LESSON 1: God’s purpose or specific assignment to a man will never deny him of his free will to choose to or not to obey. God gave man the right to free will and will never violate or take away that right. It is important to mention here that this is regardless of how spectacularly that assignment was relayed. The apostle Paul made mention of this severally in his letters to the Corinthian church where he emphasized the need for balance between orderliness and the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the public meetings of the church (I Corinthians 14:26,40). We therefore understand that when the gifts of the Spirit are in manifestation, it is possible for the message to be held till the appropriate time when it can be delivered for the edification of the church. This is an occurrence we sometimes see in churches where a member of the congregation, perhaps genuinely inspired by the Holy Spirit to give a message in tongues blurts out these words in other tongues during the pastors sermon. This is definitely ill timing because it divides the attention of the church from the message of the pastor and is definitely not in order. Alternatively, a good time to share whatever the Lord has laid on your heart would be during the worship session when the eyes and hearts of the members of the congregation are on the Lord.

LESSON 2: From the above quoted scriptures, we also come to understand that just as man has the right to make a choice regarding the revelation of the will of God to him, God also has the right to act or make decisions based on man’s actions (Jonah 1:4). In the beginning, God took certain actions as a result of man’s failure to obey his injunction not to eat of the tree of good and evil. Man was thrown out of the Garden of Eden and forbidden from approaching the tree of life (Genesis 3:22-24). However, it is important to mention that God is a God of love and his actions are always an expression of his love. Hence, every time we take a wrong step, God always acts in such a way as to turn our eyes back to him and to obey him. The bible likens these chastising moments as an act of mercy and love from God in Hebrews 12: 6-11 and admonishes us to endure them even though they may be painful because in the end they will yield “the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11).
Therefore, we understand that man has the right to free will and is 100% responsible for his obedience or disobedience to God’s Word to him. We also understand that God regardless of man’s disobedience is free to act in such a way as to turn man’s eyes back to him…even if it requires the help of a giant fish and its belly for three days.
In the second part of this series, we will explore more lessons from God’s dealings with man in the book of Jonah. To continue to the second part of this article, please click here>>.

Heavy Weights
Imagine for a moment that you are watching a game of ‘throw and catch’ between a grown man and a four year old and the object they are throwing happens to be a bag of cement. For the grown man, catching the bag of cement will be possible because he can handle the weight of the bag. However, for the four year old, it will be a different story because he cannot handle the weight of the bag of cement. If the four year old in his naivety tries to catch the bag of cement, he is most likely to get injured in the process.

Relating this to thoughts, ideas and the mind, the adult player is the person with a strong developed mind while the four year old is the person with a weak undeveloped mind and the bag of cement represents ideas. Grand ideas are everywhere. The only reason why they appear to be in short supply is because weak minds cannot retain grand ideas/thoughts. When great ideas breeze into the thoughts of people with weak undeveloped minds, it flows right through because they don’t have the capacity to retain such thoughts for their lives. This is a reason why people settle for less than they should.

The Creator of the universe is liberal with great ideas and He longs to drop them in our minds. However, as long as we remain weak in our minds big ideas will always appear weak and great thoughts will be alien to us. So how can you make a weak mind become a strong one – able to retain great thoughts and ideas? The answer is in lifting heavy weights.

Weight Lifting is designed to increases the body mass, the muscle size, and ultimately, the physical strength of a person. Likewise, weight lifting done to the mind will increase the strength of the mind. When I say weight lifting, I am referring to the quality of materials you lift into your mind.

If It Must Be, It Must Be Read!

It has been said that two things determine the difference between a person today and five years from now – the people he meets and the books he reads. Don’t let anyone deceive you: edifying books have power! One person I have come to respect and admire in my life is John C. Maxwell. I have read a number of his books and one thing I have come to observe is how often he quotes other authors. He can hardly write two pages in his books without quoting something from a book he read sometime or something he heard someone say. If you are looking for someone with a blessed mind, John C. Maxwell certainly fits the bill on every count!

In his book, The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires, Brian Tracy made a comment about the power of learning continually as it relates to having an edge over your peers. This made me realize a fundamental truth about being preferred in any field of endeavor: having a mind that has been developed makes you retain big thoughts; big thoughts birth big ideas; big ideas make you a big shot, and being a big shot makes you a person to be sought after. This is evident when organizations want to hire new hands. I have observed that the hiring process is categorized into two. One category is when there is a notice put out by the hiring company for interested and qualified applicant to submit CV’s and application letter. The other category is when the organization does what is called ‘strategic employment.’ This kind of employment is done when the company has targeted a particular individual from another company to fill the position they have an opening in. Most of the time this kind of hiring is done when the organization intends to move to another level hence they seek and individual who has what it takes to take them to that level. This individual is the preferred person and he will never have to pick up his pen to write an application letter. Why? You are right! He is a big shot! I am sure you can relate with this analogy and even mention some of these big shots yourself. One common trait they all have is that they are all passionate about books.

It is my prayer that you get sick and tired of being counted as one of the many that make up the numbers, wallowing in the class of the majority. If your mind is weak and undeveloped, this is where you stand but changing that is just a decision away – change your attitude to books and you will see how easily your worth can increase simply by reading a few books.

Now on to Brian Tracy’s comment:

“There are three keys to lifelong learning. The first key is to read in your field for at least 30 to 60 minutes each day. Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body. Reading for an hour each day will translate into about a book per week. One book per week will translate into 50 books per year. 50 books per year will translate into 500 books over the next ten years…” this part alone made me see just how powerful our minds can get having been exposed to over 500 books in a short time of 10 years! A man having this kind of exposed mind will definitely become preferred above his peers because, continuing with Brain Tracy’s comment, “…the average adult reads less than one book per year. When you begin reading one hour per day, one book per week, this alone will give you an INCREDIBLE edge in your field. You WILL become one of the smartest, most competent, and HIGHEST PAID people in your profession by simply reading one hour a days.”

The Pain of a Nation

I was at the National Youth Service Corps camp in Umudi, Imo state last year to fellowship with Corpers under the Winners’ Corpers Fellowship where I had served as President of the fellowship during my service year. When giving my address, I asked that those who had finished reading a motivational or self-development book since they graduated to put up their hands. Less than 2% of a class of about 60 graduates put up their hands. These were the people who would take our nation to the next level. It pained my heart and I say this not to spite them but to share with you how mediocrity is thriving among the youths of the nation.

It is common place in Nigeria to believe that who you know will get you to the top. Connections and networking with people does have its advantages, if it is for the right reasons and not corrupt reasons, but even if who you know gets you to the top, at the end of the day, it is what you know that will keep you at the top!

The attitude of the average Nigerian to reading is nothing short of upsetting. The number of books authored by Nigerian that have made the Best-seller list is very few. It is not that these books are not good or well written rather it’s that the numbers of people needed to make it a best seller are not interested in the book! Hence the majority non-reading population misses out on the goldmines hidden in such books.

Highest paid people are not paid as such because they execute small, mediocre ideas. On the contrary, they are paid as such because they execute excellent ideas; excellent ideas stemming from great thoughts; great thoughts stemming from developed minds; developed minds stemming from exposure to mind-building books.

In concluding this chapter, I bring to your notice these truths that will remain as long as the earth remains:

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“Today We Find Promise – Today We Find Ourselves”

Tonight is a night of voices – the voices of aspirations once defeated, the sounds of dreams once conquered, the echoes of hope once lost, and now the melody of a promise newly born. Nigeria, this is your night! Tonight is the answer to the questions our founding fathers posed to a starry sky: the possibility of unity in diversity, the opportunity for prosperity and a better life, the guarantee of a future for all our unborn children. With courageous lines of people stretching past broken-down blocks and potholed highways, with purple-stained thumbs and locally organized movements by our youth, and the daring words of a generation that wouldn’t give up, you, Nigeria, have given the world one more grand reason to believe that even in the midst of crippling poverty, darkness and despair, there is hope!

I congratulate the congresses of cultures here present. Mr. President, I salute your courage and the moral splendor you have displayed before and during my transition to the Presidency of this nation. Your faithful adherence to the wishes of a seeking generation will forever be a monument to the greatness of your administration. To my wife and strength, the beauty and harmony of our household, and to my three daughters, this night is your night as well. Though you have had to miss daddy for many nights, your silent tears and sacrifices of patience will not go unrewarded – I promise you that, my loves! To those who said it couldn’t be done in our time and in our country, to those who insisted that Nigeria is no place for fairytales and ambitious dreams, to those who warned us against spinning wasteful fantasies, this is your night as well!


Our story is a tale of hope and grit in the face of a nonchalant sun. Ours is a story with watery beginnings – when the fiancée of a colonial lord stood above the raging rivers and christened this nation. She would name us after a river – flowing without prejudice – to nourish the parched and dry earth. Unfortunately, our name has historically given us nothing more than a metaphor. For purposes true to the interests of an empire, the colonists brought strangers and asked them to live with each other – leaving us with the silent promise of a life we can share, a hope we can mutually embrace, and a nation we can together build. Years after the last ship pulled away from our docks and the Union Jack was lowered for the green and white stripes, our fathers found the courage to envision a land of difference, a land of confluence and meaningful coexistence and a land of promise.

Years after, the cannons would be blackened with gun powder, bullets would fly through the chests of our slain brothers in the East, many mosques and churches would burn down in the flames of indignation, a hundred and one machetes would cut angry wounds on the backs of frightened Osu people, a tightened noose would suffocate a minority leader, and a new father would walk away from the tears of his new child and his resting wife – his pained eyes filled with despair as he contemplates a hospital bill he cannot pay.

Where is the promise?

Years after, a family would die on a Federal highway riddled with potholes, an entire police department would celebrate a good day’s job as they pour out stuffed money from their pockets, a minister of education would throw a lavish birthday party as poor teachers take to the streets in protest, a nation will recoil in horror as estimates of looted funds are made public, and many communities would suffer without water, food and shelter for their children.

He lost his job eight months into the crisis and has since been looking for a new job. Although he has found a couple of opportunities, the best offer he has had so far is for 55% of his former salary with no bonuses. Initially he turned down some of the offers, being sure that he was a high demand on the market. But as the situation worsened, he decided to settle for less only to hardly find anything. He was repeatedly told he was too qualified for employment. His apartment in Manhattan faces foreclosure, while he is frantically trying to refinance his Connecticut home. His time share in Mexico is up for sale on Craigslist, while he has taken back his convertible to the dealers. In 6 short months, everything came apart. Now Damien still hasn’t paid off his student loads for both undergraduate and graduate studies, and his is indebted by almost $18000 on his credit card. What a lie he had been living.

Lagos, Nigeria. Sir Joe (why he is called that I have no idea) recently lost his job as a banker in Lagos. He read accounting in a Nigerian university and had been working for just 2 years for a bank. He has already bought himself a car, rented a nice apartment in Ajah area, and wears the sweetest gears in town. At the point of losing his job he had 6000 naira in his savings while the other investments had lost value due to the crash in the stock market. Realizing now that he has to his rents to pay in 2 months time (and of course the landlord is demanding 3 years upfront), he is in a state of panic and had to get an overdraft to fix his car of recent. Now he sells cell phone recharge cards as a way of keeping things going and all he does with the proceeds is drink and smoke his time away, while hoping for a miracle to put his life back together. Sir Joe was pretty popular in his circle. He had parties at clubs, hung out every weekend, and always had one reason or the other for endless spending. He and his former girlfriend Sola are in the same predicament. She lost her job from a stockbrokerage firm and is now trying to learn fashion design at Obalende. They both had it going for a while, but it was all a lie.

Like the short stories above so many people have been stripped bare and we now see that it was all a false appearance. The cost of a wannabe life is extremely beyond what most incomes can contain. Yet the life was sustained by the propensities to earn and not what was actually available. It is like running a car on an empty tank and expecting that before it stops there will be a gas station to refuel. If you didn’t map the road and apportion gas stations at intervals, you may never know how near or how far off one maybe. Therefore assuming that one has a continuous capacity to earn is foolhardy and only increases the depth of pain when the unexpected knocks (as it always does). The credit crunch has really exposed a lot of those who were living false lives such as Bernie Madoff, Damien, Sir Joe, and Sola. From the big to the small, we see the unfolding theatrics of global and personal melt downs without obvious warning signs.

Unlike the ones whose lies have been uncovered, a few were prudent and knowingly saving and containing their carnal appetites. I know of one who lost her job but because she saved and invested rightly, she had enough stored up to start a business that is viable. Another one simply moved to a lower paying job and could still live comfortably because he was not extravagant but was shrewd with the much he earned at the time. Many are picking wisdom from the events of this past year and are buckling up for even tighter times. No one knows how long the recession is going to end, the economist only forecast based on prevailing data. But time and time again such prediction has always fallen heavily short of their mark. So it is more sensible to lead a simple and truthful life. Even when you earn enough to buy the whole city a cup of Starbucks coffee, you must understand that times and seasons change. So when you are in one season, you plan for the other because circumstances change as the seasons do. So if you are living a life, don’t worry, these times will help you ‘unlive’ it.

LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDCE) defines the family as “a closely related group – a group of people who are related to each other, especially a mother, a father and their children.” In elementary school, we were taught that “the family is the smallest unit in the society, consisting of father, mother and children related by blood” – what an innocent definition, not introducing little ones to the idea of divorce and remarriage, concepts that disproves the latter part of the definition.

Institution as defined in the LDCE is “an important system of organization that has existed for a long time.” This is true of the family; it is one of the world’s longest standing institutions in the world. Institutions provide an organized system of doing things in the society. My assumptions are if the family got the purpose of its establishment, other institutions in the society like the Presidency, Judiciary, State Executives, Local Councils, Legislatures at all levels, Social and Corporate services with get their bearings on doing what they do to benefit the people they serve and not the few members of these institutions and many more.

The foundation on which a family is built is marriage, the Holy Scriptures say, “If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” and often times it’s been said that when the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable. Hence, if the foundation on which the family is built is faulty, the ultimate result is frustration and lack of joy and fulfillment. This is why many times individuals can’t live up to expectation and fail in their quest for greatness because of lack of proper training and sometime abuse they suffer on the family platform.

In the series on the purpose and power of the family, I will discuss the foundation, the building and the commissioning of the family as it relates to nation building. The excellence of any nation lies in the content of the character of its people. The character which is largely a function of the upbringing and training of the people; as a Nigerian, the kind of character that makes for nation building is not common. This is not unconnected to the misunderstanding of the purpose and power of the family.

Since the beginning of a family is coming together of a man and a woman, to build a successful family the man and the woman must connect in so many ways, not minding personal ideologies that they have kept all their lives based on their backgrounds.

The concept of this coming together of the man and the woman to start the family has been a great mystery to me since I gained the consciousness of such union; I’ll share some of the thought that ran through my mind over the years.

In most of the situations I can remember, many marriages started with the man considering himself wealthy enough to still remain single or too old to remain single, so he has to get married, then he works towards getting married; other times the lady considers herself too old hence works so hard to get herself fixed up, even if it has to be in a polygamous setting. These situations led me to belief that to a good number of people, marriage is a necessity or a way to procreate, without the thought of the original purpose of the union.

The original intent of the family summed up in two words would be dominion and fruitfulness, the family was to provide leadership at various levels, starting from the home the father is to provide exemplary leadership that guides his family in the right path for growth and development. In the event of expansion, the role of corporate leadership would eventually fall on the members of various families and they will be responsible for providing guidance and leadership for the general public. The members of these families that should take up the offices of public leadership would be expected to be worthy members of their society, people considered to be worthy leaders of their homes.

As I studied history to understand the patterns obtainable in the times of our forefathers I understood the foregoing was one of the factors for the growth and the development of small empires, empires which later developed into large kingdoms and a committee of provinces under the leadership of a central government. Hence, I learnt that all through history, the family has been a very important unit of the society.

Though marriage then would have not been considered as purposefully as it is meant to be considered, but the study of history tells that the wives of many great leaders were very involved in the success stories of these leaders. Hence, it won’t be wrong to say the person we get married to have a lot to do with how far we get in life, as I have heard a number of times behind a successful man, there is always a woman.

To this end I want to make a submission, for the original intent of the family to be realized, the man and the woman who come together to start a family must understand the original intent for the family. This is now my question what is the path to getting this understanding? Another question is what would be the danger of going into a union without this understanding?

In the next part of this series, I will be sharing thoughts on the foundation of this great institution – the family and the dangers of a faulty foundation. Till then, keep making the difference in the ways you can, because the little difference you make today will go a long way to keep the fire of change burning in the hearts of people around. Let your dream for change keep burning, because dreams never die, the live on as long as there is hope.

However, in my monologues about Nigeria, I have asked myself if there are more good people in society, how come then that we have more evil people who seem to bear rule over the good. I guess we can explain that it was power that made them evil who essentially had a good nature. Some may argue that there was an evil nature that was simply nurtured at the ascension of power, so such men had no goodness in them. I have played with many scenarios in my head on the matter of why men suddenly become selfish and drunk when they are given power. But none of this has helped me solve the question on why a few evil men will successfully hold down the lives of many good people, who just want to make life better for themselves and for their children, as well as secure a future that is positively predictable. Why couldn’t the plenty overrule the tyranny of the few?

History is full of how the ‘bad few’ frustrate the ‘good plenty’ to astonishing levels. I just heard of late that there is a shortage of toilet paper in Cuba, and the government is claiming that this will continue till the end of the year. Cuba has stunning dimensions of poverty and backwardness brought upon its own people by a few ideologues who have pocket the possibilities of prosperity by advancing the ideology of a dead man. North Korea with a population of nearly 24 million people has only about a hundred men gripping their progress by the balls and suffocating their prosperity. Myanmar has over 45 million people and yet a few men are putting them on the edge of progress and development. If we care to rewind history, we will be presented with too many cases like the Idi Amins, the Hitlers, the Mussolinis, the tyrants and despots who have quenched the lights of their nations and reduced their citizens to crawling on an ever widening road of improvement.

In my country Nigeria, we have had our own dose of evil leadership which has crushed our spirits and maimed the faith of the young people in their great country. Yet when I take a closer look, these national impieties we wreaked by a few men who held the nation ransom and good men kept quiet. This is my concern; when good men do nothing. These evils continued unabated over several locations in our world simply because good men did nothing, or what they did was just not good enough. When good men do nothing, evil will take over. It is as simple as that. Edmund Burke truthfully states that “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” When we keep quiet at the wrong we see, when we refuse to take drastic actions against even the petty malfeasance and nonfeasance which we notice in our little corners, we have then silently given consent for evil to rule. It is absolutely unacceptable for a handful of selfish and fiercely greedy people to control our destinies while all the good men keep quiet, or move with trepidation founded on a desire to preserve their lives.

Someone put it this way: “The death of a thousand good men is not as tragic as the leadership of one evil man. “ The scriptures also say “when the wicked rule, the people groan. “ No matter how good the passengers of a car are, if the driver is a bad one, nothing can save them from a tragic crash. This is the predicament in many countries today; great people, bad drivers. Have you considered all the wars in history? Check it out! Most were caused by the belligerence of a few proud men, but the casualties were mostly good people. Remember Rwanda? Good men did nothing!

A friend of mine once told me a story of how he was travelling in a car along with three other people only to observe that the driver was fast asleep yet driving at 80km/h. He slapped him on the arm, told him to stop the car, came down and took over the driver’s seat. In November 2006, I was on my way back from a trip and hired a taxi to take me home. I wondered why the car was unstable on its path till I found out the taxi man was dozing. Because my life and destiny was at stake, I shouted at him, stopped the car, and drove myself home while he continued his sleep. Like me and my friend, this is what good men must do in their domains by taking charge; else we are simply an accident going somewhere to happen.

When leadership is void of influence then we’re not talking leadership. That is to say the only major evidence of good leadership is influence (which might be positive or negative). Adolf Hitler led the Nazi Army to fighting a war against other countries in the world because he was able to influence their thought patterns, aligning them to his; so as to realize his goal. Mahatma Gandhi led his people to a peaceful protest for freedom and political change in his country by influencing them in a positive way, paving the way for non-violent protests for realistic change.

Leadership is not a function of position, nor a function of power; it is entirely about the people. Leaders are made for the people, to listen to them, work with them and lead them on the path of their dreams to achieve their goals and aspiration.
As I listened as our creed was read responsively, I was thrilled. Remembering that I was in their shoes just 2 years ago, with an enormous task of organizing an important event in my college, I was thrilled to see that the people I worked with back then are now taking responsibility to handle the events and also understood the enormity of the task ahead of them.

I saw the drive, I saw passion, I saw the desire for change in them, I felt as though I were on top of the world for some minutes, not being a fan of quick gratification, I committed myself to continuous service, so that the main purpose of organizing this worlds changing events will become a reality someday soon.
But I must confess that only then did I realize how true the statement is, “Leadership is influence nothing more nothing less.” It is not a function of the noise you make; it is about the steps you take for change.

I saw how far influence could go, and how much it can do. Never assume that the next step you will be taking or the next decision you will be making will not influence your life and the lives of people around you, it will and it will go a long way. So do the right thing, take the right steps and make the right decisions, because it will affect you in not too long a time and also affect the people connected to you in one way or the other.

Change is possible and it is a function of influence, it is the fruit produced by planting the seed of influence. The world around us and the world at large will be a better place if you make personal commitment to being a positive influence in your locality!

This is exactly what happened today as I listened to this song. I’ll be the first to admit that there is such a wonderful experience to gain in worship. It takes me away from everything that seems to matter to a place that really matters – the place where I have that feeling that my soul is finally doing what it was created to do.

What greater way to worship God than through the warmth of His mercy. For me, the best way I could understand the thoughts of God was through His mercy. When I begin to imagine the things I’ve gotten myself entangled with, the things I have done, I can not begin to express how grateful I am to God for His mercy. I’m trying as hard as I can not to write the clichés you read when any one tries to describe worship! But have you ever thought of worship this way: Imagine you singing your favorite song of worship to God and you are really stuck within the words and you know in your heart that you are in that place where like me, you feel your soul is doing what it was really meant to do. Now Imagine that God is the one singing that same song to you. Oh my God! I imagine God, Almighty God singing to me that ‘My thoughts for you (me) are beautiful…’

When I try to think deep about those words, it opens me up to many things that draw my soul closer to my Merciful One in worship

First of all, I think of the fact that though His thoughts for me are beautiful, those thoughts came through pain. The excruciating pain that His Son went through on the cross was the most beautiful thought of God to mankind…to me.

Secondly, I imagine the troubles I have been through. While I feel like I’m in hell’s kitchen and there seem not to be an escape route out of the troubles and suddenly, I make it out. The ‘How Did I Make It Out’ part is the beautiful thought of God to me. He thought of me saying ‘The things I’ve thought about you are more than the troubles you are facing’ so He sees to it that I make it out of hell’s kitchen not for many reasons…but simply because His thoughts of me are beautiful.

Thirdly, and this is my favorite, I think of how much I have ruined my chances in life by the things I soiled my soul with – pornography, lies, deceit, envy, jealousy (these are my issues and yours may be more than mine) – and yet through it all, God extended His loving grace to me and said to me, calling me by name, that His thoughts for me are more beautiful than everything that I had been through.

Ah, my God! It’s almost as if God’s love is a die-hard kind of love – a three fold cord that is not easily broken! No matter how soiled your soul has been, He keeps coming back to wrap His loving arms around you – He has got ‘tough love’ for you. He loved your past, loved your future and gave you the assurance of both by loving your present – no matter what that present looks like. It doesn’t matter to Him if that present looks like an addicted porno-freak, or like an almost naked Red-light district worker, or like a junkie searching for his next fix, or like a lonely inmate locked up doing multiple life sentences, or like an abused young woman brought to the lowest ebbs of confusion and hate for the kind of hand life has dealt her, or like a single mother who has come to her wits end about raising her family, or like a father who feels he has used up all his second chances to get it right with his family and sons, or like a young minister trapped in religion, or like the CEO who wishes everything would just go away, or like the broken, battered, beaten generation of confused men and women that walk the streets of the world. It doesn’t matter what the picture looks like, I want you to say to yourself that ‘His thoughts of me are beautiful’

Still caught in the bliss of worship by this song, I joined the minstrel and sang:

That’s why I love You
That’s why I Praise You
And I worship You

I will worship You
Just for who You Are
Father and King
You are everything

That’s why I love You
Praise You and I worship You just for who You are
Father and King
You are everything

In meditating over the course of the year, I am more convinced now that there is no reason for anyones job to control their life. I am even more convinced today that there is a big difference between your job and your work. Some people have a job, but have no work, while some have work, but have no job. I remember back in the days when I was yet to go into a university, I was so busy I only now imagine what exactly I was doing? I left home at 10am in the morning and came back at night tired. What exactly I found to do, I cannot really account for them all, but I was positively engaged in making my life better and the lives of others. I had no job, but I had work to do. So everyone around me never knew I had no job, and looked at me as one busy man who was actively engaged with some paying job somewhere. They were right. I was actively engaged, and it was also paying me off as well. But not in the way they thought about it. I had a close friend who never knew I had no paying job for close to 5 years, and was stunned when I stated that I wasn’t paid for the things I did. It now all makes sense to me. But then I was only living, but now I have a chance to look back and see that most of what I know today and how much I have grown, came from my full time engagement in work; even without a job.
Many today have lost their jobs, but worse still have no work. This is the worse place to be. Your job only gives you money, but your work gives you satisfaction. Some are lucky that their jobs have also become their work, but only in a few cases do you see this. When you have this understanding, you will know that though you may be fired from your job, you can never be fired from your work. Your work is what you do outside what you are instructed to do to earn money. No one gives you this assignment, but it comes from a conviction of what you know about the course your life ought to take. This is where your true worth lies. So if your job ends today, your work will always continue and give you a reason to wake up in the morning. It will keep your excitement constant, and retain your peak performance indicators at its highest levels. Discouragement doesn’t come to a person who has work to do, it only comes to the jobless and the ‘workless’. So if you are in a situation of having no job, while searching, make sure you are working at something and not sitting idle. Stop whining about no job and you have already sent out enough resumes. Now take a sit, relax, and take off the scales on your eyes and the foreskins of your heart and understand the process you are going through. Most people are overly presumptuous, and think they understand what is going on in the world. Therefore you have many changing professions and going to get qualification for something else, when they aren’t sure what aspect of society will be hard hit again. They wrongly assess the situation and fail to look inward and find grace to continue in life.
Like my mentor will say: “Life does not give you what you deserve, only what you demand”. So stop waiting for a dream job. Get busy with the work you have to do. If your dream job comes good, if it doesn’t makes no difference. Why? YOU HAVE WORK TO DO, GET ABOUT IT. So I ask you this: are you jobless and workless at the same time? Then the image on this note refers to you. But I tell you, being jobless doesn’t mean being workless. Go and do some work