Category: A Better Life

Have you ever listened to someone speak so confidently
or humorously or even seriously, telling what you know to be a lie? Most of us
have, right? Have you done same sometime ago or even recently? Someone has and
another somewhere near you will yet dare before you finish reading this.

Enjoy this illustration first.

One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a
tree above a river, his axe fell into the river. When he began crying, God
appeared and asked him, “Why are you crying?” The woodcutter told Him
that he had dropped his axe into water. God went down into the water and
reappeared with a golden axe. “Is this your axe?”, God asked. The
woodcutter said “No”. God again went down and came up with a silver
axe. “Is this your axe?”, God asked. The wood cutter said
“No”. God went down again and came up with an iron axe. “Is this
your axe?”, God asked. The wood cutter said “Yes”. God was
pleased with the man’s honesty and gave him all the three axes. The woodcutter
went home happily.

One day while he was walking with his wife along the river, his wife fell into
the river. When he began crying, God appeared and asked him, “Why are you
crying?” “My wife has fallen into water.” God went down into the
water and came up with Jennifer Lopez. “Is this your wife?”, God
asked. “Yes!!!”, he said. God was furious, “YOOOOOU LIAAAAAR!!!
Now I am going to curse you…” The woodcutter quickly said, “Forgive
me My Lord for there is a misunderstanding. If I say “No” to Jennifer
Lopez, you will come up with Catherine Zeta Jones or Madonna. If I also say
“No” to her, you will finally come up with my wife and I will say
“Yes”. Then you will give all the three to me. My life is already very complicated as it is. So that’s why I had to say
“Yes”…

The above is a joke as you well know. But the next is
not. I came away with some important lessons in this my encounter with the police.

Every driver hates a traffic jam. In Lagos, road users
do incredible things on the highway to evade the regular traffic madness.

It was one of those insane days as traffic was
approaching standstill point very quickly and to avoid spending my entire day
behind a steering wheel, I made an illegal left turn into a One Way lane to cut
off the traffic. (This was those days when offenders like me would first be taken to a Psychiatric hospital for checkup before a heavy fine is administered to correct the insanity.)

Immediately, five police men sprang out from hiding
like lions and blocked me. One got into the front seat but before he could say
a word, I smiled, put my hand on his lap and said to him, “Dog no dey chop dog…”
meaning Dogs don’t eat dogs.

The message was clear. He understood it. “You be dog,
you be dog!!??” (Are you a dog) He asked, meaning it literally and looking very
disappointed. As he quietly exited the car, one of his colleagues asked him,
“Who e be?” (That’s, who was I?) “Na
officer” (An Officer) replied the one that checked me out. They all backed down
and I drove away.

What did I do there? I associated myself with those
cops by using their code and got away with it. My reaction to their poise that
day could have won an Oscar. It felt good, and that was the problem.

The feeling should have been that of remorse leading
to repentance because I lied. But no; I felt I’d got me an antidote to police
harassment and couldn’t wait to use it again and again and again… setting
myself up for destruction.

Most people stop or should I say pause when they get
caught. Others stop if God encounters them profoundly. If you wait until you
are caught, your remorse may confuse you because you may wonder if you are
remorseful for breaking God’s law and putting Jesus to shame publicly or just
regretting being caught. But why wait to find out how awkward this feels like, when you could just repent now?

Why did I take that wrong turn? Fear! I
feared that my day was about to end in a traffic mess and that’s not how I
planned it. I must be smart and fix this else, I’ll be a failure.

Then I was caught and I lied. Why did I lie? Fear! I
was afraid of the consequence of my crime.

But my problem
was more than these fears. The fears were just symptoms. The real malady was unbelief,
which is a heart condition. The fear of punishment, of rejection, failure and
shame all stem from a heart charged with doubt.

My lie revealed a lack of trust in God. I couldn’t
believe that He was still in control of that bad traffic situation and can
bring out some good from the experience.

Each lie is traceable to a fear which resides in a
heart that’s struggling to have faith in God.

The truth about lies is that we never tell them in error. Examine yourself. When was the
last time you lied? Why did you lie? Did you repent or did you savor the taste
of a false victory and wished for another opportunity?

Seth Barnes said something about Four kinds of
lairs. I enjoyed the comments more than the blog itself.

What makes some days, months or
years seem to run faster than others?
How do you rate 2010 or even last December, speed-wise?

I think the answer lies with one
word- passion.

See how these 4 stages of life help
to explain this.

1.     
Doing what you do.

You are stuck with that work but it pays the bills and gives you
a sense of worth. You loath it and desperately wish for an immediate change but
you are stuck there. You finally get another job and soon realize
it’s no different from the last. You are merry-go-rounding, it feels like hell
and the days and weeks that make years seem to stand still. So, at the turn of each
year, there’s nothing significant to show for it.

2.     
Doing what you love.

Your life passion connects with this work and you are loving it. But
there’s a big problem; God is absent here and you know it. This is just as
pitiful because you soon realize (if you are sincere) that though it seems life is
good and you are making it, God is far
away. That’s a very scary scenario. Your days and weeks run like crazy and unlike
many, you love Mondays but where is God is the mix? The danger lies in denial, in
deception, in taking God’s perspective for guaranteed, hoping He’ll change His mind
and switch to yours. All may look great now but you are maintaining momentum at your own peril. The night is nearer with each hasty step forward.

3.     
Doing what God loves.

Arriving here can take a life time
for many Christians but if or should I say, when you finally get to doing what
God loves, whether you are liking
it or
not, you sooner or later understand the essence of your existence, if you
persevere. But before you move from here to the last stage which is
doing what God loves and you love, you could (for a long time) struggle
with letting God be sovereign by always making your “blessing” and
“profit” of paramount concern, as you do His will. This
creates a tension within that slows down the clock of life. How? People
with a deep obsession for a “successful” outlook in life often have a
pendulum relationship experience
with God and also with people around them.Yes God makes us lay down in
green pastures but the green pasture is not the major thing. Our response to His making within the process is the ultimate thing.

4.     
Doing what God loves and you love.

This is the life you and I are
meant to live. Finally, our understanding of Abba’s big picture dawns and
our vision and mission go into a higher new gear, we are totally consumed by
heaven’s hopes and joys. Our days and weeks fly past bearing testimonies of
Kingdom exploits where we spilled blood and sweat. We know what and who we live for. This path has potholes and many things around
us could threaten our drive and passion, but like Uncle Tim Olonade would say, “…men in the nevertheless of God are unstoppable…” 

At stages 1, 2 and 3 above, life
could be a drag and very boring for various reasons. We all have limitations; some
constraints we think are unchangeable, that fuel our fears and keep us trapped; issues ranging from
our work which we may hate but can’t quit, habits so ingrained that they seem to define us, to senseless
relationships we treasure that shouldn’t even exist in the first place. All these slow down our days and weeks when
we continue enduring them without the guts to bail out.

It’s a New Year and the usuals for this season are up for consideration;
New Year resolutions, New declarations, New proposals, vision casting with “New Year Names”, budgeting, extended
times of fasting and prayer, etc. These are all good; however, the speed and
splendor of our days, weeks or years depend largely on the magnitude of the passion and actions flowing from our understanding of
what we are made for relative to our present life pursuits. If God’s relentless pursuit among
men does not FILL (I didn’t say fit into) the picture you are painting, you are totally colourless.

Life speeds away towards fulfillment
of divine destiny when we find something greater than our life to live or die
for. This is far more than just being busy with our life’s many concerns which could also make our seasons pass swiftly.

Have you found your place in Abba’s agenda? You have another New Year before you. What must change before you really set sail with the Grand Commander of the Universe?

 

There are so many dissatisfied brothers and sisters engaging 8am – 5pm or 40hr/week jobs in organizations that was once their ultimate dream. Many express a feeling of emptiness, springing from unfulfilled spiritual dreams and expectations.

In the past few weeks, I’ve spent quality time with a good number of friends that hold enviable positions in reputable companies. It seems most of them have common challenges- finding fulfillment and a connection between their everyday work with God’s quest for global worship via missions.

The key unasked question seems to be, “How do I maximize my everyday office work for Kingdom exploits?”

Many have set out to pursue careers that looked great but seems short of God’s dreams for them as they struggle to find the balance that’d bring the Kingdom agenda into focus with what they do.

For some, the resources to be more than they are currently are obvious, but the will to engage is stifled by narrow vision, fear, selfish choices or all three. I continue to insist that the best you can be is what God created you to be.

Unfortunately, some demean God’s plans for their life because it doesn’t look attractive enough or even at all. What’s your life goal relative to God’s ultimate pursuit in this world? If you don’t know, then, all other petitions should wait until this one is resolved.

Some have put in great effort and still not made it to the top of the ladder of their career yet, some are nearer there today than yesterday; but they’re beginning to think that this ladder may be leaning on the wrong wall. This is better imagined than experienced. You may have been defined by your work and now, you know that that definition is wrong. What do you do, quit? I wish I could say, “yes quit”, but what’s God saying to you? Where is He leading you today? Is the challenge more with your work or with your understanding of its use?

Some have said to me, “Uche, take me with you to Sudan. I want to come with you to Sudan.” They’ve not made it yet. Maybe there’s so such to consider, to surrender, to attend to, maybe even fears to overcome etc.

But must you go? Should you leave that work (even for a few weeks) and make a mission trip across borders in order to feel good about yourself or to feel connected to God’s global cause or just to silence the voice of a troubled conscience that’s constantly running from a call. If any of these inspire your missions involvement, you’ve successfully missed the point.

Becoming a missionary or going on short term mission trips (though we need so much more of those) does not provide answers to the question- how can your daily 8-hours of paid employment make significant Kingdom impact?

I believe that what you do should be as important to the Kingdom as what you’re paid for it; though all jobs do not have the same immediate Kingdom value. An 8hours a day work, manufacturing buttons is not the same as 8hours a day work, translating the Bible into a language without one or even researching on a vaccine for malaria.

You may not have the privilege of switching careers or looking for another work as there are not many out there anyway, but you can maximize your potentials and privileged position for God’s glory in that same work and witness firsthand, a radical attitudinal change doing the same things with a new perspective.

A new perspective could mean simplifying your life by choosing to live on the income of an average missionary in the region of your interest and thereby save more money to support many more on the field or send out others willing and able to go. If you think God has called you to support missions, you should be thinking this way.

A new perspective could mean adopting a missionary (household inclusive) and do one or all of the following: send them regular moral support via sms, emails and phone calls; spend more time in prayer for them and their ministry. With every contact you make, with every prayer you say for this missionary, you’re visiting with him on site.

A new Kingdom perspective could involve adopting orphans around you or overseas and working to raise their standard of living with special emphasis on their spiritual welfare. 

God calls all of us to share our resources in time and treasures for Kingdom expansion. It will cost us dearly; else, our obedience is suspect.

Your current work may be humdrum and senseless in your estimation, relative to how it promotes Christ’s fame in the nations. But with fresh perspectives and focused living, you could change the destinies of many and sharpen yours.

Apostle Paul said, “Work from the heart for your real Master, for God; confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ.” (Col 3:23-14 The Msg)