CHALLENGES MAKE MEN

-
"The breakfast of champions isn't cereals; its challenges."
I realized quite early in life that life is a challenge. No life is free from challenges. When you overcome one, another comes to take its place. Not all challenges are overwhelming but all are important to make you who God wants you to be. You see, without challenges, we would all be an over-protected flower that is too young to live in the open. That is why God uses challenges to force us out of our comfortable zones.

One thing I have personally realized about challenges is that when you encounter them, an insight is suddenly birthed within you which you never thought you had in the first instance. Challenges cause us to think. They make us grow. They make us learn. Most importantly, challenges make us lean on God. Without challenges, we might be tempted to think we don't need God. But in the heat of hot difficulties, our soul cries out in despair, "Help Lord, I'm dying."

We would never grow into full maturity without challenges. However, you’ve got to understand that challenges are not meant to mar or destroy you. They are to make you better not bitter. Without challenges we will all be emotional cripples; too weak to rise to the ups and downs of life.

I love what Norman Vincent Pearl said in his book ‘The master keys for successful living’ “Problems are an essential and necessary ingredients of life. They can actually be good for you, although they may be painful all the time. All worthwhile achievements are the results of problem solving. Problem solvers are strong people because they struggle to overcome difficulties and adversities. And the reverse is true: people who never have to fence problems grow soft mentally and spiritually, just as people who never exercise get flabby physically”.

Understand: The child in you needs to be groomed; and the only avenue for the grooming of that child into its truest maturity is through challenges. The boy in every man and the girl in every woman finds its expression only in challenges. Challenges awaken the sleeping giant in you. So when next you pray to God for strength and power, you must girdle your loins with courage and prepare for challenges.

It’s is when we refuse to accept life as a challenge that we fret ourselves over what is not in our power to control. You’ve got to understand that some things will not change by your power alone. It is when we try to live in oblivion of this reality that we hurt ourselves, hurt others and then ask God “why me?”. Instead of asking God, "Why me?", why not say, "Why not me?"

As children bring their toys to us for repair, we must also learn to commit our challenges into God's hand. Why? Because He is the author of life. Nothing in Gods control can ever be out of control. Although God never promised us days without troubles or moments without pains, but He did promised strength for the days, grace for the journey, joy for every moment and peace for all circumstances.

He has promised to give beauty for ashes. But you know what? You’ve got to give him the ashes; All the ashes!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE BITTER TASTE OF LIBERTY

-
Image
David Diop, a Senegalese poet uses his poem entitled “ Africa ” to describe our independence as possessing a bitter taste after he chronicled our long-suffering experiences and plight through colonialism and post colonial era. Nigeria is the landmass composed of the remnant of many ancient empires and kingdoms. The nation was thus forged from the anvils of hegemonic tendencies, human diversity, conflict and history. Agitations for the independent state of Nigeria began in the early 50s by the likes of Azikwe, Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello. We got that liberty quite alright. But after fifty eight years, the question we should ask ourselves is: How does its fruit taste? Barely seven years after our embryonic conception, civil war broke out ! We went to war against each other; brother against brother in a senseless and preventable orgy of violence that was born out of immaturity and nationalistic infantilism. The war consumed more than two million souls. This despite the ref...
Read more

FINDING YOUR VOICE AND CONFIDENCE

-
Let me start by saying: Your Destiny is Greatness. The day comes when every person must leave the security of the nest and pursue their destiny. However, there are people who never came out of their nests because they lacked courage. They lacked confidence. When their future was presented to them, they lacked that intestinal fortitude to embrace it and step into the totality of their destiny. They chose mediocrity. They chose a low life. They chose obscurity. They chose smallness. They chose survival mentality. They chose small goals and weak ambitions. They chose to be a tenant in the terrain of their own destiny! There is a voice in you. There is a greatness that wants to break forth in you. There is a destiny waiting for expression. That voice is within you. Let me say this: Your future is not a date on the calendar; your future is a voice inside you. Your future will come from deep beneath your surface and locating your own core of potential. But our tendency is to l...
Read more

PIUS ADESANMI: EVEN IF THE ROAD TO THE CEMETERY IS CLOSED…

-
Image
Even if the road to the cemetery is closed, We would buried our hero in the earth of Words. Uncle Pius Adesanmi, Thoughts are deep but the words are few, Humanity is paled by your gallant death, You are a deep fountain of intellect and illumination, Whose streams run through the crevices of the earth, Of which we have all worshiped and drank. For the first time in many moons , Humanity is stunned by the demise of a towering figure, The shadow of which influences our literary world, Vanguard of our fragile democracy, Shepherd of our national sanity, The mid-wife of our emancipation: Your words beautifully and humorously crafted, Nurtured the fading silhouette of our dreams, And we long to dance to the beats of your creativity. But suddenly the beats stopped… The water spilled and the gourd split! And what manner of life is this? Even if the road to the cemetery is closed, We would buried our hero in the earth of Words. Uncle...
Read more