaintop moments. Those times of shared success, satisfaction, and celebration. Times when the nail-biting drive of daily life is behind us for a while and forgotten, and all we can think about is the happiness of the moment.

A honeymoon can be that kind of experience: the rush of shared sex, the joy of loving someone and being loved in return, the bright hopes for years of happiness together.

The birth of a child can be a mountaintop: the wonder of little eyes opening for the first time, the sacred squall of a newborn's first cry, the way an infant can bring parents and in-laws together.

A dream vacation with your spouse can be a mountaintop: time to relax and enjoy each other and a beautiful place, without worries, without work.

It's tempting to think of life as a continual climb, looking for the next mountaintop. We may tell ourselves that most of life is lived in the valleys, but we hope we're on the road to another mountaintop experience, and that we'll get there before too long or after too many years on the switchbacks, we can lose hope that we'll ever see another mountaintop. Some people sink into dreary stagnation: "My life is what it is. Not bad enough to end, but I’m not finding any mountaintops."

But is life best seen as a series of mountaintop and valley experiences? Mountaintops that never last long enough, and valleys that seem endless?

"Why does life have to be a series of ups and downs?" "Why can't we just go from one mountaintop to another, from one up to an upper up?"

But what if peaks and valleys aren't the best way to describe life? What if God didn't intend us just to endure down times so we could enjoy an occasional up?

Rick Warren, pastor and author of The Purpose-Driven Life, made an observation a couple of years ago that seems to describe the terrain of life. In a single year, his book reached the top of the best-seller lists and his wife was diagnosed with cancer. A mountaintop? A deep valley? Or something else?

"This past year has been the greatest year of my life," wrote Rick, "but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys—you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth.

"I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life."

For a train to make progress, it's always in contact with both rails. Life rides parallel rails of blessing and adversity.

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," writes David in Psalm 23, "I will fear no evil, for you are with me." This songwriter of the Bible is describing a comfort and relationship that emerges only in the difficult times. In fact, the closeness of that relationship develops in the difficult times.

Likewise, as we mature, we begin to notice that joy and difficulty aren't either/or. They coexist constantly.

"No matter how good things are in your life," writes Warren, "there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for."

So maybe the purpose of life isn't about always looking for the next mountaintop.

Joy and difficulty are an odd combination, but much of life is lived seeking one and avoiding the other. I used to think they came one at a time, like alternating currents. Now I realize they're both present, all the time and developing eyes to see both simultaneously is a proof of our maturity.

I'm glad that life isn't just mountaintops and valleys, but that both joy and adversity are with us always for by this we learn one of the most important lessons about life – DEPENDENCE.

FREED BUT NOT FREE

When on the 4th of  july 1776 congress adopted the declaration of independence of the United States it was a landmark, epoch-making and indeed history making event and even though the document as far as I am concerned is to serve as the compass for the journey of the great nation that was birthed that day, to sit down and debate if America has lost that compass will be to leave the log in one’s eyes only to be pointing at the speck in the eyes of one’s neighbor, hence even though I’ll look at the text of the declaration of American independence, I’ll be looking at it in the context of my dear country Nigeria who graciously gained her independence on the 1st of October, 1960.

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government”.

Hmmm...pregnant declaration if you ask me. Nigeria, oh my darling country as we celebrate our 49th year of freedom I am tempted to ask are we free indeed? Freedom as far as I am concerned goes beyond celebrations which is what we seem to have reduced it to and take it from me that is the greatest aberration to the principle of independence, to me it looks like what we have are the paraphernalia of freedom devoid of freedom itself and sadly we appear to have confused freedom as a concept ( idea) with freedom as a concrete (reality). Wherein lies the difference? I’ll use a simple analogy – Wedding and Marriage. Just like loads of folks are confusing the two as they get carried away with the motions and theatrics of wedding preparation that they suffer from acute amnesia to keep at the fore front of the mind that wedding is one day marriage is a lifetime, of course reality begins to dawn on folks when after all the merriment and noise making of wedding which by the way is short lived they are awaken to the real world of marriage and alas they are ill prepared. The crack in several homes can be traced to this silent issue and it is a classical case of misplacement of priority which is exactly Nigeria's present dilemma .

 In the wake of events leading up to 1st October, 1960, our leaders were carried away with the ceremonies and preparations for the ‘great event’ of independence that they somehow forgot that with independence comes responsibility and it looks as if we took freedom and mortgaged the responsibility that comes with it for something that has a form of freedom but in actual sense is bondage in disguise. If not how can we explain the fact that our history is replete with leaders who at best are rulers? We were freed but are we free? Are we free from corruption and all its attendant consequences? Are we sincerely free as a nation to move into our ‘promised land’? Are we free to properly and judiciously utilize the natural resources with which we have been abundantly blessed by the almighty? Are we free to exercise our right as a sovereign nation in dealing with the challenges that we face as a people? Are we truly free? I think the real question is have we paid the price for freedom? because the reality of it is that freedom has a price tag attached to it. Food for thought if you ask me.