The Lots of Many Little Things - Ctd

“The bird never threw away any strand it brought”. Life is full of many unexpected ‘strands’. Sometimes we pick a strand with all excitement only to realize later that it was nothing close to what we expected. The job we were so crazy about suddenly has become the one we dread to dress up in the morning to go to. The relationship has become sour; the children have become disobedient, the sweet angel for a wife has become sassy. And usually all we want to do is to throw the unwanted bits away and go looking for new ones. When the halcyon days come, we want to live and re-live them for the rest of our lives. Yet, when the disappointment, shame, pain and failure come, we quickly want to push it down into the earth like they never happened. But every lesson in life is important for our growth especially if God is on your side [Rom. 8:28]. When we learn to treat success and failure the same not necessarily over indulging in any of them, we will transform our lives greatly. The truth about a thing may be far from what and how you envisioned it to be. But do not quit; do not dispose of it; learn from it and make good of it as much as you can. Did you know that the intensity of strain on the string of the bow though can break it yet it is the same strain that determines how far its arrows go? Your strain can propel you.   

The bird sang while it worked. Make a conscious effort to keep a happy face in life. Life is not all that sad like you want the whole world to know. You may not be enthusiastic about your job, family, wife, friends or even your country or tribe, but try not to make it worse than it looks. Minimize the complaint and the murmurs if you can’t stop entirely. Someone’s case is always worse than yours. Your wife may cook as a chef and commits love with you like a log. Well, appreciate it because someone’s bargain is worse. There is a little good even in the worse kind of person in this life. Keep a smile, it gives your hope. Keep the little hope; it will give you faith. Keep the faith; it will be your purchasing power to the things you hope to see. Sometimes it is hard to smile in the midst of cacophony, but remember, in life we win some and we lose some. That only makes us humans.

“Little by Little it built it nest”. Frankly speaking, it was hard to figure out what the bird was trying to do initially if you didn’t know it was building a nest. The start was ugly, scanty, disorganized and hopelessly appalling. But the finish was something beyond my comprehension. I believe life usually start like that. We mostly start something which looks almost impossible to accomplish and has no beauty around it. Yet, when we stick with it, the end thereof is more glorious than the beginning. Most companies with outstanding reputations and brands today failed so many times. When the spark came, they just couldn’t stop but to shine. We must learn to start small and never despise the humble beginnings. Most people I see today are too greedy and covetous. They want to be established so quickly they never realize the opportunities staring at them in the faces. Have you thought and realized that the only job which you start from the top is digging the grave? You have to work your way to the top but steadily and gradually. “Who has despised the days of small things?” [Zac. 4:10].

“It just tore it off and flew away”. After several years of hard work, we finally begin to see a glimpse of the vision that was so far-fetched. We begin to celebrate to the impending victory. We sigh and pat our backs a little to a good job done. Then without warning, we lose everything we had worked for. Sometimes a reputation which took us years to build becomes soiled and lost by one malicious and untrue rumor. After struggling hard to establish a company, they decided to lay you off. The person you gave your all to and sacrifice so much to see a better relationship suddenly turns their back on you. What do we do? Give up and fold our hands to watch time pass by? Many people are lost to the background not because they didn’t do anything in this life. No! As a matter of fact, they tried harder than most of their contemporaries. Their failure was in their inability to rise up from the ashes. They couldn’t shake the dust off. They turned themselves into inconsolable lot and just fizzled out of existence. They couldn’t enter into a new relationship because they were still in the shadows of the old.

The biggest threat in our lives is stagnation. If we stop dead in our tracks; we become outdated, we fizzle out and we die. Most people are not failures; they are simply not good at bouncing back. They stick like a glue-ball. One billionaire lost 43% of his investment and he threw himself under a train. I looked at Japan and I say, “Since world war II, this has been their worst disaster ever. If they are not able to bounce back from this fall, a country which loans to America will suddenly be begging from Ghana”.

Amongst the numerous writings of Rudyard Kipling was one which won him the greatest fame. He wrote a poem entitled 'If'. In the poem he said,

“ . . . If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

If we could only learn to start all over again just as this bird did without loosing our values and integrity, indeed, the world will be ours.

All through out the building, the bird had no support from any of the birds. Neither did I think it looked unto another for help. It was independent. We live in a terrible culture where dependency is seen everywhere. We wait on people to help us with everything. When they refuse to do, we go about with gloom, cursing and saying "If I had been helped . . ."? At one time, it is our parent; the next, our cousins, next our bosses and so on. This must stop somewhere. You cannot waste your life by waiting on people's help, because mostly they will not. I learnt my lesson long ago.

There were many little things I have loved to tell you. I however pray that this will bless you enough.