WHY ME?

Almost everyone have had to ask this question one time or another. Some people are still asking this question. It would not be surprising to know that you are also asking this question. It is a common, but not exclusive, question amongst Christians. Like I said, life can throw things at you that makes you question the validity of your faith. At those points in life, one of the questions we ask is “why me?”.

Most often than not, we ask this question when we feel a sense of injustice in our lot. When we feel we do not deserve what life is bringing our way, or better still, we deserve more than life is giving us, we ask this question. When you look around you and conclude that there is no moral or logical justification for the ugly things that you are going through, you ask this question.

Friends, the answer to this question is not farfetched. It is because you are going through THE PROCESS. My dear, nothing valuable comes easily. The path to greatness is not a ride in the park, it is a process. You may not like it, but you have to go through it.

The next time you want to ask that question, just remember that you are going through that thing because there is greatness in you and this greatness can only be actualized through THE PROCESS.  

“Because he knows the road on which I travel, when he had tested me, I’ll come out like gold” Job 23:10 (ISV)

I will still reiterate this: whatever you are going through is a process God is taking you through. He knows what is best for you and He will make you better for it.     

#THE PROCESS

***Please share with others and let it bless them as it blessed you***

Stay blessed.       
  

©TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES
(Transforming the World through the Word)

Also visit http://www.christapoet.wordpress.com every Monday to read your favourite TWS alongside poems from great poets.

GOD IN THE PROCESS…

As a kid in the Band of Hope, the children ministry arm of my maiden church, I was told that God is an all seeing, all knowing and all doing God. I was also told that God loves me and that I am the apple of His eyes. I was exposed to scriptures that validated this beliefs. I did not only assimilate these teachings, I believed them. I recited these scriptures almost on daily basis. I was reminded of them during the family devotions, at the benediction segment.

As I grew older, honestly, I began to question some of those things I was told in Band of Hope. I could not fathom why I would have to recite “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” during the family devotion and go to bed hungry. It did not make sense to me that I was told “the Lord shall supply all my needs…” and yet I would be flogged and driven home because my Dad had not paid my fees. It was a dramatic dilemma for me, trying to reconcile what I have been told and taught to be true with what I was seeing and experiencing.

I remember leaving my house chores and peeping through a neighbour’s window to watch television because my Dad could not afford one. Those days I used to stop by a barber’s shop on my way back from school to watch television. One of those days, I was watching a Nigerian home video titled ‘Karishika’ at the barber’s shop. The movie so engrossed me that I lost track of time and came back home late. You do not want to know what became of me back home.

Friends, what I am saying is that life can throw darts and arrows at you that makes you doubt if all you have come to believe about God still holds water. Situations confront you and you begin to wonder if God is still the ‘all seeing’, ‘all knowing’ and ‘all doing’ God that you have read about in the Bible. You may have gone through, and even be going through similar experiences as mine or worse. I have come to tell you that all of that is a process to bring out the best in you.

“Because he knows the road on which I travel, when he had tested me, I’ll come out like gold” Job 23:10 (ISV)

Whatever you are going through is a process God is taking you through. He knows what is best for you and He will make you better for it.     

#THE PROCESS

***Please share with others and let it bless them as it blessed you***

Stay blessed.       
  

©TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES
(Transforming the World through the Word)

Also visit http://www.christapoet.wordpress.com every Monday to read your favourite TWS alongside poems from great poets.

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT THEM…

Peer influence is one thing that every single one of us deal with on daily basis. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, male or female, big or small, rich or poor, you have a level of peer influence you are dealing with. If it is not to hang out and have some bottles of beer with your friends, it is cheating your way through or even cheating on your spouse. You just have these peer influences to deal with.

These issues can be seen at the work place, school and religious set ups. A staff who usually go to work early gradually begins to report late to work because of the influence from older workers who have found a way to cover their tracks. A committed church worker suddenly begins to slack in duty because of negative influence from fellow church workers. I can go on to site instances, but I guess you are beginning to get my point.

“If you can’t beat them, join them” is one ideology that has coerced people into joining the band wagon to do the wrong things. And a lot of people have found themselves in very destructive paths that they don’t know how to get themselves back on track.

If you are struggling with overcoming peer influence, there is a way out for you. If you can’t beat them, stand out. When you stand out, you become a standard. I do not disregard the need to exert some sort of positive influence on your peers. However, it is better to stand out than to be negatively influenced while trying to be a positive influence to your peers.

That majority of the people are doing it does not make it turn from wrong to right. That you see a pastor doing something does not make it right if it is wrong. I say this not with indignation, but I really need us to understand that a wrong process cannot turn right because someone you hold in high esteem is doing it.

Remember, if you can’t beat them, STAND OUT! 

#THE PROCESS

***Please share with others and let it bless them as it blessed you***

Stay blessed.       
  

©TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES
(Transforming the World through the Word)

Also visit http://www.christapoet.wordpress.com every Monday to read your favourite TWS alongside poems from great poets.

SHADES OF GREY…

I live in a time and day where matters are no longer addressed the way they ought to. Names have been coined for some gross moral misconducts in the view to make light of them. In my little foray through English language, I have discovered that when a person uses the wrong word(s) in a sentence or speech, terms have been created in the English dictionary to accommodate the errors. You can call it malapropism, parapraxis, eggcorn or even mondegreen depending on the effect. In the end, it all boils down to wrong use of words. All of those terms are just shades of grey.

What is my point? Things have gone so berserk that we no longer see things as either black or white, we now see things in shades of grey. If you are able to cut corners or bypass processes, that is smartness. If you are able to cover up your tracks as a cheating spouse, you are the real deal. Having a record of multiple divorce cases now makes you a role model in relationship matters. If you are able to successfully siphon public funds without leaving traces behind, then you are not a corrupt politician.

Friends, what I am trying to say is simple: We need to get back to following the right processes. We need to start looking at issues the way they ought to be looked at. If you’ll have to come out of your box, change your lenses and look at issues the way they ought to be looked at, it will be a worthy venture. When it comes to the process, there are no shades of grey, it is either black or white; either right or wrong. It is up to us to make things right.

#THE PROCESS

***Please share with others and let it bless them as it blessed you***

Stay blessed.       
  

©TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES
(Transforming the World through the Word)

Also visit http://www.christapoet.wordpress.com every Monday to read your favourite TWS alongside poems from great poets.

THE NEXT GENERATION…

The efficacy of generational transfer of sustainable processes is a key factor in trans-generational progression or retrogression. As a matter of fact, what a generation does with what is handed down to it from preceding generations determine how far it will go in being better or worse. You will agree with me that the advancement in technology we have enjoyed today is as a result of proper implementation and use of technological processes that has been handed down from previous generations. Likewise, the moral decadence that has ravaged and is still ravaging our world today can be traced to generational transfer, assimilation and modification of aberrated processes.

Do we blame the past generations? No! Do we cast aspersions on this generation? No! What do we do then? Think of the next generation.

Going through Abraham Lincoln’s letter to his son’s teacher, I saw a generational transfer of a process that will ensure the Lincoln dynasty is one that flourished on integrity and forthrightness.

Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s first son, took the Harvard University entrance examination in 1859, but failed fifteen out of the sixteen subjects. He was then enrolled at Phillips Exerter Academy to further prepare for attending college. He finally earned admission into Harvard University in 1860.

Abraham Lincoln may not have been a saint, but he set a generational legacy that was phenomenal.

What the past generation did is a farce and where we are today might be bad. But if nothing is done about the cracks in the wall, the next generation is doomed for a collapse.

I challenge us today to make efforts to fix this breach in process so as to leave a better place for the next generation.

I can! You can! We can!

#THE PROCESS

***Please share with others and let it bless them as it blessed you***

Stay blessed.       
  

©TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES
(Transforming the World through the Word)

Also visit http://www.christapoet.wordpress.com every Monday to read your favourite TWS alongside poems from great poets.

A FATHER’S LEGACY…

A few days back, a friend of mine raised the of issue cheating on one of our mutual chat groups. In the course of the discussion, I took a journey down memory lane on one the articles that helped shape me. It reads and I quote:

“My son starts school today. It is all going to be strange and new to him for a while and I wish you would treat him gently. It is an adventure that might take him across continents. All adventures that probably include wars, tragedy and sorrow. To live this life will require faith, love and courage.

So dear Teacher, will you please take him by his hand and teach him things he will have to know, teaching him – but gently, if you can, Teach him that for every enemy, there is a friend. He will have to know that all men are not just, that all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero, for every crooked politician, there is a dedicated leader.

Teach him if you can that 10 cents earned is of far more value than a dollar found. In school, teacher, it is far more honourable to fail than to cheat. Teach him to learn how to gracefully lose, and enjoy winning when he does win.

Teach him to be gentle with people, tough with tough people. Steer him away from envy if you can and teach him the secret of quiet laughter. Teach him if you can –how to laugh when he is sad, teach him there is no shame in tears. Teach him there can be glory in failure and despair in success. Teach him to scoff at cynics.

Teach him if you can the wonders of books, but also give time to ponder the extreme mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hill. Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tell him they are wrong.

Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone else is doing it. Teach him to listen to everyone, but teach him also to filter all that he hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him to sell his talents and brains to the highest bidder but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. Let him have the courage to be impatient, let him have the patient to be brave. Teach him to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind, in God.

This is the order, teacher but see what best you can do. He is such a nice little boy and he is my son.”

(A copy of Abraham Lincoln’s letter to his son’s teacher).

I want you to brood on this and write me if you can on your thoughts on this series so far or any of our previous series through any of these media:
WhatsApp: 08063566730
Facebook: Ibeh Uche Sam
E-mail: beyo4real@yahoo.com

#THE PROCESS

***Please share with others and let it bless them as it blessed you***

Stay blessed.       
  

©TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES
(Transforming the World through the Word)

Also visit http://www.christapoet.wordpress.com every Monday to read your favourite TWS alongside poems from great poets.

FAIL OR CHEAT?

In the last episode, I tried to throw a little light on the impact of easy way outs, short cuts and bypasses on result and output. Building on that, I want to bring a concept that envelopes these subjects to the fore. I want to deal with CHEATING! You are free to get indignant, but I will go there.

There are a number of ways to define and describe cheating. In my opinion, cheating is a breach of process. When results are gotten in ways that are contrary to the right process, that’s cheating. It does not matter how you try to look at it, CHEATING is CHEATING! Do not get yourself all beat up now, I have been a culprit sometime in the past. I have experienced the devastating effect of cheating on my person and mind set. Hence, I developed zero tolerance for cheating.

In my personal research into the reasons people cheat, I have come to realize that the most profound reason is the fear of failure. The fear of failure is the beginning of cheating. People cheat because they want to be seen as being successful, even if they have to cut corners.

One of the things I discovered about cheating is that it reduces your self-worth. The more you cheat, the less your worth. For every result you get through cheating, you will lack the boldness to talk about it. It dampens your confidence in your ability to do things the right way. Cheating makes you a prey to destiny predators.

I want to challenge you today to make a firm resolve to disown cheating, even if you have to fail. It is more honourable to be a chronic failure than to be a successful cheat.

#THE PROCESS

***Please share with others and let it bless them as it blessed you***

Stay blessed.       
  

©TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES
(Transforming the World through the Word)

Also visit http://www.christapoet.wordpress.com every Monday to read your favourite TWS alongside poems from great poets.

GO THROUGH IT…

Often times I hear people talk about the easy way out, short cuts and bypasses. As a matter of fact, the majority of the populace desire a life where all things are made ready and easy. I hear people say that they are suffering to make so much money now so that their coming generations do not suffer. Interestingly, statistics show that 70% of these wealth transfer plans fail. You get to see families who the bread winner left with so much wealth turn to beggars few years after the bread winner is gone. If you are in the category of people who depend on the wealth amassed by their fathers, I only feel sorry for your future.

Everywhere I turn, I see young men and women wasting their parents’ hard earned money on frivolities simply because they can always get it just for the asking. They live reckless lives and indulge in lasciviousness with someone else’s money. They are not ready to work and do something worthwhile with their lives. Sincerely, I feel pity for their future.

If the result must be a great and lasting one, then there are no easy way outs or short cuts. There is a popular saying that short cuts will always cut short your life. If you bypass the process, you can never get greatness as a result. As a matter of fact, bypasses are potentially hazardous. It kick starts a chain of reactions that terminates at destruction. Great achievers go through the process of great achievement. If you need a great result, go through the process.

The road might be rough, GO THROUGH IT! The road might be long, GO THROUGH IT! If you’ll have to stumble at times, it’s okay rise up and go THROUGH! There might be disappointments along the way, do not be deterred, GO THROUGH IT!

If you do not go through the process, you’ll not be able to fix any problem associated with the result. This is what I mean: There is no guarantee that the result will always come out good, but the process makes it easier for you to know why and where something went wrong, and that makes fixing feasible.

Friends, whatever it takes, GO THROUGH IT!

“Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the road is spacious that leads to destruction, and many people are entering by it. How narrow is the gate and how constricted is the road that leads to life and there aren’t many people who find it!” Matt. 7:13-14 (ISV).

#THE PROCESS

***Please share with others and let it bless them as it blessed you***

Stay blessed.       
  

©TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES
(Transforming the World through the Word)

Also visit http://www.christapoet.wordpress.com every Monday to read your favourite TWS alongside poems from great poets.

THE MEANS JUSTIFIES THE END…

‘The end justifies the means’ is a very common statement, especially amongst consequentialists. This is a school of thought that says that it does not matter how you came about your result, the most important thing is that you have a result. If you’ll have to kill to win elections, it’s all good provided the election is won. If you’ll have to cheat to pass, it’s okay provided your grades are up. If we have to kill a hundred people to find a cure for HIV/AIDS, it’s alright provided a cure is found. I can go on and on.

Interestingly, this consequentialism theory has eaten deeply into the fabrics of the church. It does not matter what you do as a Pastor, your success is justified by the membership strength of your church. You will pull multitudes to your crusades provided there will be miracle galore, how it happens is no one’s business.

Well, the new normal is this: “THE MEANS JUSTIFIES THE END”.

As much as your results validates your abilities, it is the process that justifies it. I understand that it is difficult to break out of a dogma, especially if you are comfortable with it, but I challenge you today to sit on the other side of the table.

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” Matt. 7:22-25 (KJVL).

If the process is right, the result will last.

#THE PROCESS

***Please share with others and let it bless them as it blessed you***

Stay blessed.       
  

©TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES
(Transforming the World through the Word)

Also visit http://www.christapoet.wordpress.com every Monday to read your favourite TWS alongside poems from great poets.

BEYOND RESULTS…

I happen to find myself in a world where men are assessed and addressed according to their results. Everybody wants to see what you are offering; what you are bringing to the table. If you went to high school in my days, especially in my part of the world, then you have a clue of the pressure I was in always to come out tops in class (though I do not always come out tops). Every time I go below a certain level of performance, I often get to face this question: “Do the other students who performed better than you have more heads than you do?” You know what I am talking about, don’t you?

Results are very important as they form the major defining moments of our lives. We address Barack Obama as the President of the United States of America because he was declared winner of the elections that brought him into power. Bill Gates can be referred to as one of the richest men in the world because his worth is public knowledge. Lionel Messi can be seen as the most prolific footballer in recent history because of the results he has been able to garner. The list goes on.

As much as I am interested in the results, I want to know how you got it. I appreciate the money you always give me, but no offence to your personality, can I also know how you made it? No doubt, I love the ambience and awesome atmosphere of your worship centre. But beyond that, how did you get to this point?

Do not get it twisted, I am by no means envious of your attainments. As a matter of fact, I admire and desire them. I want to know how you got there. If there was anything I learnt in Mathematics, it is to always show how I got my results. Interestingly, I get more marks for my steps than I get for my results.

Friends, if you must do great exploits and ground-breaking achievements, you must not only desire to see results, desire to know the process.

“But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And moreover a most excellent way show I unto you” 1 Cor. 12:31 (ASV).

#THE PROCESS

***Please share with others and let it bless them as it blessed you***

Stay blessed.       
  

©TRANSFORMING WORDS SERIES
(Transforming the World through the Word)

Also visit http://www.christapoet.wordpress.com every Monday to read your favourite TWS alongside poems from great poets.