Sunday, March 18, 2012

WITHOUT REGRETS

Can I ask you this simple, but touching question? Okay! In 25 years time, will you be happy that you lived your life the way you are doing right now?
What we all meet in the future are the products of the decisions we made before.
I believe everyone of us has a silent passion for advancement, but many times, there is this way we believe the future is still 'far'.
Little wonder a wise man said "Tomorrow will become yesterday in two days time". Simply put: what you call the far away future will soon become past before your eyes!
I watched a few days ago how some primary school kids were having a sports session. See their little legs, taking so much time to complete a few meters race. More touching was the fact that I remembered when I was like that. Every shorts looked like baggy trouser on us. We went to school each day with like 2 Naira. Wow!
Now, decades have gone by and you will live with the decisions you took even years back.
Dear! If you will live with no regrets, please go ahead and live your dreams. Don't wait for human encouragement that might never come. Go ahead and publish that book! Don't marry that person when your heart is not there; that is self-torture! Don't live long, yet regretting the life you lived! Launch into your calling. That is where your fulfillment is.
I agree with Great sculptor, Micheloangelo, when he said "The tragedy of life is not in having big dreams and not reaching it, but in having small dreams and reaching it".
I recall an elderly man who called me some day and said "Segun, if I should come back to life, I will do what you are doing". Unfortunately, he can't come back. I left his presence thinking 'so, this is how life can be lived regretfully'. Ahh!! No! I will exhaust my arsenal. Not a grace on my life will be left unused. Socrates was the one who said "Idleness isn't just in doing nothing, but also in not doing enough".
Expand your horizon, dear reader! Don't grow old regretting opportunities you never took; books you never wrote; friends you looked down on; that lady you never married; that guy you never gave a chance (Don't sound 'religious. It happens.); that ministry you never had; that vision that you kept on postponing till now you are a grand dad. Live without regrets! Exhaust your knowledge! Be true to yourself. Don't allow people take decisions for you, because they won't feel the pain when it's discomforting. Like the elderly man who spoke to me, though visionary, yet no fulfillment. Most unfortunately, he can't come back as he would have wished. Live, being truthful to your bone marrows. Don't please people at the detriment of your calling. 
Phil Collins sang, saying, "All of my life, there have been regrets, that I didn't do all I could....I didn't spend the time I should. It's a memory I will live with all of my life". May you not live a life that will be tagged 'Almost Succeeded'. Exhaust your opportunities. Live without regrets. Go all out for your dreams. There alone your fulfillment lies. God bless you!

by SEGUN ABE.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

A BREATH FROM GOD

"The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore" - Psalm 121:8.

I got this from Christian Stories


Life’s a little thing! Robert Browning once wrote. But a little thing can mean a life. Even two lives. How well I remember. Two years ago in downtown Denver my friend, Scott Reasoner and I saw a tiny and insignificant change the world, but no one else even seemed to notice.


It was one of those beautiful Denver days. Crystal clear and no humidity, not a cloud in the sky. We decided to walk the ten blocks to an outdoor restaurant rather than take the shuttle bus that runs up and down the Sixteenth Street Mall. The restaurant, in the shape of a baseball diamond, was called The Blake Street Baseball Club. Tables were set appropriately on the grass infield. Many colorful pennants and flags hung limply overhead.


As we sat outside, the sun continued to beat down on us, and it became increasingly hot. There wasn’t a hint of a breeze, and the heat radiated up from the tabletop. Nothing moved, except the waiters, of course. And they didn’t move very fast.


After lunch Scott and I started to walk back up the mall. We both noticed a young mother and her daughter walking out of a card shop toward the street. She was holding her daughter by the hand while reading a greeting card. It was immediately apparent to us that she was so engrossed in the card that she did not notice a shuttle bus moving toward her at a good clip. She and her daughter were one step away from disaster when Scott started to yell. He hadn’t even got a word out when a breeze blew the card out of her hand and over her shoulder. She spun around and grabbed the card nearly knocking her daughter over. By the time she picked up the card from the ground and turned back to cross the street, the shuttle bus had whizzed by her. She never knew what almost happened.


To this day, two things continue to perplex me about this event. Where did that one spurt of wind come from to blow the card out of that young mother’s hand? There had not been a whisper of wind at lunch, or during our long walk back up to the mall. Secondly, if Scott had been able to get his words out, the young mother might have looked up at us as they continued to walk into the bus. It was the wind that made her turn back to the card– in the direction that saved her life and that of her daughter. The passing bus did not create the wind. On the contrary, the wind came from the opposite direction.


I have no doubt it was a breath from God protecting them both. But the awesomeness of this miracle is that she never knew. As we continued back to work, I wondered at how God often acts in our lives without our being aware. The difference between life and death can very well be a little thing.


Miracles often blow unseen through our lives!

They surely do.
What a loving God!
Thank you, Father.