Service and Humility

The great Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Apparently, there are many ways to discover the self but getting lost in service to others (or a cause) is the best and perhaps the most appropriate option. The last one year of my life has been mainly characterised by service to my country. I didn’t join the army, just in case anyone’s wondering. Actually, I just completed my one-year compulsory service under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.

Before I go on, I would like to sincerely apologise for waiting this long before posting on this blog – it’s been about three years since I last updated the blog. I have been going through a transition of some sort which has not only divided me mentally but also emotionally. In a nut shell, I wasn’t in the best position to write anything sensible to keep the readers of this blog inspired. My transition story will be for another day anyway. Be assured that you’ll always get the best of inspirational articles from here henceforth.

Back to the gist; I was posted to Abia State (a South Eastern State in Nigeria) for my youth service and like many others who have served or are serving, the one-year compulsory service isn’t exactly the typical service. It is seen as a waste of time and a sort of delay to achieving one’s goals in life. In fact, the acronym NYSC has been given new meanings which includes Now Your Suffering Continues, thereby indicating how displeased many Nigerian youths are about the programme. However, not everyone who completes the programme continues to think the scheme is a waste of time. Surprisingly, it turns out to be the best year of many Nigerians who pass through the scheme.

The one-year NYSC scheme begins with three weeks in an orientation camp where the overly regimented life becomes so frustrating it begins to appear like months have been spent there. A watch is useless in the NYSC camp as the sound of the bugle becomes the ticking sound of the clock. The bugler’s sound literally tells you the time to do everything from waking up to meal time to parade time; even bedtime. Hereafter the one-year service begins proper. Some people are sent to villages where there is no electricity and extremely poor telecommunications reception. In fact, some get to live the village life they have only experienced from watching the wrapper-tying characters in many Nigerian films where the young women have to walk a distance to the stream carrying clay pots on their heads. Once the corps member’s monthly allowance of 20,000 naira (sorry, 19,800 naira as a friend often corrects me) is paid,  these village corps members have to travel to the nearest city to withdraw their money, shop a little and enjoy city life before retiring to their firewood-fetching, candle-burning village lifestyle. I am not making fun of them, nay; I actually envy them as I was unlucky to have served in a city.

Everything that has advantages comes with relative disadvantages, and serving in a city has its: little opportunity to serve. The corps member who got the Abia State award of 100,000 naira and an honours certificate served in Ubakala, a not-too-city area of Umuahia South Local Government Area where he taught in a secondary school. I heard he was initially posted to Umuahia city but asked to be reposted to Ubakala. His personal project of building an ICT Centre cum library among other things like his service in the Federal Road Safety Corps Community Development Service Group fetched him the award. 

Many corps members did get lost in service especially those who taught in village schools as they did everything humanly possible to impart the students they taught. They didn’t mind the meagre allowance the Federal Government paid them but gave all they could to invest knowledge in those unwilling students. Many took on personal projects to renovate and equip the schools, community libraries and even police stations. A host of corps members belonging to various groups devoted time to carry out services like sensitising the community on achieving the Millennium Development Goals, cancer awareness, peer education training, encouraging mass literacy, HIV/AIDS awareness and going as far as rendering social services to the people of various communities. As a matter of fact, these services were eventually carried out by corps members with all willingness and humility.

Nigeria sentences her young graduates to one-year compulsory experience in a foreign part of the country. Though unwilling at first, these young men and women end up loving every bit of their experience – the people they met, the new delicacies they were forced to try out, the new and interesting cultures, the foreign language they spoke and of course their discovery of how much joy selfless service could offer. Many of the corps members, upon passing out, are often transformed and forcefully humbled through service. They were called to serve their country but they ended up being served. They gained new perspectives on certain issues, discovered the path they must follow to achieve greatness in life and found ways to continue in service.

Service, as it turns out is indeed the best way to discover self. If you find yourself in a corner of confusion and emptiness, try service. If you think you have come to the end of the road and there seems to be no way forward, try rendering service to others. If you really do want to feel fulfilled, help put a smile on a sad face and give a helping hand to those who need help. Dr Albert Schweitzer, the famous missionary doctor and the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize winner who spent his life helping the poor in Africa once said, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” Indeed, the motto of the NYSC is well deserved; “Service and Humility.”

7 REASONS WHY YOU MUST DIE FULFILLED

It is one thing to die and another to die fulfilled. One certain thing about death is that we shall all taste it – sooner or later, but not everyone who dies, dies fulfilled. A lot of people live everyday of their lives asking the question, “How can I bring out the best in myself?” For a long time I kept asking myself the same question and I never had any cogent answer to justify the cause of the bothersome state of my mind. That was a few years ago before I finally hit the jackpot. I found the reason why I thirsted for relevance and I realized the Creator has actually deposited tonnes of resources and materials in me so I was seeking a way to expel them out of me.
A great man once thought well when he said, “The larger percentages of the greatest of minds are in the cemetery”. This fact I will never oppose because I have come to realize the truth in his statement. A lot of men who die today are men who would have been movers and shakers of their generations if and only if they utilized their God-given potentials. A lot of them live life as average men – most of them even below average – who did everything the same way any common man would have. These men as I once heard Myles Munroe call them, died full.
For someone to die full means he/she died with a great amount of his/her potentials. It is of great importance in the society we have found ourselves today, to understand the tactics and tools we need to get equipped with in other to die empty – I believe we understand what that means. These tactics and knowledge is what I have summarized into seven and I call them The Seven Reasons Why You Must Die Fulfilled:

Reason 1: You MUST Not Disappoint God

When God created the earth, he created man and commanded him, “be fruitful and multiply”. He didn’t mean reproduction alone; as a matter of fact Adam was still naked when God said this. God’s order to be fruitful means making meaning out of life and re-creation. It could be ideas, wealth, intelligence or anything else you can multiply. God was talking about making impact in this world just like He made the first impact by creating the entire universe. He wants you and me to continue the business of creation. If you fail to obey Him, you have failed God and disappointed Him to say the least.

Reason 2: It Doesn’t Matter if you don’t but Does If You Do

Have you ever noticed how people who made little or no impact while alive are often neglected and un-remembered? As a matter of fact, those who made impacts are still struggling with people remembering them for their achievements let alone those who have made little or nothing; like fart in the air will they disappear without trace. So it doesn’t matter if you decide to sit back and relax but it does matter when you decide to stand up to challenges and make something positive out of your life.

Reason 3: You’ll give an Account of How You Spent Your Life

We shall all stand before the throne of God someday and give an account of how we spent our lives on earth. Shall you just stand there and bite your mouth racking your brain for the scanty effects you made or talk till you’re begged to take a seat? Well, it is left to you to decide which of the two states you want to fall into. It could be very embarrassing to find very few stories to tell on such a great occasion.

Reason 4: the Earth will testify against You

You see, everything you do on earth today is recorded and something here on earth is a witness. Every minute wasted having an extra sleep, the extra hour you spent playing your life away and every extra day you spent without achieving anything. This life you’ve got is just one and is non-renewable when lost; forget re-incarnation here, it’s all delusions of grandeur. The earth will testify against you and refer to those seconds and minutes.

Reason 5: You will stink if you don’t

I’ve come to realize that in life, those who fail to do something great with their lives never achieve anything and they stink in the society. Stinking in this context means poor and irrelevant. For every achievement, success follows and thus wealth. So if you decide to go about your ways with all your God-given potentials locked inside of you, you rotten on the inside and stink on the outside. For this alone, you want to die fulfilled.

Reason 6: You die just that once

We all die once, yes I know. But do you know that those who fail to release their potentials die twice? Yes! They do. They die while they are living and then eventually die. When someone exists as if he did not, then the person is as good as dead. This is the reason why I say those who fail to make impact die twice. You don’t want to die twice, trust me.

Reason 7: Why Shouldn’t You?

Every animal on earth has its own unique lifestyle and it lives it exactly the way God has designed it to. Birds keep flying until they can’t anymore and fishes keep swimming until they can’t move again. You and I are created for a reason. We are not just dumped here on earth but made to make our generation feel and know we were here. We must find that thing which God has deposited in us, understand it and maximize it. It is what we are meant to do like every other creature. Have you found yours? It’s time to maximize it and prepare to die empty and fulfilled.

Destiny or What?

DESTINY: Does it really exist? I'm not too sure about what to believe, not because I don't know my stand on the issue but because a lot of people believe in its existence a lot. Well, while thinking about how to resolve this, I realized the best way to treat this is to discuss the issue with practical situations.

Real life Scenario:

Imagine a man like Baba Adeboye, who grew up in a little village and had a poor family who couldn't afford to send him to school. He cried and struggled to get educated; dreams his way out of the village into a higher institution and became who he is today by God's Grace. Imagine a friend of his - who with him (Adeboye), played with sand - still struggling in that little village to get something out of life while raising a family? Did he offend God? Or would you say it was his destiny?

There are many examples out there but I won't want to talk extensively about people here. Anyway, let us assume that friend who is still in the village fought his way out (I'm not saying He can't be fulfilled in the village, I'm only talking about creating opportunities) and gets all the tools he'll need to become great, won't his story change? He will be the great leader people will one day immortalize or a great industrialist whose generation will forever be recognized.

Assume this man in question got to understand what to do at the last minute, people will say it's his destiny to be great but what if he didn't realize it, would that be his destiny? Which will we call destiny then? The end result of a man at any point in time, just like the dictionary explains it? This means destiny changes or shall I say fluctuates. Well, I won't call such destiny - I'll prefer CHOICE.

I'm not leaving God out of this because He determines everything which includes where we end up, but I want you to know that the way God operates; our choices determine a lot of things. God does not force anybody to become what He wants, except in very few cases He wants to use people. He only guides us to follow His will which gets us to our destination. As for those who don't follow His will, they miss it in life and die frustrated although some use the Natural laws of existence to force their way into greatness (Another story).

If destiny really exist, why do courageous people take charge and change theirs? So, how would we define destiny if it changes? How do you explain someone poor and suffering and then told it's his destiny? Does God intend we suffer for no cause? Men who fight their cause and achieve great things in life thereby championing the cause of the poor and helping humanity must've changed their status and would it be destiny? Or someone rich before and got attacked by the evil ones (awon aye) therefore becoming poor, would we say it's his destiny to be poor? Think again!

Here is the summary of it all: God has put it all in us but it takes an extra strength, extra courage, extra sacrifice and extra determination to utilize all the things God has given to us. The safest way to ensure we achieve this is by understanding the will of God for us and following it. Once you've given your life to Christ and totally submitted to God, then you'll begin to see that you can achieve anything in life as long as God is in support.

See you up there, where we'll take charge and build a better environment to live in. I'll guess it'll be our destiny after-all.

The Last Exit!

There is one disturbing issue under the Sun which remains a mystery to Mankind and Man has not been able to comprehend it, let alone overcome it. The Creator has not only created the complex and highly-developed specie called Man, He has also created some set of protocols which guide and restrict Man's abilities. These protocols are best referred to as Natural laws - or so we call them.

one of these laws which seem to bother man due to its inevitability is that which I will call The Last Exit. Every place with an entrance must have an exit too. If this fact is argued true, then it could be agreed that our coming into this world via an entrance (The woman) points to the fact that we would someday exit the world.

What bothers me the most isn't the last exit - Death, at least I know by-God's-grace where I'm going thereafter, it's its imperfect timing that brings the troubled state of mind. I keep wondering why some very good people use the last exit very early in life. Just recently, I lost a family friend, a woman who can best be described as good, caring and religious. She used the exit just a few weeks after a brief illness. In my grief, lost in thought and deep in sorrow after the news reached me, a lot of things came to my mind and I ended up composing the poem written below and I dedicated it to her. The poem explains the reason for writing this article because it tells us why we do not need to fear death. The only thing that we should fear is the account we'll give in heaven on judgment day. So why don't we decide to take a u-turn today to start pleasing God and doing good to our fellow neighbor.


Here's the poem: Enjoy the reading.


FOR THE GREATER GOOD

Open the gates of the earth,
Let me come in with one heart
To pour out all my heart trouble;
For this I must do without tremble.
For the creator has sent me here,
Giving me a life that I must share.

I know God created me with His word
But yet do I know why I’m in this world.
This world seems to me unfair,
With every message in it unclear.
A lot of things I still don’t know about God
But for the little I know, I cannot dodge.

Life makes us joyous
But same makes us dolorous.
We long to possess its gains
But sometimes share its pains.
The Bible has said a worthy thing
“There is a time for everything”.

The good has been taken away
And this has caused more than dismay.
So when I sought God for a way,
He said,"It’s for the greater good of way".
And one thing I know comes forth
God gives those who mourn comfort.

Like they say, “We meet to part and part to meet”
This part isn’t meant for deceit.
For today we express sorrow
But GOD promises Joy tomorrow.
It doesn’t matter who is fit
What matters the most is meeting at Jesus’ feet.

**This poem is dedicated to Mrs. Oluronke Oshilaja;
A woman who isn’t late But doesn’t want to get to Jesus’ feet late.**

You Owe The World!

People assume and believe America is the greatest country in the world. They assume if you can just get to America, all your problems will be solved in a very short period of time. Well, as true as those statements are, you will be shocked to discover it is not true after all.

Do you know that this same country has 33 million people who do not know how or when they are going to get their next meals? Did you know that more than 8 million Americans regularly go hungry? Or that 3.5 million Americans have no place to live? Or that by 2012, the homeless population is expected to double in size (This statistics was collected in 2008).

Well, that is just America – the expected giant of the world, where Africans run to for greener pastures. A country noted for opportunities and wealth. Think about the population of those classified above and imagine the statistics of an African country, say Nigeria. I am sure you know what the figures would look like.
According to the world development indicators 2007, published by World Bank, more than 70% of Nigerians live on less than a dollar (that is about 160 Naira in Nigerian currency) per day, and the situation has not gotten any better since then.

Roughly out of every five human beings on the Planet-Earth – that is, more than 840 million people – are malnourished. Upward of 153 million of them are children under the age of five. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, some 6 million children die each year as a result of hunger and malnutrition. Everyday, some 40,000 children under the age of five die from hunger and preventable diseases. That is 24 children a minute. It is not much of a funny discovery, is it?

Fortunately, People are helping; Individuals, Organizations, Churches, Foundations, Estates and Co operations donate billions of dollars yearly to mitigate these problems and reduce the population of suffering people. Surprisingly, we still have suffering people. This means that the donations will never be enough, it will only help to some extent.

The summary of it all is this; The World owes you nothing, neither does it me, but you owe the world. Yes, you owe the world. God created you for a purpose. He designed you so that you will give back to the world. The world needs your help. The world needs your quota. If you think your riches is enough for you, think again. Help those who need help around you. If you think there is no reward here on earth, my Bible made me understand you have a reward in heaven. Strive to be great so that you can make this world a better place, if not for yourself, let it be for that child who might be the next to die in the next 10 seconds.