A young physician with a heart for God and on a journey to understand what can be understood and use it for the greater good.
There is peace, joy, love, hope and true fulfilling purpose in being in true relationship with God, and no one must miss this.
A major passion is sharing what I learn with others. I may learn another angle of it later or understand it differently another time but I will not be afraid to learn.
I love God, I love the life He has given me and the daily revelations and I love people.
I also enjoy cooking and traveling, reading, K-Drama and C-Drama and this very thing I do here – writing. With this page and my other pages, I can hopefully share many exciting stories with you all.
Thank you for subscribing and reading.
Luke 15:7 “In the same way, I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety- nine righteous ones who do not need to repent”
And with that key verse, I introduce this blog. One that has truly been long in the making, one I dare say I may have avoided or unintentionally dragged my feet on for quite a while but will not run from any longer, it is indeed better to obey than to sacrifice after all.
I write these words in obedience, not only for myself but for that ONE. The young lady struggling to find herself in a world which has so many contrasting views. The one young adult who may have knowingly or unknowingly veered off the right path, for the shunned, the scorned, the confused, the ‘unloved’, the desperately lost, the one who has been living off peoples’ opinions and wants to do better, and for someone not listed here but who will eventually find this useful.
Isaiah 43:6 – “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all”.
In a world full of distractions and easy opinions, it is easy to find ourselves chasing after whichever seems ‘cool’ at the time, without realizing how wrong it may be and to what end it is leading us. As one who has been at one long point in my life given to other people’s opinions on how to live life, I can identify with most people who may be stuck in such a situation as well. The good news is, there is more! There is better! There is a better way to live life and believe it or not, it has little to nothing to do with the opinions of others and EVERYTHING to do with the maker of your very life.
The raw truth is that we were made by a creator, a Father who longs to relate to us, and He doesn’t leave us fumbling around on earth, He has given us His word to guide our every step so we don’t end up walking into ditches and hurting ourselves over and over again.
For so long, I tried to do things MY way. I listened to the Word, but it wasn’t deeply rooted in me, it wasn’t as much a part of my life as it should have been. I went through completely avoidable situations, painful and destructive places I wouldn’t have had to go through, had the Word been deeply rooted in me. You don’t have to go through these either. Walk through my stories, some are inspired, some are real situations that happened, but all of them have real experiences in there you can draw on for every phase and strengthen yourself in the knowledge of our everlasting loving Father. Don’t walk alone, God longs to walk with you, to lead you, to direct you, to listen to you and to speak to you.
So, lean in, read the stories, share where they resonate with you, invite your sisters to read and let the Lord guide you in applying to your own circumstances. I pray that that ONE will find this, and will grow through this, will find out who the Father made her to be and will start living her best life out.
It is for you, The ONE. The one He leaves the 99 for, the one heaven rejoices over, the one He died for, the one He longs to live in, the one He’s waiting to welcome Home at the end of this journey.
1 Peter 2:25 – “For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” It’s never too late and in fact, even better, it is better now than later. Heaven waits to rejoice over you. Welcome to the ‘Joy Over One’ blog, whether you are visiting or are a regular in the making, I pray you find something that inspires you and teaches you to live the life you have been called to. Walk with me through my life and stories, you don’t have to take the same wrong steps. It’s good to have you here.
Adwoba
post-song: Reckless Love by Cory Asbury
Orchid Garden at Keukenhoff, Netherlands. May 2017 photo credits – @amedicsmusings
I don’t know about you but every time I have watched a movie involving some form of reunion, whether of childhood friends, schoolmates, or colleagues from one’s first workplace after college, there has always been a lot of drama and of course, lessons to learn. For the casual viewer, lessons are often easy. You watch from a distance and while sometimes feeling like you’d never, ever, make that mistake yourself, you concurrently, utter a word of thanks that it is not you because you would 100 percent not want to find yourself in such a messy situation.
The truth is that we usually just hope that things run along normally and perfectly without any incidence or negativity but having good foresight, understanding the demands of the situation, and preparing one’s heart and mind help a great deal to ensure success. This goes very well for school reunions as well.
School reunions serve many purposes. For many, it is a time to reflect, reconnect, and celebrate shared and individual experiences and victories. For others, it is a time to either open or close some doors that have been left in uncertainty for years and to find peace or hope for the next lap. Whatever the situation is, conversations and interactions can easily get tricky. What was fun and jovial 10 years ago, may very easily be a source of pain and what is said without thought or with unintended passion can unfortunately become a thorn or rub others wrong. While things can’t always be perfect, having some pointers in hand can help ensure that you are not the one unintentionally inflicting pain or causing unnecessary dissonance among your friends and colleagues.
Here are a few points to consider, if you are heading into a reunion with friends.
Definitely Do:
Be Kind: Kindness is not overrated. It also walks hand-in-hand with being respectful. You don’t even have to go out of your way or bend over backwards or have long conversations you aren’t interested in. Treat the next person as you would someone you care about and that already sets the stage for a a good time together.
Listen actively: You may not be ‘the bragging type’ 🙂 but people usually don’t want to look or feel small at reunions. Most are happy to go on and on about all the feats they have conquered or accomplished since everyone last met. While this is alright and may be motivating for many, it helps to also be first of all, a good listener. Even simple answers to questions like ‘how have you been?’ can say a lot and where reconnecting or growing new friendships come into consideration, actively listening, hearing what is said, and responding accordingly and thoughtfully can make a huge difference.
But I did accomplish great things!: Of course, speak about your accomplishments. For some, this will be the push factor they need to make some changes or take certain steps in their own lives and careers but overly embellishing and boasting can place you in a bad light and sometimes expose you to ridicule. Let’s celebrate all the great achievements maintaining some level of mindfulness in the mix.
That prickly subject: Over 20-plus years, friendships have grown at different paces, in some cases, they have been in total hibernation. Whether the need is to fill the silence or to genuinely try to dig deep, it is important to respect the boundaries set by others and to know that not everyone is ready to talk about every aspect of their lives or even that topic that you consider ‘normal’ or ‘simple’. This brings back the topic of being mindful and exercising the very special talent of reading the room. If a person seems to avoid a question or does not give much detail intentionally, take this as a cue to not pry further or give the space for the person to make the decision whether to say more or not.
So what SHOULD you talk about?: This does not attempt to set restrictions on what should and should not be discussed. It would be a shame to sit in silence, afraid of stepping on emotions and creating enemies. There is so much to be gained in connecting and reconnecting with former classmates, and to ease into conversations, and creating common grounds where people actually find their people for the next year, start light. Focus on shared memories for example. These include lighthearted, fun, silly, and meaningful school memories and current events that others are familiar with. Nostalgia is often a good icebreaker and can help make up for gaps in time and familiarity. Of course, further conversations will ensue eventually, but avoid making people feel left out when chatting in groups, excessive inside jokes, and settling into cliques.
Connect: After years of going on individual life journeys, a chance to regroup for just a few days can indeed present many interesting opportunities. Ladies have gained so much experience in several spheres of life and sometimes these experiences are exactly what another needs to make a big decision in their own life. Be it a new career path, a new business, healing old and new wounds, a lead to a new life partner, or opportunities for something existing, possibilities exist. Being present and kind, listening intently, and having good conversations opens doors that would otherwise remain closed or go unnoticed.
Whatever your reunion plans are, the deal is to have fun, relive, and laugh about memories while making new ones and creating lasting connections. Keep that front and center and that will help to see you through. Remember that so much has gone into planning and organizing and the days themselves will pass very quickly. Relax and enjoy every moment as best as you can while being mindful of others and staying safe.
Thank you for reading. The next episode will discuss what to absolutely NOT DO when reuniting with girlfriends for a school anniversary.
In my teens, I got bitten by a rather common bug that creates conflict between teenagers and their parents. In my case, it was with my mummy. I thought then that she worked too much and expected too much ‘unnecessary’ work from me and all I wanted to do was live life and enjoy it but she just wouldn’t let me. I know, I was in some ways, the typical teenager. Fast forward to the first day I stepped foot in the delivery room as a medical student in my clinical years. I was so shaken to my core at the sheer pain the women seemed to go through, just to bring their babies out of their wombs, that, when I got back to my room, I called my mummy and apologized to her. I apologized for all the stupid, hurtful and outright painful things I had put her through as an ‘adult’ child. I was appalled by all I had done to put her through pain after all the pain she had gone through already to bring me into the world. Mummy just laughed. I had only started then to realize that my birthday was a moment of me passively entering into a sphere I had no idea about and really no control of. My mum, however, had prayed for a baby, had carried a heavy protuding uterus for nine whole months, gone into a painful labour and proceeded to do the work of pushing me out. The one who deserved any celebration on this day, was her and not me. And going on from there I would call her every fourth of February, my birthday, and say ‘Thank You’ again. This time not only for what she went through in the maternity ward and before, but also for all the time afterwards that she had dealt with things she shouldn’t have had to.
Today is the fourth of February and for the second year in a row and for many more to come, I won’t be able to call mummy on a phone and tell her how grateful I am for her. My mummy’s gone to be with God. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t miss her. I know that I will see her again, in heaven, but I still miss her terribly. A few months before mummy died, I took a step that changed the way I personally viewed my birthday for ever. It was definitely still her day more than it was mine and I was going to celebrate her still but something changed.
Following a series of events that I still find very interesting, I got water- baptized. On my 32nd birthday, I took the plunge and had my life changed forever. You can read more about it here. Today, 2 years down the line, it is still one of the best decisions I have ever made and one whose impact I haven’t even began to fully realized yet. Of course, at the point, I had no idea it would be the last birthday I would be able to call my mummy and say thank you, and that she would be going home to be with God but I believe that God did and in His will gave me a whole new meaning for my day of birth. This was the real birth. The re- awakening of my long dead and deeply slumbering spirit. This was being born again and it happened, on no other day but the fourth of February.
As I step into my 34th year, my heart overflows with gratitude to God. I am grateful for His unchanging love, provision and grace. I am excited for the opportunity to walk in step with Him and to grow in relationship with Him. I am grateful that 2 years ago, He gave me the opportunity to die to my old self and to be raised again to life in Jesus Christ. I am grateful that like in Psalm 40, He has placed a new song in my mouth and that this song is really for His glory. That many will see this new and give ALL the glory to Him.
Water baptism, is one of the most powerful steps you will ever take in your Christian walk. It is a declaration and a pretty bold one at that (even if you don’t feel like it at the time you are doing it). It is a statement that you are ready. Ready to step into what you are uncertain about but what Jesus knows all to well. Ready to hand over control of your life to Jesus (don’t worry, He does it way better than you ever could). Ready to leave the past behind. And more than anything, READY TO LIVE. It is in taking this bold step that you are released into a fullness, power and strength like no other.
raised to life – 2017
If there is one thing I can encourage you to do today, it will be to get water- baptized. A full immersion, watery grave, out and out water- baptism. Find a pond, fill a bathtub, get an inflatable swimming pool or go to the public pool. Then call your priest, church leader, whoever is further in their faith and understands what water baptism signifies and get water baptized! In going under the water, you willing choose to die to yourself and your will and in coming back up out of the water, you are RAISED to a NEW LIFE, leaving that old self there in that watery grave.
You can go forward to live, remembering that like Paul, it is no longer the old you who lives, but Christ who lives in you. How amazing is that!!!
Have you been water- baptized? If you haven’t, what is holding you back? I would love to hear all about it in the comments below.
At the stroke of midnight on the 31st of December last year, with a hard press on the instagram icon on my phone, I pressed the ‘x’ that would delete it and all the accounts associated with it and thus began my self- imposed hiatus off the platform. ‘Whew!’, I sighed. ‘Let’s do this Karen!’, saying to my slightly nervous self.
The motivation while varying, was pretty simple. It was time! At the start of every year, since fully plunging into God, I set some time apart to focus as fully on Him as possible.
I find this particularly important, having realized that in the course of the year, willingly or unwilling, consciously and unconsciously, I come into contact with situations and people whose thought patterns and attitudes I get greatly influenced by and sometimes pick up as well. These are not necessarily bad because exposure is indeed a great way to learn and move forward. However in the middle of all that, it is easy to be so caught up in all that bustle and forget where you as a person are headed. If every sense of where I am going is only that gained from where others are then I am sure to lose my way. Thus I find that, returning to the centre, the core, and getting rightly alligned, sets the right pace for the impending journey.
For me, social media, that mighty opinion pool, is one place where picking up ideologies and attitudes is quite easy. It grows on you and sooner that later, fully engrosses you in it such that for some, it starts to be even more important than ‘real life’. Real human relationships are shoved back while online ‘characters’ are named friends and sometimes the difficulty in closing our screens and minding other things around us is all we have to see, to realize that, it is some sort of addictive drug.
Don’t get me wrong, like I mentioned in my previous post, I really like social media and I appreciate how it, being in the right hands, is used for a good purpose. So this is definitely not a post about, how much I hate social media, lol, because that would be a lie. But, seeing as even good intent alone is not enough to maneuver this platform sanely, I give myself regular (or rather, irregular) breaks off the platform. This is usually a once every week thing or no social media before 2pm or something along those lines. While this helps, there is always the tendency to want to ‘just swing by’ and ‘drop a gem’ of wisdom that just occurred to me, *wink* and so when I decided to go off for a much longer period, I knew getting rid of the pull factor ‘the presence of the icon’ would be the best way to approach it, and I did exactly that.
Right away, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it through the entire month without trying to check at least once what was happening there but I calmed down when I remembered one of my keys for the year, ‘I have no idea how the entire year looks or if I even have the entire year, but I have right now and I am going to be fully present in this NOW’. Basically, I didn’t know if I was going to last the entire month of the platforms I had logged off of, but I was going to take a day at a time, and that’s exactly what I did. I realized a few things while off the platforms, and I share a few of these below.
Everyday, a thousand things all around us are calling for our attention, we can give all these things pieces of our mind and not fully grasp or immerse in any particular one or worse yet, the one thing that actually requires our attention goes completely unattended or gets scraps. I pick up my phone at least 20 times on average a day. This is an understatement when compared to the number of hours I spend on certain applications on my phone. I wondered how it was possible that so many hours of my day could be attributed to this social media platform alone and remembered the many times I had clear plans of reading on the ride to work or elsewhere but had taken out my phone first and the rest had become history. Distractions. They are everywhere and don’t even require much effort to catch and hook their victims. Staying focused however requires work. An active effort to stay fixed on the main thing. Sometimes being able to do this requires making a ‘sacrifice’ which completely removes the distraction, in my case deleting the app, and allows you to fully focus on that important thing.
From the second I stepped out of the busy Instagram and Facebook spaces, I was literally blind to what was happening there. I had no idea what anyone was posting or not posting and yet somehow my life progressed well and meaningfully. Granted, I had a few concerns about the spaces for my podcast and other business venture but thankfully, both of these are run with friends who gracefully gave me the time to step out for the stated time. I found the thought that thousands of people were posting at any particular time and I wasn’t frantically swiping trying to catch up with it all so interesting. And while that world frantically spun, mine, slowed to it’s own pace, also spun. And nothing was missing. My friends were still my friends, my acquaintances still acquaintances and my watchers, well, they at that moment had nothing to watch. And in it all, the world still spun. You might be fixated on that app on your phone wondering how tough it would be for you to literally function without it, and my encouragement for your today is that you CAN and you WILL! Don’t let the fear of missing out on something keep you so hooked that it is impossible to do without it. So if you ever for some reason, feel like you want to step away from the app for a while, to make room for something more important, do it and trust that everything on there will continue to spin just fine, as you will as well. And still on this side, I was able to connect truly with others not based on what they posted but based on what truly is and find out first hand from them, what it means to them or makes them feel.
3. Nothing that fights for space with God deserves it or is worth it.
I already have a practice of not checking my phone till I have spent some time with God, however this is not the end of it. What He tells me in the morning, has several implications for my entire day and sometimes for days after that. What is interesting is how like the parable of the sower, things come and sweep away the seeds shortly after they’ve been scattered and they don’t ever get the chance to take root and grow and bear fruit. With one hundred updates at any time in particular and endless scrolling, swinging my mind back to that word I wanted to meditate on can be very dodgy. And truly those pages are nice and juicy and informative and so easy to spend an hour in one sitting just doing that. Somehow at the end of the day, I feel I left important things undone and wonder where my time went. There are times when I have set aside time to read or pray or study and inadvertently found myself one hour down the line starring yet again at my fon screen. The excuse that I read encouragement and bible verses on these platforms are just that, excuses. And once the excuses start coming up, I realize I am giving something a space in my life that doesn’t belong to it. Did I have to get off social media to realize this? NO! However, getting off helped me to reorient my heart to what was important and away from what wasnt.
4. In quietness and trust is my strength
In Isaiah 30:15, God, through His prophet, is telling the people of Israel these words, ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, inquietness and trust is your strength’, but he goes on to say that they have refused to have any of it, and so they remained bound and burdened. In taking time away from all the hustle and bustle of opinions and ideas, I found once again, strength. Strength, gained not only from having enough time to rest but also in not trying to keep up with every post and who is thinking what or doing what at any point in time. In this quietness, I leaned in to listen and to hear what Holy Spirit wants to say and gain strength for the rest of the journey ahead, including even maneuvering social media once it has become a part of my life again. In this quietness, I rediscovered that not every ‘gem’ I had needed to be available right away to the world and that was okay. Sometimes, that word I had received, was more for me than it was for anyone else, and rather than post it to my instastories or facebook right away, I needed to let it sink in, and come into action first in my life. In this quietness, misconceptions about activities in a virtual world played little to no part and lost ground every minute. In this quietness, prayer brought renewed peace and strengthened perspectives.
… and it flies! and demands to be used, albeit wisely. Making and having time can often be such strenuous activities. The time away however released time to dedicate to other important things. We can always make time, it depends on what we are willing to let go off.
And here, on the first day of the second month of the year already, I can say that, time HAS flown. What started with me setting my mind and heart apart to fully focus on God has also strengthened me and given me a new perspective. Will I get back on these platforms? YES! I actually already visited Facebook briefly today. However, regualr breaks will continue to be integral to my usage and at no point, should this servant rule over me.
What changes are you making to your social media usage this year? Share with me in the comments below. I hope this has been helpful.
Hey wonderful people of the big wide blogosphere. It’s the 12th day of the brand new year and all I’m here wondering is, guys how are you doing so far? I remember a funny comment my friend made about wanting to just take a raincheck on the entire year and come back for 2020 instead. Is anyone else feeling like this? Lol, if only! My encouragement for you would be to keep going. You can decide to let the year happen to you or you stand, dig your feet in, take the year by the horns, stare it right in the face and tell it to bring on all it’s got!! You’ve got this because God’s got you and His promise to never ever leave you is so much bigger and better than any bully of a situation that tries to rear it’s head or tries to actually tackle you. So do not back down, stay standing and see the victory.
good news and stuff.
That said, it’s been a busy couple of weeks already. Your girl finally finished her Master Thesis and submitted and couldn’t be more thankful or relieved. It has been quite a journey, one I will talk about in another post, trust me you will want to read this. Along with that is work, and all the other amazing projects I have the honor of being a part of (updates soon). I can tell it is going to be one packed year already, and I am filled with gratitude for all the opportunities to do awesome stuff in the year, regarding work, church, placing value on young people and women and many more. God is so good guys.
Well, so knowing or at least having a general idea how busy the year is going to be, I figured that a good start would position me well to approach it right and to maximize it. This meant I had to take the steps necessary to ensure that this ‘good’ start was indeed happening. At the end of 2018, I did a review of my year; what had worked, what hadn’t, what I could do differently, what I could improve and what I should just get off my lazy chair and get to doing. I knew that knowing these would help me to take the next necessary steps. A good start can mean many things and often different things for different people.
One thing I am definitely doing is taking more time to rest, reflect and recover and to do this regularly, not wait till my tank is in the red as I have previously done.
unplugging.
Another major step I took or have taken, is to UNPLUG, and by this I mean to give myself a much- needed break from social media. I have an interesting (not exactly pleasant) history with social media. One could rightly have called me an addict back in the days. I was a heavy user, and spent over 5 hours a day on my phone. Several experiences (which I’ll talk about much later, lol) left a bad taste in my mouth regarding social media platforms like facebook, twitter and Instagram. I had a disdain for it and wanted almost nothing to do with them. But then I discovered PURPOSE and realized that I had been looking at it all wrong. Those social media platforms were a tool or device and in themselves neither good nor bad. Like a knife, the effect they had, whether good or bad, depended very much on who was holding it and what they were using it for. Being certain that I could add value with my social media instead of causing harm, I decided to reactivate some accounts and to use them in exactly this way. It has been amazing and it’s equally wonderful following people who inspire and encourage me in so many areas.
However, despite knowing very well its use and importance. one can still find themselves scrolling for hours on end, hanging on likes and comments and quite committed to following up on what others are doing with their lives. While this in itself may not be directly harmful to health (I don’t have any figures,lol), so much time that I could have put into other things ends up just being squandered. Apart from this, other effects that do not make much of an announcement but rather slowly creep up on you also come to play. Comparison, showing- off, jealousy, depression, etc., are all some of the negative effects associated. The line is thin and from my previous experiences, I know how easy it is to tip over to THE OTHER SIDE but thankfully I have also learned how to stay on the healthier side of usage.
Thus, the way I have learned to not be a social media junkie and end up misusing it, is to take breaks off the platforms. Taking a break for a day is not much of a problem for me, longer breaks have however been more difficult for reasons connected to managing other non- personal accounts. But I decided to not let this be an excuse anymore. I can say however that I am on the 12th day and it feels great. I will probably write more about the entire process with lessons learned at the end of the absence period.
reconnecting.
Taking the time off is important to me for many reasons. At the start of the year, I have found it helpful to get my mind clear and to make room to set clear goals and take decisions which are not directly influenced by the views and lives of other people. In this time I also know that disconnecting alone is not enough, the ‘void’, if I can call it that, created will quickly be filled by all the wrong things if I am not proactive about it. Thus, knowing that, not only my mind, but my heart as well has to be in the right place, I find this a valuable period to plug fully into my source, God. This does not mean that in other months I will be only partially plugged, but this period now, helps me set the pace of how I would want to advance into the rest of the year in terms of my personal walk with God. Breaking away from all the distractions and pluggung full on to Him right at the start, is the kind of full tank I want to start this year’s journey with. Taking a break gives me the opportunity to decide how I can better use my social media platform to add value to others and the world in general and not just to promote myself or to seek approval. Also, I have more time to do certain things that have needed doing for a long time, that and so much more which will be shared later. It is refreshing to say the least.
your turn.
Have you ever taken a long social media break? For what purpose did take it? How was it for you? I would love to know in the comments below.
“Take nothing for the journey,” He told them, “no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no second tunic.
Luke 9:3 (Berean Study Bible)
2018. The year I took a decision to walk closely with God.
I can only say, ‘I want MORE!!’. This is not to say it’s all been fun and rosy, not in the least. Like many, I have had highs and lows. What was different however was my awareness that God is with me no matter which level, high or low, I’m on and that the situation is never bigger than God is. This knowledge and conviction has kept me through so many interesting times in the past year, reminding me that God was, and is always doing more than my physical eyes could see.
How has being intentional about a relationship with God looked for me and what does it look like going forward?
Step out:
In 2017, my entire life literally changed after I lost my mummy. I started to see life from a completely different perspective. I couldn’t completely understand it all but I came to the realization that some things in life, like salvation, were a life-or-death matter and an absolute necessity while some other things, like gossip and unnecessary arguments, just didn’t deserve a second of my time. I also developed an intense hunger for God and the things of God. I just wanted to know Him more and more and to truly understand what it meant for a person to walk with Him. This was my one desire going into 2018 and still is as I start 2019. There is nothing I want more. I have learned that a life lived outside of God is only really partially lived, if at all. Life is so much fuller and better when He is in it.
Reading the Bible is definitely one way to stay in communion and one of the guides that helped with staying daily in the word was Sarah Young’s devotional Jesus Calling, https://amzn.to/2Sxbo6A. The daily readings are structured as if Jesus were speaking to you Himself, as He actually is through the Bible. There are other ways and it is always good to find what works for you. It has been wonderful developing a daily time alone in the word no matter how short or long and seeing the effect it has on my entire day. I definitely look forward to what’s next this coming year. I will share my next devotional in a later post.
I am definitely excited for the journey through this new year. I am reminded of one truth, that I may not know what the year has in store (I believe it is an outpour of blessings), but I definitely know who is walking through the year with me. This keeps my heart and mind at peace and places a new determination in each step I take.
His yoke is easy:
Walking into the year with Jesus is easier because of hindsight. It is also easy because He promises to never leave me. Also, he says that He doesn’t give a heavy burden to bear. That walking with Him is actually easy and His yoke isn’t heavy at all. This is particularly encouraging seeing as so much of what the world offers lays so much weight n a person; to look a certain way, to do the next trick for a ‘like’, to be at a certain level by a certain time, etc. etc., sometimes unimaginably difficult to keep up with. Jesus says His yoke is not at all like this and sometimes I think it is so because, if you’ve seen cattle yoked, you’ll realize that at the same level, the weight of the yoke is pretty well distributed and not burdensome (Jesus comes to our level, gosh I love Him), but with unmatched bulls, one is either dragging the other along or carrying more of the weight than the other. An almost impossible feat to say the least, much like the world’s impossible standards.
29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30ForMyyokeis easyandMyburdenislight.”
Matthew 10:29-30 (Berean Study Bible)
Drop the baggage:
As I mentioned earlier, while somethings are necessary, others you can absolutely do without and you get to decide whether to carry it all (necessary and unnecessary) or to be very picky as to what you carry with you. Imagine going on a trip and carrying bags upon bags with you just because you have unlimited baggage allowance. The stress!! It is so much easier going with the absolutely necessary, travelling light and having to worry less about how to navigate airports and vehicles with all the load. I guess it’s pretty much the same with life as well. So much hurt, anger at an injustice, unforgiveness, worry, fear, feelings of insufficiency and more are bags we tend to carry just because there is luggage allowance. But they weigh a person down and steal so much from the enjoying the trip. Choosing carefully what is needed and opting for joy, peace, love, kindness, etc. even when unreciprocated will make the travel time so much less stressed and more enjoyable.
How about if we tried a bit more of this this year. Less unnecessary baggage, more of the lighter, good stuff. Let’s head into 2019 not weighed down but happy and living victoriously!
Exactly a year ago, after much thought and trepidation. I finally decided to begin my blogging journey. I had a message on my heart and didn’t want it to just remain there. I wanted others to hear as well and experience the joy and freedom I had experienced. It has been a very interesting journey so far. I have learned so much both about blogging and about myself and over and over again encountered ways I could improve, grow and better use this platform. I’ll talk about a few of the things I have learned in the past year.
Fear Is Not My Boss: This was particularly important for me to realize. I was always cautious and afraid of what people would say or think. Even more than these, I was afraid that I would say something that was erroneous one day and have people running over themselves to disgrace me in public. This initially put some fear in me and stalled my starting. But after thinking about the import of the message I wanted to put out there and how much I knew someone needed it, I slowly let down that worry and decided to dive into the water anyway. I am so glad I didn’t let the fear and worry stop me.
Creativity is not limited to a small handful of people: Whether we admit it or not, we are all created to create. Being made in the image of God means that we have this trait in us as well. We show this in several ways daily; in the dishes we make, the stories we tell and how we tell them, the songs we sing, the different ways we find to show love, the complex buildings and mechanical structures we build, the list is literally endless. People however often limit the name ‘creative’ to the defined works of art they see and thus define only artists or musicians or even established writers as creatives. Opening our mind to the broad range that fits into this definition helps us to locate ourselves somewhere on the spectrum and advance to do things we never before allowed ourselves to do. Thus, whether it is the first time you are handling a pen to write, a guitar to play or a camera to start taking pictures, remind yourselve that you are indeed a creative and go ahead and express yourself well with your gift.
Start: You’ve probably heard it said that there’s no perfect time to start something. This is true on so many levels. You have to start somewhere. This is not me trying to say, put your idea out as soon as you have it. Having an idea does not mean putting it out right away. Most times, you need tons of preparation and investigation on so many aspects of the idea and this preparation is itself a start. The ‘right time’ is very different from ‘perfect time’. The right time comes when you have done the preparation, when you are putting in the work and remaining committed to the course all of which are very important. In some instances, excellence comes with learning on the job, tweaking this and that and improving from the point you kicked off. The ‘perfect time’ however is usually about waiting for all conditions to be perfect before starting. The problem with this is that it may never come. One thing may be perfect today and it’s counterpart strangely out of place at the same time. To wait for everything to be ‘there’ before ‘going’ ends up being the folly that keeps many great things never attended to. It doesn’t ALL have to be perfect but to get to that place of near- perfection, you have to START. With whatever little or much, like NIKE says, JUST DO IT. If you are thinking of starting, there are tons of resources to guide you into making the great leap. START!
Don’t expect everyone to jump on right away: After my very first post, I announced on my FACEBOOK page that I had just started a blog (to this date, it is the highest traffic in a day I’ve had), immediately people who had not heard from me in ages trooped to my blog post to take a look, falling away not long afterwards. Discouragement did creep in, and I wondered if I would get people to read the blog at all, if they would ever so much as leave a comment and if they would ‘like’ the post. After a few nail-biting days, I reminded myself of ‘The WHY’. I remembered that the message going out was what was more important, the likes and comments only frills, and then calmed down.
You WILL get discouraged: A friend who had just heard that I had been blogging literally laughed in my face like I was doing the most ridiculous useless thing ever. This hurt slightly but I stuck with my guns and decided to keep going with it. Truth is, not everyone will understand why you blog right away, and that is okay. It may be YOUR assignment and not theirs. The key is to not spend so much time trying to justify the necessity for your blog/ podcast/ vlog, etc, to others. Just focus and keep on with it, learn from mistakes, learn from those more experienced, read, research and keep growing in it. Like a seed planted, when it starts to show green leaves and healthy fruits, it will speak for itself.
Use Your Platform Well: You don’t just start a blog or vlog or podcast. You are a whole voice for people who could otherwise not express themselves, an example for people who are looking for it and a force for good or bad (your choice). With great power thus, comes great responsibility. This includes being consistent and diligent and particularly, studying to show yourself approved (practice, practice, practice, study, study, study and research, research, research, for short). The lengths to which this voice and power go are well beyond any you could actually imagine. It is important to understand this, to decide how you want to use that power and to proceed to use it well.
Be Intentional: Be intentionally serious or be intentionally about the the fun only, either way, be intentional. It’s not always about getting deals or contracts but these can be great side effects as well, my tip would be that if the plan is to be noticed for deals and contracts, that some intentionality be used from the outset and not just freestyled with the hope of being picked up. If it is however only to be able to get your voice across and in the process hope that someone does recognize your work, then a full focus on the work, doing it well and enjoying it would be a great approach and that alone would be a great reward even if no one ever contracted you.
Shot by @kustlyvy_photo
I could go on but I think this would be a good place to stop. I can rightly say that it’s been fun. I call myself a writer now even though I haven’t published a book yet. I believe strongly in speaking things into being and this is what I do with this and a many other things as well. The more I think myself a budding writer, the less likely I am to realize the power of the gift I believe I have. To paraphrase Shonda Rhimes, there is no such thing as a budding writer. I have many steps to climb and more lessons to learn but I am definitely a writer and so are you in whatever sphere of influence you find yourself in. Accept the role and learn the hell out of it to be the boss you are waiting to call yourself.
I am excited for my next year of blogging. I am particularly excited for the opportunity to use my voice positively, to tell stories that will advance society and grow people, including myself. I am excited about the communities it has given me access to and made me a part of, as well as the opportunities it opens up to me.
I hope that you are encouraged, if you are on the fence, to take the step towards using your voice and influence well as well. That you realize the power of the message you have been given and that you create the room in your life, kick out the fear and use it to the fullest. Let me know if I can encourage you personally or give you any tips and ideas AND let me know if this has encouraged you to start as well. Feel free to share your page in the comments and look forward to a follow from me. Click here read my very first post.
And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. – Luke 2:7
It is Christmas time again. For many people this is the most beautiful time of the year, for others not so much. Memories and thoughts of things not being where they had hoped it would be by the time of the year or people and things they may have lost during the year or well before, might be the only thought on their minds. Still a few may be surrounded by family and friends and still find themselves extremely unhappy and lonely. These situations, while present throughout the year, are especially heightened at this time of the year. I remember clearly facing the most trying situations throughout 2017, thinking they would have let up by the end of the year and still facing some more around the holiday period. It is easy to lose your firm hold and feel like everything is working against you, but hang in there, God is fighting for you in ways you cannot see or even understand and you will see evidence of this, if you will hang in there just a little longer.
Christmas messages around this time are almost a norm and I’m sure we have all heard many in our lifetime. My prayer is that, the messages do not just become boring tradition to us but that, we will really listen, understand, meditate on and put into action what we hear. If we listen well enough, we may actually receive a personal word that we can go on to share with others. This happened to me today while watching a Christmas Production from a church on YOUTUBE. The production itself was so well done and quite riveting. I followed attentively till the point where the Inn-keeper mentioned that the was no room at the Inn for Mary to have her baby, Jesus. I truly have heard this story nearly every Christmas, this time I received a different message.
Although the Inn- keeper’s initial message was that there was no room at the Inn, he was able after a while to make room in the most unusual place for the baby to be born. The manger. The place where the animals slept overnight, ate and left around their feces and urine. Probably the last place anyone would think to send a guest or customer for that matter. I am thinking he could have been generous and let them into his own room at the Inn but that may be a little hypocritical of me, as I probably would have thought LONG and HARD before doing this and would actually have thought myself quite generous for even creating room when I didn’t have to.
The manger, the dirty corner, the filthy history, the mangled past, the shameful story, the place where we would least like to see people stroll into, the part tucked nicely behind the house and away from everyone else’s view. Yet this very place comes to mind because all the better parts of our lives have been signed off to others. And so out of options, we let him in, into our hearts, into our tucked- away dirty past. In there, the wonder of His birth occurs. Wise men with their gifts, shepherds with their joy and gifts of worship and hosts of mighty angels soon flood this very place we had so well hidden away. Wisdom, healing, joy, peace and love fill this place that was just animal food and urine. The very transformation that occurs in a heart that welcomes God (come to man as man) in. It is no longer just a manger anymore. It is the birth place of the savior. The birthplace of the very message of hope and the start of greater wonders to come.
Heaven came down at Christmas. God, wrapped in human flesh, came to show the world He had created, yet again, how to relate with Him. He walked in, not into the plush, fancy, air-conditioned room, but to the less desired place. He can handle your mess, there actually is no time for you to clean up first before letting Him in, He asks to do this for you. And when you have let Him in, trust hat this filthy manger of your heart and life will start undergoing a renovation like non other and will be host and home to miracles like never before seen.
So, this Christmas and the days ahead, I want to encourage you to make some room for this King to be born in your manger. You don’t even have to clean it up first, you just have to remember it is available and let Him in. He can’t wait to come in and make things right for you.
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. – 2 Corinthians 4:6
May this be your best Christmas yet! The year you truly let Him in and allowed wonder to grow and thrive in your heart and life. Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.
One day in March 2017, while scrolling through LinkedIn, i chanced upon a post by Bill Gates. It was about 5 books that had made an impression on him in that year. Among the five books he presented was https://amzn.to/2SgGGhT ‘When Breath Becomes Air’, an autobiography of Paul Kalanathi. His short review of the book was so compelling that I couldn’t wait to read the book for myself and proceeded to order it right away.
To say I cried my way through the book would almost be an injustice, and reduce the book’s many highlights only to the painful or emotional and I don’t intend to do this. I did however cry throughout and this was because his story, painful in its own right was particularly close to home for me, as my family had once again been plunged into the tumultuous fight with cancer. However, Paul’s outlook on life and perspective of his suffering gave me a new perspective about what my family and I were dealing with and strangely gave hope in the midst of the pain. One thing that particularly struck me was his expansive knowledge about a wide range of books and writers and how these had influenced his own analysis and writing, as well as his studies and career. I was inspired and decided to rejuvenate my reading habit, which had suffered a severe neglect for so many reasons, lack of intentionality being one.
Rejuvenating meant investing not only money but also time into the books. Where do I start from? Who do I read first? These were all questions that came to me and to which I soon found answers. Before I had come across and read Paul’s book, I had also been given the wonderful opportunity of watching a play by Max McLean on C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. The play had shaken me to the core and got me thinking about so many things and asking so many questions. I had left the theatre that evening, wanting to read the book for myself but it would only be after reading Paul Kalanathi’s book that I actually make a move to acquire the book. The rest of 2017 had however been quite a tumultuous one and the only other book I had been able to read was Stay The Path, by Bobby Houston.
As 2017 rolled to a close however, I made some decisions, among which was the decision to learn more, to stick to developing a rich reading habit and to be an informed leader. I invested in some books right away. At the end of the year, I found myself only a few books short of the target I had set for myself but I can say that its been nothing short of amazing. I have learned so much from all these books and I am so encouraged to invest in even more books, to broaden my scope, enrich my knowledge and to encourage more people to pick up the habit of reading. Reading has not only whet my apetite to read some more but has encouraged me to myself pick up the pen and write as well and I can’t wait to introduce my project in the course of the coming year.
Reading is such a wonderful thing. It takes you on a journey through the minds and lives of others and to places you sometimes havent dared to dream of. You may not necessarily live vicariously through them but the knowledge acquired can often come close to having done this. I have in many ways come to understand that although several of the experiences I have are personal, they are not exclusive to me. That many people have either walked this way or will walk this way and the experiences of those who have already walked the path can (in many cases) be invaluable help or give great perspective on the path. It alos gives me such uncouragement to write my own stories and I am excited for the adventures ahead with reading.
The books I read this year included (all links included in titles);
There were yet a few I started and could not finish and have found themselves on the reading list for 2019. I will write a separate post for my 2019 reading list.
I am grateful for the opportunity to read and for everything learned so far, for the world it’s opened my eyes to and for the ideas built up in me. My encouragement for you wherever you are on your reading journey is to keep going. You are a leader in the making and great leaders are avid readers. Start from what you love, build on it and broaden the scope. Be intentional about reading and watch it take you on journeys you never knew expected.
Kudos on your reading so far and looking forward to sharing great stories of reading escapades in the coming year. Happy New Year everyone.
What books are you currently reading? Share with us in the comments below.
Like a merchant ship, she had set sail
Afloat the glorious expanse
Shiny, new and sleek, albeit a little nervous
Her dainty hands at the helm,
Captain of her own ship,
Master of her promised destiny.
Soon, lights had flickered,
Some shone brighter than others,
‘Lighthouse or other sailor’, she had often wondered
Her inexperienced eyes uncertain about her map
‘That light maybe, it’s bright enough’ she thought
‘Or maybe that one’
And with these had followed light after bright light.
Soon came marauders, soon came the pirates
‘I’m too small, too crooked, I don’t belong on these waters’
She thought as ship after ship came over the horizon
‘Maybe this one will help, or maybe that’
But one after the other they had taken her treasure
Plundered her goods and left her,
Dull, scarred and empty.
Barely afloat, empty and without hope of reaching her destination
The great wind had come rushing in,
‘This must be it, I will surely sink now’, she had said
But instead, in this wind, a still voice had said, ‘Let Me.’
courtesy of pexels.com
Now at the shiny helm stands a sure captain.
He had done this many times and would do it for her too.
‘Let Me’, that had been Him.
He found the ship’s compass,
Earlier broken and pointing in all the wrong directions.
Now fixed and with Him exactly where He was always meant to be.
And now, finally a battleship, she sailed
True north pointing, skilled captain on deck, map in hand
To destinations she had only heard of but had always longed for
And which this captain knows all too well.
So, you meet your friend and start to talk. You listen intently as she recounts how helpful your previous chat had been to her and had helped her see her situation from a completely different angle. ‘Tell me again what I said to you’, You interject before she’s done, ‘because I really need to hear it for myself now, I just got laid off at my work’. With a momentary pause of shock, your friend goes on to ask, ‘ Are you ok? How do you feel?’. How DO you feel and what DO you say? ‘ I’m not fully sure what it is I feel, but one thing I know for certain is that God is good and this belongs to him as well’.
We usually don’t miss a single beat to ascribe the things that bring us immense joy to God. We can’t wait to announce to our friend, the total stranger on the train or our 700 followers on Instagram how ‘good’ God is because we got the job or we were able to go on that trip, pass the test or get our dream car. The truth is, it really is not that difficult in such situations. But are these the only times that God is actually good?
What happens when we have waited years for the second bar on the pregnancy test kit to turn red and that never seems to happen? What are we thinking when we’ve been on our knees seeking a breakthrough for the difficult situation that our friend is facing and nothing seems to budge? Worse yet what happens when what we actually prayed for and received suddenly starts to look like a hurdle to overcome or brings pain instead of joy? What happens when the relationship ends when you hoped for better?
The likely situations are endless, the reactions, however, aren’t. We are either quick to be openly angry at the God who doesn’t seem to hear our prayers or doesn’t seem to give much of a thought to make it happen or quietly withdraw from what we thought He was supposed to be and do and harbor a giant grudge and dislike for this God.
All this is one side of the coin. The other is rare and is what we are called on to do.
Job approached it this way in his answer to his wife who asked him to turn against God and die, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”Job 2:10.
Are we okay with the ones we have specifically asked for but nothing else? Are we okay when we pray for a job and get one but get mad when we pray for more responsibility or a promotion and suddenly we get sent off from the job? Is God good when one business deal is a hot success and suddenly not when our next client pulls out of the deal just before it is sealed? Shall we take the summer and not the cold winter?
Two things. Psalm 37:23 says, ‘The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives’ and then very famous Romans 8:28 says, ‘And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them’. If the Bible is truly the word of God and if the words in there are true, then I can believe that once my life is submitted to God, to guide, to lead, to mould, to transform and to use for His purpose, that no matter what I walk through, He is already aware and will use it for a purpose greater than any I could ever envision. He will ‘drop hints’ for me to change course at the appropriate time and even when I seem to not see these signs, He won’t hesitate to push me out of the way in whatever way possible (though He doesn’t invite me to vividly ignore signs).
He has a plan. What I see of this plan is extremely limited. I can make as many guesses as possible but somehow I would still fall severely short of predicting exactly what He has in the works. What I can do though is to totally, completely, utterly trust Him. Trust that He is good, not only when He gives me the good things, but also when the things I don’t particularly consider good, happen as well. Because even though they may not necessarily be from him, He always has a way of using even the things that were meant for my harm and destruction for my good. He is not only good when I get my job. He is also good when I get laid off. What I don’t see with being laid off is that it may mean a better job for me tomorrow or not, God is still good. It may mean more time to write books, travel or not, God is still good. I can’t figure Him or what He wants to do in the future out and I won’t attempt this. What I can do is just trust, trust that His goodness will come through for me again and yet again and that what He has for me is indeed for my good and never to harm me and better than any I could venture on my own.
One of my favorite songwriters in his song ‘God is good‘ says this of those moments that cause us to question the goodness of God we seemed so sure of in the happy moments.
May your struggles keep you near the cross And may your troubles show that you need God And may your battles end the way they should And may your bad days prove that God is good And may your whole life prove that God is good
‘Jonathan Mcreynolds – God Is Good’
God is good, all the time and indeed all the time, God is good.
Dear Future Me 