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- Herausgeber: RWG Publishing
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
How champions think is what makes their paths master trends in a world of constant change—a globe without a wall, giving room for transitional leadership. Every day new discoveries keep swallowing old and new generations keep overtaking existing histories making new giants to keep emerging. There is a power of hidden potential in every man, but little minds focus on what happens, average focus on how things happen, great minds focus on why things happen making them to unleash the hidden power within. Every dream that will see the light of the day must be exposed to new possibility thinking. No matter the shape, color and size of your
dream today, all you need to achieve it is your thinking habit—no road is not no way after all. Life is like dropping with a parachute, if you just hang there in fate and enjoy the cool breeze and the shade from the sun while complaining about the loneliness, it will take you where the wind of life blows—in the ocean of hopelessness, wilderness of confusion, desert of dejection or valley of past failures. You must take charge of your life by trading the power of your thoughts.
When you throw down a tennis ball with force, it bounces back with the same energy, only that it rises higher, but when you throw down a glass cup it shatters on the ground and scatters in pieces, flung here and there. What happens? No energy to bounce up? No! There is energy but that had been used to scatter the pieces here and there. The energy in your failure is the lessons and the experience. Now you know how it is not going to work. Now you are a coach in the making. To every action of falling there will be an equal and opposite reaction, this could be a reaction of bouncing up or rolling on the ground or shattering in pieces. But be sure this book will remold your
mentality to leap forward despite the odds.
This master piece will take you through on how to:
* Grow your courage again with hope
* Live your best life by the energy of creative and constructive thinking.
* See purpose for your past, potentials in your now and dreams for your future
* Put up a possibility life by engaging the power of faith, talents and idea
* Process your failure for future success
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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HOW CHAMPIONS
THINK
TO
WIN
The Power and Possibility of Creative Mind
A. A. JAMES
HOW CHAMPIONS THINK TO WINCopyright © 2016 by
A. A. JAMES.
e-mail: [email protected]
+2348075080572, +2348066194123,
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.
All characters appearing in the illustrations of this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.
The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of Revival Waves of Glory Books & Publishing.
Published by Revival Waves of Glory Books & Publishing
P.O. Box 596| Litchfield, Illinois 62056 USA
www.revivalwavesofgloryministries.com
Revival Waves of Glory Books & Publishing is committed to excellence in the publishing industry.
Book design Copyright © 2016 by Revival Waves of Glory Books & Publishing. All rights reserved.
Published in the United States of America
E-Book ISBN: 978-3-96028-857-2
GD Publishing Ltd. & Co KG, Berlin
E-Book Distribution: XinXiiwww.xinxii.com
Paperback: 978-1-68411-051-3
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the source of all inspiration and creativity—God.
Acknowledgements
Things are made to happen by deliberate hands and minds, the same with this work. Rolling out big thank you to my heart blend and queen, who has been an awesome part of my life, for your patience and understanding of what it means to dwell with someone like me—Debby, what a gift you are to me and our children. Our two inquisitive and ever happy daughters—Prisca and Lydia, I bless God for giving us you. My parents in the Lord and in-laws, Pst. & Pst.(Mrs) Mike Oyedele, words can never quantify your mentorship impact in my faith walk, what a blessing you have been. Never will I forget you, my awesome mother—Eunice, for your care and cuddling in bringing up such a number boys and a girl with your late darling in such an exemplary way, from my heart I say I love you. And to all the gifted hands, who contributed their potentials to the climaxing of this project, grateful thanks to you all.
Introduction
Two young children were once asked by their anatomist father in a family garden, “How come those trees can’t move about as do other living things—the animals?” trying to test their knowledge. “Because trees are stuck to the ground.” The two kids chorused. “Why are they stuck to the ground?” he asked innocently. “Because they grow in two directions―their stems grow upward while their roots grow downward, both in opposite directions at the same time unlike animals that grow upward only—above the ground.” They replied with assurance.
How childish their answer could be, but how illustrative it is to us. The same thing with human beings, many people are not moving like the rest because they are stuck to the soil of time and they are stuck because they too also try to live in two directions. They tend to flow into their past and at same time try to grow into their future, hence stuck to a spot which is every day. The greatest machine ever invented is the mind; the Creator has designed it to run the course of our lives depending on the program we develop in it, to run forward, backward or stand still, depending on the side to which we gear it. We are all born equal but won’t die equal; because we never use our minds equally.
No matter the race you are from, we are all in the same race, so all equally equipped though differently challenged. Man was a product of creation, but partly of invention as well—being made from existing resources. The same way the Creator expects him to dominate his world through discovering unknown things from known or existing things. Mind architectural framework poses the highest form of disadvantages or advantages to all races and dreams. What stop some people are what get some people started. The dream you let go today someone else will pick up tomorrow, either in your generation or the next. Anyone can fail successfully if the mind is well programmed. When you cut trees, thinking you have silenced them, you will be surprised that when they come back they hardly show up with one bud but with multiple stems.
There is more hope for a tree in greater form. Just like when a stone is dropped in the path of gentle stream, though it seems like an obstacle to its flow, but the stream will naturally split into channels rather than being stuck and skillfully flow by—when you can’t push through split through. When your dreams face truncating failure, what do you do? When life challenges stand in your path, do you remain dogmatically static or become diversified in your thinking to overcome? Every life obstacle could be handled, just with an attitude; all you need is that stream wisdom and a courageous hope. Dream harvesters are always goals desperate—they spend time to cultivate their ideas and find a way to bypass or level up with the necessary obstacles through mind dexterity and faith power. This journey will surely change your perception and system of thoughts; you will without fail unveil and discover the mighty champion in you.
Chapter OneGROW YOUR COURAGE AGAIN
~Courage will add life to your
days and days to your life~
A father of two, who works with waste disposing company, once drove the garbage truck home. On the truck was clearly written “Goods Only”. The sound of the strange horn jacked the family up as his kindergarten boy rushed out in curiosity only to see his father parking a waste truck. Deeply engrossed, beholding the truck, he tried to read what was written on it “Goods Only”. He turned to the newly employed dad and said with excitement, “I like your truck dad, it is permitted to do good things, I mean to carry good things only.” His father replied, “Yes! It is for ‘Goods Only’.” The other day the man drove home with the truck while on duty, as his route includes his house street. Just as he slowed down to a park and was about to off load the garbage bin in front of his house, his son sprang out to greet him on sighting the truck through the window.
He embraced the lad and asked him to go back to his mum as he was on duty. Without wasting time, he reached out for their garbage bin, lifted it up into the truck, and emptied it. The little boy, who was about turning to go inside shouted, “Dad that is wrong, are you ok? Stop doing that; do you not realize that this is the bin where mum always drop the bad food, broken toys and the rest of the rubbish? Nothing in that bin is good anymore.” The father stood amazed at the strange reaction of the boy. In a shock he asked, “What’s wrong.” The young lad curiously said further, “Dad, look and read—”pointing to the write up on the truck, “Goods Only.” “You are going against the rules and that’s wrong.” “I am not going against the rules,” the man calmly replied, “The garbage are also goods, the truck is specially designed for them.”
Afterward, his elder brother, pumping out of the front door, who had been watching the scenario came closer, standing in between father and his younger brother said, “Dad, I think you are right after all, my science teacher once taught us how the garbage is being recycled to create a new product.” The relieved father added, “That is true, everything you see in that truck is rubbish now, useless and appears to be of no value, but there are potential goods hidden in them.”
~There is a potential in your past, a purpose
for your now and a plan for your future~
Your life may seem full of mess in the past, rubbished and abused, but there are still hidden good messages. Your dreams might have been sagged with the passage of time. People could have taken your cloth of many colors; situations might have pushed you to hell boundary; you are messed up and betrayed; but what life streams of rejection, abuse, desertion and failure must have left behind is your future and your desire to feature—these two are a permanent gifts to every soul. Messed up past does not make your life not worth living. Your failure may turn out to portray rubbish but your life is still invaluable. Your life is for “goods only” ultimately, by God’s pre-planned program though seems stormed now, at the end it will be “Goods Only”. He promises to land you in expected end not eventual end. However, you will be a wise partner in this project by rising with faith and not resigning in fate.
When a building contractor was through with fixing two bank security doors, he asked his two trainees, what is the difference between a security man who closes the bank’s door, removes the key, but forgets to lock it and the one who closes the bank’s door, locks it and forgets to remove the key? The two smart trainees replied, there is no difference really, they have things in common—they both closed the door and they both had missed something. He asked again, if you are a customer who arrives so early, seeing the two doors; one with the key in the hole and the other with no key, what will be your comment? “I will conclude that the one who left the key in the hole has failed in his duty,” replied, the senior. “But when a bank worker comes, moves closer to the two doors and makes attempt to enter through, he will discover after all, both of them have failed in a way only that one is pronounced to every passer-by and waiting customers while the other will be revealed to those who move and study closely.” The junior trainee interrupted.
So is all who ever succeeded and all who ever failed in the past, they all have one thing in common—they all made attempts and they all made mistakes. The former’s door may appear to be secure from afar and so are successful people they all have secret lapses when you move close to their lives and living, though they are tagged hero you will discover that the door was unlocked. Likewise, those who fail have appeared to make blunder, when people see the key on the door from afar, but they have achieved something—they conquered the fear to start and are armed now with how it will not work.
~Everybody has courage in a way; some
use it to dream alone; some to start it, some
to quit it and some to rerun and finish.
It takes courage to do all~
MAXIMIZE YOUR PAST
Three Arabian travelers doing business in camels and gold at one
season decided to travel around neighboring countries within the space of ten years. As they reached an island in the suburb of their focused city, they saw three shrubs growing by the riverbank. They settled there for a while and in the meantime, the shrub began to bear peculiar fruits, some sweet, and some bitter on the same tree. In order not to induce clashes, they chose to take the tree one per person. When the fruits were ripe, they began to pluck the fruits, all looked ripe but some would be sweet and some very bitter like a gull. After few days, they realized they needed to move because of their animals. Each of them thought of what to do with his plant: the first said, “I will pluck all the fruits available and load them on my camels so I can live on all.” The second said, “I will uproot the plant, tie it on my donkey, and take it along to replant for continuity of pleasure as soon as we settle. The third said, “This is what I will do, I will gather all the seeds of the sweet types I had taken and go away with them. The other two laughed at his foolishness.
When they got to the next land each of them off-loaded his goods to settle down. When the first opened his sacks of fruits, he discovered they all were rotten, not only that, the camels were about giving up the ghost due to the stress and suppression of the load they carried. The second waited for his last two donkeys, which were at the rear carrying his uprooted tree to arrive. When he checked the tree it was almost dry and the animals too almost dead from the burden of the load. Quickly, he replanted it while the third of them brought out the sweet fruit dry seed and planted them. As the nature of the plant is, with a fruit bearing short duration; after the next two months of settling the one planted by the third began to bear fruits while the second’s planted tree finally dropped the last leaf, leaving behind a dead stem.
Humbly, they begged their third man for fruits to eat; plant and survive. When the time came for them to depart, they had learnt their lessons,—they all went for the sweet seed alone and intentionally left behind the trees as they journeyed ahead. This is the picture of our pilgrimage, the tree is our past, and the sweet and bitter fruits are the experiences, experiments, and lessons. The wise among men will only go for the sweet fruit's seed, which are the lessons from the past’s rising and falling, go ahead and plant it in the future, with an unburdened heart and life speed. When you try to carry with you the whole load of the past the sweet and the bitter moments you live a depressed and oppressed life ahead. Two rivals contest for your present: the past and the future but you are the referee.
You are like a boy standing on a tight rope, with his father standing on the right while the shadow of his father reflecting on the left. He has the choice of where to jump to when the wind begins to blow: either into the arms of his father on the right side or on the left side into his shadow and you know what will happen. But that is what you do anytime you shift your thought to the past—you are jumping over into the hands of the passing shadow, the end of the day is always depression and emotional injuries. No matter how good or bad the past is, see it as a rehearsal to act your today and perfect your performance tomorrow.
~Everybody has past, but not
everybody passes it behind~
When Michelangelo was to paint the vaulted ceiling of a chapel between 1508 and 1512, Michelangelo covered the ceiling in Rome majestic frescoes, or paintings created with wet plaster with main scenes showing biblical stories and the Hebrew prophets. Perhaps the best-known fresco shows God creating Adam. Michelangelo worked perched on a platform about 18 meters (60 feet) above the floor. His paintings covered 930 square meters (10,000 square feet) of ceiling area. Most of the times, he did the painting lying on his back. Each day fresh plaster was laid over a part of the ceiling. Michelangelo then had to complete that portion while the plaster was still wet. He could not undo mistakes.
This is the picture of life sometimes, your job is not to undo mistakes, but to learn from it and lean on the experience. Today we talk about the great artwork with no reference to the mistakes made by this famous artist because he chose to move the brush ahead despite the odds. Each day provides us with a fresh plaster of time to paint out lives on it with our best ability and trusting God to make the best of our shortcomings. However, sometimes we lie on our back thoughts until the day’s fresh plaster hardens to a rock of yesterday on which no one could write again. All your mistakes can be recycled with great new lessons turning out of the assembly line of time. God is working out everything out for your good. The basic thing to establish is that your life is worth living, and your future is worth having. Your today’s garbage will be processed and managed by God, to garnish the lives of your contacts tomorrow.
Life may rid you of your past success, bully you out of your comfort zone; you might have lost everything visible to time, but you are not empty, your future is still in the enclosure of time. What more could your life still contain after all the flood of storms, nothing but the space of the future, it has not succeeded to encroach into that. Men may take from you your treasure, but your future is a blessed space, it is a blank check, on which you can choose to write anything; you can dream anything and can reap anything. In a junior high school, there used to be a bully who happened to be the most intelligent of his peers at the same time. So, combining his intellect with his muscles he contributes a threat to the rest.
At the beginning of one new session, a young boy was admitted newly, and was not happy with the behavior of this tallest boy in their class. One day, the newly admitted was asked by the class bully to remove his baggage from the airtight locker, which was reserved for special items but could temporarily be used by new intakes until space is being created for them. The young boy replied, “But I have every right to keep my goods here.” The bully insisted, “Get them out now.” Before they knew it they were creating a scene, other pupils were already gathering around the show. The boy replied, though you may force me to remove my goods, you could not remove everything there.
The bully was furious; as a well-respected great IQ student, he replied “What do you mean; that I can’t remove everything from the enclosure? I have all it takes physically and mentally.” With his patience running out, he drew closer to the locker, grabbed the goods of the new intake and flung them out. Everybody was quite while his gang hailed him as usual. Afterward, the new pupil replied, “Is that all you could remove?” He answered, what else is there? The young boy replied, “Light.” Before all he reached out to the black cotton nearby and covered the glass door of the locker. “What else? With challenging tone he screeched, “You small for nothing!” shouting. The calm ruddy scholar replied in low tone, “There is still air inside.”
Now, everybody was enjoying the show. He hurried, went to get a vacuum cleaner, disengaged the hose, and fixed it into the locker, within seconds he had suctioned out every air inside. Confidently and arrogantly, he exclaimed to the curious and cheers filled mixed crowd, “I have proved my superiority again physically and mentally.” As his gang was about to hail him, the young lad said, “Friend, one more thing to remove,” everybody was silent, eager to hear the final straw. They were confused, what more could be inside? After the short tensed silence, he uttered; “Space.” It is obvious how helpless the bully became. Your future is the space that the storm has not succeeded in encroaching.
~Your emptiness is but the preparation
for your being filled, and your casting
down is but the making ready for
your lifting up~ Charles H. Spurgeon
I was once exposed to the power of God’s recycling mercy when I was reading the lineage of the Lord as compiled by the tax master disciple. Matthew listed that forty-two generations were involved from the patriarch Abraham before the baby king. In other word, forty-two women were the matriarchs involved. But of all only four names were specifically mentioned: Tamar, Rehab, Ruth and Bathsheba. Out of the four, three played harlotry and one a widow—a non-Israelite. Why would God select such people of the rotten past to be the pipeline to convey the world’s River of life and joy? In addition, why is it that it was their names that were specifically mentioned? This is the good news, that you can join the queue as you bring your past before the same Maker.
Just as the weather is the costume of the sky, it puts it on and changes it as often, likewise circumstances are like dress to our lives we should learn to undress them to fix in tomorrow’s outfit. God expects us to always pass through situation and not situation passing through us turning us to a passive tool in His hands—we are not destined to failthrough but passthrough indeed. The spirit of adaptability when it comes to challenge driven change is the greatest and best attitude; it is the king of discipline when we want to develop our strength to work with inevitable weather. It is a symbol of a living mind and thriving hope. It separates the weak from the strong, boys from men, dreamers from sleepers, wishes-driven souls from will-driven souls. Challenges should be seen as a forerunner of change, a link to your best life ahead. Do not try to edit your past nor make your future a revise edition of world’s script; today is a new page, write a fresh script for your tomorrow using the pen of courage and ink of goals.
Your hope is in the future and your future is in your hope. Have you noticed that when a tree is cut it comes back to thrive starting with more than one stem at ago compare to when it was initially planted. When you miss it you should bounce back, more resourcefully and equipped yielding much more accomplishment. Human beings use their brain, the animals use their instincts to survive, and the trees use their endurance to survive. But we can imbibe this attitude of the trees. Whatever befalls you in the race of life keep focus on what is before you. The future belongs to those who disown the past and become renowned with their today.
The story of a duck, ducklings, a fox, and a crocodile could be useful to drive in the power of dwelling on today to put your future to flight. At the bank of a river was duck with its duckling playing with one another. Just at a stone throw was a crocodile sleeping on the bank of the water as well. Suddenly a fox emerged from the bush and tried to attack the ducklings, they quickly out of fear dashed into the water to join their mother. The fox attempted to catch the last one, which hurriedly joined the rest. Because of fear, they continued to swim farther in the water. However, unknown to them, they have used the sudden water wave to disturb the sleeping crocodile.
The mother duck assumed all was over when it unexpectedly observed the approaching reptile. They all fled while the animal pursued. Within few seconds it had closed up the distance between them, the whole duckling team said to one another no need of swimming anymore; we are already its food. The end of the river’s breadth was just few meters away and they had already given up, that if it can come close as this in a few seconds then in the next seconds it would catch up with us especially on the ground. As they were thinking, they heard the mother shouted, “Swim the more, faster to the ground.” They thought, “Will that not amount to foolishness? Can we outrun a reptile on the ground?” Finally, they obeyed. As they reached the dry ground, the crocodile emerged as well. After taking few steps, the mother shouted at them all, “Now use your wings.”
Suddenly, it dawned on them that they could fly; like a stunting aircrafts, they all leaped up into the air living on the ground the hungry and disappointed reptile. When in the air the ducklings asked the mother what gave you the strategy and assurance that we could still escape? “Because I knew the animal can’t fly, but we too can’t take off from the water. If we had continued swimming in the water trying to solve the problem, it would have caught up with us. And the reptile knew as well that was why it gave all its energy to the start-up.” The mother duck explained.
The water represents your past, the dry land your today and the air your future. The fox represents the challenges you met when you were born while the crocodile represents the ones that surfaced because you were born. If you want to conquer those past chasers and barriers, you need to leave the water. You are like a duck that can walk, swim and fly, but can only take off to the air on the ground. If you want to soar in the future treasures you need to take off from today. Start your life from today, hurry out of the water of the past, you cannot defeat the reptile of depression and regrets in such terrain. The future provides you with unlimited space to fly and fly but your launching pad is today.
You should be a pupil of your past to learn from it and not to lean on anymore; a teacher of your today not a preacher of past; and a classroom for your future and not with a mushroom thinking. Your hope is in your future and your future is in your decision. Your past depends on your future for the final changes but you can watchfully choose to allow your past to finish the future. Life is like a stone of rock, or a log of wood, you are the sculptor with the tool of mind to carve out whatever you can see hidden in it. Some things that happen to you simply happen for you if you see them as life teachings. The beauty of a flower comes out in the heat of the sun. You cannot erase your past, but you can overlay paint on it, drawing the picture of the future you see like a famous artist once disclosed, “I paint my dream.”
When you try to remove all the blocks of failure in your building of success, you will discover many holes in the building. Sometimes, some people have only the roof and the part of the foundation remaining, which never stand, or last. These are those, who live so carefully, in shallowness that they never make mistakes but also live and leave with the greatest mistake of living by default.
~Use what is left, for it is the only
possible right thing to use~
I once read of an aged woman who just did something that thousands of high school students do every single year—she got her diploma. You might not think it is that big of a deal, but she isn't your average high scholar. She is 103 years old. She waited 90 years to see her dream fulfilled. Marie has lived in Spring Green, Wisconsin, for her entire life. She told NBC that she was part of a large family that struggled (as most did back then), and finding a way to get to and from the River Valley High School was an impossibility for her. So she sadly dropped out of school after eighth grade and became a caretaker to her younger brothers and sisters. “I was born in 1911, and there was no way that country kids six miles away could go to high school.” Marie said. Decades later Marie, now living in an assisted living community, told a staff nurse, she deeply regretted the decision to leave school. The nurse reached out to school officials and put a plan in motion to help Marie finally get the degree she wanted for her entire life.
So, on one good Friday, Marie finally got her dream fulfilled. River Valley High School presented her with an honorary high school diploma, some 87 years after she would have originally graduated. She made hay while the moon shines. Gold is never too old to sell, true dream, do not die with time when lived, they rather die of time. Those who spend their morning singing I could, their afternoon saying I would will spend their night sighing I should.
MAXIMISING YOUR STORMS
~Never forget that God tests his real friends more severely than the lukewarm ones~
Kathryn Hulme
In a Sunday school, a young boy asked the teacher as they concluded the story of how David killed Goliath; he said ma, “Why was David particular about the smooth stone that he had to leave the battlefront, passed by many stones as he went down to the brook to get them?” “Why can’t he use any other stone?”
Secondly, “What makes those stones to be smooth?” The teacher replied him, “David preferred smooth stones because they work best in the sling and to disarm the target. When a smooth stone is slung by the sling, it smoothly slips off the sling with little friction and hasten better accuracy. Moreover, they will not quickly ware out the sling as they glide off it. David had to bypass other stones he met on the way because they were not prepared; God can bypass thousand just to get a man after His own will―a man that he has trained with the tool of life storms and challenges. A man coming from the wilderness where he had fought the lion and bear over small matters. God doesn’t use a man with rough character; He will first polish you in order to unleash the potentials in you.”
He taught further, “Remember David was the last to be presented to Samuel as potential king and God rejected the first six, bypassed them and went for the last to be presented—David. In addition, what makes the stones smooth is a long tasking process and that is why many stones could not pass through it. Those smooth stones were once rough edged before. One day, the river dragged them along, and for many days, months or years they were being dragged along by the river.
While in the process, they were forced to rob against the rock, at the bottom of the river and against themselves. They met many stony obstacles on the way, which they collided with, and still moved on. All these processes had an impact on the stones; they brought about abrasion and attrition leading to wearing and chipping of the stone edges and at the end they came out smooth. One more thing they do is that they stay in the location—the river brook so they can easily be found and used like David did.”
One of the 50 richest Jews in his third term as mayor of New York City, was a former equity trader who used some of his $10 million severance package after being fired in 1981, to develop what became the global financial news and media company. At age 68, he net worth $18 billion. He could have resigned to fate and complaints, but he was fired to re-fire. What happens to you is one thing, how you see it is another thing and what you do with it is the ultimate thing. After a native farmer harvested a yam tuber, a hole was left behind in the ground. At night, a little frog unknowingly jumped into the hole—never knew how deep because it was dark. When it began to dawn, it realized the danger—the hole was a bit deep for its exit.
Nevertheless, it tried to escape, but succeeded only in stamping claws at the mouth of the hole slipping back with some sand granules chipping off the wall of the hole, falling in to the base. He continued the unsuccessful trial many times, each time the sand granules fell into the bottom of the hole. When the farmer got to the farm with his two sons who were working with him, the children discovered the frog in the hole and became excited at the captured live toy. They immediately began to play with the creature, they kicked sand on it in the hole several times, and the frog as well would try to jump out unsuccessfully, pulling down more sand with each sliding. For three days, the scenario repeated itself, the frog trying to jump out and the boys, running to the hole every morning to catch fun there by kicking sand on the frog.
On the third day, the frog was already tired and starving. Meanwhile the sand that fell from the wall with it when sliding down at each escape trial and the one the boys kicked at it to make jest and fun of it had begun to fill up the hole gradually, reducing the depth. The third day episode actually reduced the depth to a bearable height of escape. On the fourth day morning, the exhausted creature woke up from sleep and thought within itself, no need to jump anymore. It had given up after several trials. When the boys came at the early hour they quickly rushed to the hole, found the frog lying down on its belly exhausted. Assuming it was dead, they went to inform their father about what they had been doing behind the scene for four days. Moreover, they were afraid that it would be unhealthy for the dead frog to be where they get food.
When the farmer got there, he said there was no need to remove the frog; it is good manure when finally decompose. Therefore, he took his shovel and began to fill the hole with the purpose of burying the creature as natural fertilizer. Immediately the heavy blow of sand touched the frog, it was unlike the granules of sand the boys have been kicking; this one really hit hard. As the pain dawned on it, unprepared and unplanned, it jumped up and landed outside the hole; the two boys ran away while they watch the creature as it took three more hops to disappear into the bush.
People may kick dust of criticism against you as you struggle to reach your goal; you may fall and roll ahead, but all these factors are materials to convert into a ladder for your rising. Joseph said you meant it for evil by selling me out, betraying me and stabbing my heart, but God meant it for good to save lives including yours. You may want to give it up like the frog when you are closest to the realization of your goals; all you need may just be one more attempt and you are up there. Thank God for the storm He sends to stir us up, like the scoop of sand that landed like an avalanche on the frog which made it to make an unplanned attempt, and that was it. God allows storms not to stop us, but to top our efforts.
Optimize your inevitable
~Often we as strong in life as the resistance
we face in the way not really as the assistance
we receive~
I did a little bit of aerodynamics in my university days; they instructed about the significance of the shape of material when it comes to air lifting. When you visualize the experiment in the wind tunnel, you will have a vivid understanding of the role of shapes in aerodynamics. The wings of airplanes are major factors that contribute to the lifting power. In other words, what determines whether a material will fly in the face of the wind or get overturned is simply the shape and positioning of the material. The shape of your mood has a lot do in determining whether life circumstances will drift you up closer to your dreams or overturn your aspirations. Sometimes, the miracle you need is just an obstacle on your way. An adventurer found himself lost in the desert due to a faulty compass, which he still believed was working well. At a point, he encountered a mountain standing directly across the path indicated by the compass as the right route.
He felt discouraged as that route indicates the nearest distance to inhabited village. Having no choice after much complaint, he decided to make holes in the rock for footing to climb up. On getting to the peak, he took his telescope and looked around. Suddenly, he discovered that following the compass after the rock was a large expanse of dry land afterward an endless sea. He continued looking around and discovered that just to his right, was a footpath, barely two kilometers away leading to a closely laid out village. He said, “Thank God I climbed the mountain, and never turned back for a plain ground, nor sat there complaining.” His compass could have led him to a new adventure, which he might never complete, had it been he had a choice to bypass the mountain. However, climbing the mountain gave him a bird view of direction. There are some mountains, you must climb in life to make your journey counts; and your make efforts amount to a monument. Keep your eyes focused on resources in your challenges. When you fall in the path, rise up forward, the road is becoming shorter, at least by six-foot head.
When failure is inevitable make it enviable
Some of God’s best for us are only visible in the moment of trials when all people are running for their comfort then life rolls out its increase. This is succinctly portrayed by an inspiring artwork of a young man, which was tagged, thus “This Incredible Sidewalk Art Is Only Visible in the Rain”—A sidewalk artist knows that a rainy day can make a person feel pretty blue, which is why he decided to create artwork that can only appear on a rainy day. “Rain works are pieces of street art that only appear when they are wet and their messages or images designed to make people's rainy day a little bit brighter,” The young man lives in Seattle, which is, of course, known for its rainy weather, making the entire city the perfect canvas for his craft.
Some of his messages are very witty. However, they are meant to bring a little joy into the life of everyday citizens, so that even on a rainy day, they still find themselves walking on the sunny side of the street. Making use of something called a biodegradable super hydrophobic coating that repels water after setting for 24 hours. He could have been complaining about the incessant rain of the city or just move out in disappointment. Likewise, the beautiful artwork can only be accessed by those who defy the rain and dare the chill weather. You are only being polished not punished. The belt is hanging out in the combat zone not comfort zone.
Red hot advantage
When the iron is hot is when the blacksmith takes the advantage to bend it to his desired shape. Some vital decisions are taken, often, at the points of unpalatable life circumstances. We could see clearly our errors and carelessness of which we can take the atmosphere of the moment to stamp along time lingering positive choice. When the prodigal son was on the verge of suffering, he took a vital decision that changed and retraced the course of his life. When Paul had the Damascus way encounter, he took the greatest decision of his life and purpose. He became blind to see. Sometimes you need to become lame to walk; you may need to become dumb to speak. What you are passing through could be for you to pass a decision for God’s will. Some training comes like mocking, some like storm, and some like pains.
A boy unexpectedly came across a nest with a bird brooding over newly hatched young ones. Being in the night, he climbed the tree and gently captured the whole team, took them home as a pet. Then, unexpectedly the mother bird escaped and flew away. The boy became furious and chose to turn the little birds into cheap toys. Every day he will come to the open throw them up together catching fun, the young birds will struggle in the air as they spread their wings, to softly bang on the ground. Sometimes they will sustain injuries, scream as they suffered hatch treatment from the boy. What used to pain more was the fact of seeing their mother flying around, perching on the surrounding trees looking at them in all their ordeals and wondered why it would not just come and rescue them. But the mother bird never bothered to do that because it knew that as long as they persevere and endure, all things would work out for good for them one day.
Day in day out the boy continued to catch fun and trouble these little birds. But a day came, he took the duo out of the cage, threw them up as usual. But something unusual happened, to his surprise they never landed in their back yard as usual, rather, they flew away to join their waiting and watching mother on the tree. All the while the boy had been training these birds indirectly how to fly thinking he was maltreating them and catching fun.
The same thing with us what life sometimes subjects us to is a preparation for our next future flight. We are being strengthened, trained, and polished by the whole process. Often we wonder why God is not stretching forth His mighty hand of deliverance and bear us on His wings; but He has the advantage of seeing the whole picture. He is rather employing life challenges to polish us, but it seems as to punish us. Imagine all Joseph passed through, it was not that God forgot him and His promises to him as revealed in his dreams; but in all, the scripture will say every now and then “...but the Lord was with Joseph: in slavery, in prison, in the pit; why didn’t God make him to skip all these?
~Believe things happen
for you not to you~
A curious toddler inwardly wondered how his parent used to get long straps of tissue paper from the same roll all the time. One morning he tried to do the same but did not have the capacity to hold and unfold it much. Playing with it on the table it suddenly fell off and on it rolled on the floor. As it rolled forward, a very impressive length of the tissue paper was unfolded. The toddler was happy of his achievement. Sometimes your hidden potential will only surface when you are tried and tilled. When you drop down from your privileged zone and you choose to intentionally fail forward.
You are only passing through, you are not failing through. Are you passing through fire? God said, “I will be with you and you will come out as refined gold. Are you passing through water? You will not be drowned, you will come out washed and watered. Are you passing through the valley of the shadow of death? David said, “I will fear no evil for thou are with me.” Everybody must pass through, how you come out is a factor of your attitude in the tunnel. It is not what you are passing through that matters most, but where you are passing to and who is passing through it with you. Fall on your knees, not back when things go tough.
When Joshua was about to be installed as a new leader of millions journeying in the wilderness; a young man of experience and good records—saw no giants as unconquerable, dared what his colleagues feared; he was equipped with this truth despite is record. God bypassed all these and not for once nor twice admonished this daring young mind with a burning zeal to be strong and of good courage, because He knew there would be falling and rising on the way. Joshua actually faced the reality of life challenges as they lost the second war to the city of Ai. Joshua fell on his face and lamented over their failure, but the Lord said to Joshua: “Get up, why do you lie thus on your face?” Successful people carry the scars—scars of missed stepping but not the coward stopping. God does not prepare a table before us in front of our friends, nor our well-wishers but our adversaries. He did not create us for adversities, but recreate us through adversity.
Tough time is a language of love we find so hard to learn with God. Failure could be a process to success and success could be a process to failure depending on how you handle it; depending on how we chose to see it in the light of choices. The star and dark sky reveal mutuality of success and failure; the stars lighten the sky, the dark sky reveals the star. Failures will double the fame of your success tomorrow and success will cover the shame of yesterday failures. When a strong mind fails, he stands to become stronger, when a weak mind fails he sits to become weaker. Failure points us to our weakness, and one’s weakness is a pointer to a training topic.God is charging you, saying, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong, vigorous, and very courageous. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
~When the world pushes you to
your knees, you are in the best position
to pray~ Anonymous
Resolve for strength on your knees do not dissolve the remaining ones by lying on your face in dejection and rejection. Just like the story of a hawk with newly hatched one. They lost their mother—their potential model for flight lessons as they were about leaving the nest. These little ones will rather land on the ground rather than on the branches of trees and playing kids will quickly come to chase them away or throw stones at them. They have always been wondering about other birds’ ability to perch on the branches. They were scared about how the branch will first oscillate back and forth, up and down as if it would break or fall off their legs. Therefore, any time they attempted it they would quickly fly away in fear.
One day one of them tried to emulate other birds while others felt pity for it because they were afraid that it might fall off from a broken branch. As they flew in the sky, it dived down and perched on a tender branch. As usual, the branch began to oscillate up and down. The little bird was afraid, but clung its claw tightly the more, after all, if it breaks I had fly away so why the fear. After a good number of oscillations, the branch began to settle down; it finally slowed down to a bearable and comfortable state. When life challenges come, hold on, do not let go, with time and trust it will end up as rocking chair to make your life amusing.
~Your dreams shrinks or expands at the
dimension of your courage~
KEEP GOODS ONLY BEFORE YOU
One gracious thing about God is the picture He tries to paint in our mind. A young adult once asked this question in one of our bible study classes. He asked, “Why can’t God show us the process we will pass through as we decide to embark on His will?” I happened to be conducting the teaching that day and this was what I told him. God will only give you the end picture and not the process if He does you will likely withdraw. He only showed Joseph the throne picture but did not show him the persecution at home, the pit, the Potiphar’s house slavery and the prison but the palace. He only spoke to the children of Israel about the land flowing with milk and honey, but not about the wilderness and the red sea nor the giants. God chooses to show us the end picture only, so that we can have it kept at our front.
When he showed the process to the Lord by the revelation on the mount of transfiguration through Moses and Elijah it took great grace for Him to go ahead in the garden of Gethsemane. What you need to focus on is the product from following God’s will and not the process. I once read a shocking discovery that right from birth our eye lens remains in the same size till the old age. It is one of the few parts of the body that do not increase in size as one grows. A good lesson can be learnt from this that it is like God wants us to keep a constant view about His love and plan for us from birth till death. His plan for us is unchanging and such He wants our view to be unchanging about them no matter what is happening around us. God designed us in a way that our lives cycle around what we think about most. There is a force of attraction that keeps a life around the orbit of the mind’s picture and ultimately, what you live around with will determine the amount of drive and energy you will draw for your journey. The solar system depicts this at a glance. The earth is glued to the orbit of the sun, which actually serves as her ultimate source of energy.
~Life is not just about defining your strength,
life is more of refining your weakness in the
furnace of storms ~
There is a power of attraction that keeps you heading toward your imagination. In the eleventh chapter of the scriptures, just after the dispensation of the flood, men on the earth had a unified language which matured into a unified mindset. They told one another let us build a skyscraper notwithstanding the crude state of their technology. When God viewed their joint project, He exclaimed! “Behold, the people are one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” In other word, their lives will one day hit their imagination; their achievement will one day meet up with their mind picture; their dreams will someday become reality. Not on the scale of trial and error or event of chances, but of certainty, nothing can be restrained from them.
All they need are three fundamental tools: unity, one language, and imagination. When as a man your entities: spirit, soul and body are in unity of purpose and keep voicing one language, with your spirit, in your mind and actions, imagination will crown the victory. Hence, a need to keep living dreams in front of you every day.
After many years of fruitless and rigorous labor, the frustrated Jacob decided to quit his contract with his uncle and set out for greener pasture. To reverse this, a new deal was struck to retain him; the selfish, bossy uncle protested, why leaving? Name your salary expectation and I will consider it. They agreed on color separation; you will take the white products of the herd while all the specked, the spotted will be mine. Jacob being a mild and creative God driven man, set out on the process of imagination to achieve cross breeding. He set before the animals a picture of what he wants their life to produce. As they continually come to drink and conceive before the spotted and speckled rods they reproduced the picture set before them.
The figuration they beheld continually became their imagination and nothing could restrain them from giving birth to their imagination based on the new configuration. The same thing is applicable to human being, what you behold continually makes up your imagination, in turn duplicates in your life, and eventually dictates your boundary. Many times, I have seen couples after many years of marriage tending to resemble each other—tending to look like twins facially. I do not have any scientific explanation for this or to prove this; but I can infer that, they look at each other too much, and eventually begin to look like each other. This law of reflection is firmly established in the word of life, and what I am trying to liken it to is the power of imagination. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord. What you are continually exposed to with open face or eye of your mind, is what your life will be tailored toward. Having established the possibility of mind replication, then it is necessary for your life not to be dreamless.
When you choose not to place a dream before you or to quit after falling, you are close to the boundary of hopelessness and depression. Failing is neither a misery nor a mystery but a tool for gaining mastery. It is just common sense. If every man will have it recorded by dear mothers how many times they fell when trying to stand and walk as a toddler I know the number will be appreciable. Yet, as a young kid, you never quitted, something kept on making you to stand and try again. You propped on the wall, on the walker, around the couch sometime clung to your parents’ wears, all efforts channeling towards your goal. Let me tell you, there was something pushing you not to be content with crawling on all fours.
I agree that biologically and anatomically you were destined to stand straight, but there was something as well that was propelling such constant falling and rising—the picture of others around you standing and walking. You were surrounded continually by your siblings standing and walking on their legs, your parents, neighbors and visitors. Therefore, you kept on trying to live what you saw incessantly. Like it was earlier said, what you place before you will influence the power of drive and the volume of zeal that will be available to you. Today is the result of your past but resources for your tomorrow. The days behind could be full of guilt, but those ahead are full of gifts from God. Your mind can only focus on one thing per time, when you remember the past, you forget the future meanwhile.
~To put the past behind you, you must
accept that you’ve moved beyond it ~ Ruth
Pursue a clear picture
The past has already determined who we are; but to predetermine
who we shall be should be the job of today and you have the say. You cannot be defined anymore by your past, but you can be confined by it. In life you must always see where you are going to move on and do everything you can to keep the sight. As a driver, you do not press the throttle without firstly having a clear picture of the road. When it begins to rain, you turn on the wiper; when the dusk is approaching you turn on the headlamp; when the windscreen is layered with dust you press the button to release cleaning liquid on the screen; when the sun rays are pointing directly in your eyes you pull down the sun shade device—you do everything to have a clear picture of what lies ahead.
All these efforts are geared towards one reason—to have a clear picture of the road ahead. Likewise, you must do all you can to have a clear picture of what your life wants to dive into. That is why God said write the vision and make it plain that he who reads it may run. One of the reasons you need to dream again is because dreams become clearer with time. The frequently you dream, the more fine-tuned the picture becomes. You need to allow God to give you a fresh dream rather than allowing the foxes of life to choke your mind.
In one of the miracles performed by the Lord, a blind man was involved. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town; “And when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up, and said, “I see men as trees, walking.”
“After that he put [his] hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.” In the first vision of the man, he said he saw men walking like trees. It is obvious that his vision was lopsided; again, Jesus touched him and this time asked him to look up and then he was given a clearer vision, and his sight was restored. When you are confused about your vision in life, go for second touch looking up for second time like the blind man before looking back at life. God is ready to give you clearer and brighter dreams.
At the age of seventeen; wearing rainbow like raiment, this young mind had dreamt and again dreamt. In his first dream, he narrated to his siblings, “Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we [were] binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.” And his brethren said to him, “Shall thou indeed reign over us? Or shall thou indeed have dominion over us?” And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren—“Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.”
~Life can only be understood backwards;
but it must be lived forwards~
Søren Kierkegaard
Before talking about the above account, look at these two scriptural phrases: “dreamed a dream more” and “dreamed yet another dream”. I challenge you today to dream yet another dream and to dream a dream more. Back to his dreams, the first of the two dreams was a bit illustrative. Joseph had seen the sheaves of his brethren bowing to his, but the second one was more illustrative and dramatic, really carrying the details of his future enormity. Now the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars were bowing to him. In other word, the world was bowing to him. Though Jacob retorted, “Do you mean I, your mother and your brothers will come and bow before you,” but this dream can be further translated as meaning something else.
Firstly, Rebekah, his mother had died by then, and eventually it was only his eleven brothers that came to bow to him. Jacob did not bow but rather blessed Joseph. What am I saying, when Joseph dreamt again, it was like the dream became bigger and clearer. The world not just is family came bowing. When you allow God to work in you after falling, He will place in your mind something bigger and clearer. Like to say that, Joseph did not dream twice following the text of this scripture. When he dreamt about the shelves and told his brethren, the text says, “And they hated him yet the more for his dreams”. Note the word “dreams” this was before the celestial dreams of the sun moon and the stars. So this young mind was dream addict—he dreamt not just once or twice but again and again. When Joseph was dying, he told his brethren that they should carry his bone along since he was sure that God would visit them and take them out of the land. He was still dreaming at the point of death. He was so sure of God’s promises to his great grandfathers to the extent that he was making plans towards it in his absence.
