All that ends well is well!
Sometimes, your life’s story seems to have no beginning or
end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back
or from which to look ahead, this point is often the defining moment; the turning
point. Life throws many challenges at us but our ability to rise above those
challenges or otherwise depends not on the challenges themselves, but on the
way we choose to respond to them. The true story of a dear friend of mine reminds
me of the resilience of the human spirit. This friend and I attended high
school together and we were ‘good boys’, deeply involved with the protestant
(Pentecostal) fellowship of the school. After our graduation from high school,
we gained admission into the same university. I was even more deeply involved
with a very prominent Pentecostal fellowship in the university, having the rare
privilege to serve on its executive council four times. However, my friend
became distracted early enough by the glitz and glamour of university life. He
indulged in everything that contradicts the pious life we had hitherto lived;
alcohol, girls, smoking, you name it, he did it!
Blinded by pleasure, my friend’s new lifestyle began to take
a toll on his academics. He performed so woefully that the school adviced him
to withdraw. When the school advices one to withdraw, it is not so much as a
voluntary decision, such a person had been shown the way out. It is similar to
when your mother or wife asks if she can give you a piece of advice, it doesn’t
matter if you want it or not, you will get it anyway! My friend had been shown
the way out, but he made up his mind to make one last attempt. The department
to which he belonged had rejected him, so he made an attempt to cross faculties
and move to another department. The fresh challenge which confronted him was
‘who would like to accept a student that failed woefully in his previous
department?’ In spite of the odds before him, my friend was accepted in another
department. He found his way back to the pious fold and rededicated his life to
God. We even served together in my last tenure in the fellowship’s executive
council. He then worked really hard, studying assiduously to remain in school.
Remarkably, my friend not only finished the new course successfully, he
graduated with a first class! He worked briefly and he is currently in the
Netherlands on a scholarship.
The essence of relaying this story is that life is dynamic;
we are faced with challenges which fate, we and other people bring our way on a
daily basis. Recently, I read a book; ‘The audacity of Hope’ by Barack Obama
and it is interesting to see the many obstacles (some which you already know)
he surmounted long before he became the 44th President of the United
States of America. You can become whatever you want to be, if you desire and work
to achieve it. It is never too late, ermmm maybe except if you desire to become
an international footballer and you’re already in your fifties! As I often say,
you will attract your single most dominant thought, whether it is good or bad.
So be careful what that thought is. Your current challenging position in life
is not necessarily a sentence to perpetual failure. You can rise above your
family background, seeming educational deficit, poverty, abuse, marginalization
and other obstacles to get to your desired destination. Victory will come your
way if you believe and take necessary steps to success. Victory beckons, embrace
it, you can, you will.
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