Acheiving Immortality

Immortality.  The dream of mankind for ages. It has always been mankind’s greatest ambition to live forever and to elude the Grim Reaper. Attempts have been made but these all ends up in failure. Technologies have been created, chemicals concocted, and rituals made but humans end up still dying. The pain associated with death is so negatively painted in the minds of people that losing a loved one or dying is not to be imagined to occur. But death is inevitable. There is no other way around it.

But even has death takes you away; there is still a way of existing in the minds and hearts of beloved ones. Even though we have been long gone, it can still be as if we were still there, in their very presence. That way my friend, that formula or technology, whatever you want to call it, is nothing other than leaving a legacy behind. All through history in several countries of the world there are legacies that have been left behind by different men and women. Whether these legacies were profitable or not, what matters is that they eventually achieved the goal of being immortal, not in their physical forms but in the unseen forms of respect, adoration or hatred of the person in question. Albert Einstein, Mahatma Ghandi, Theodore Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Michael Jackson, Pablo Picasso, Jesus Christ, The Wright Brothers, Stephen Covey...the list is endless. What set this people apart from the average man is the ability or effort to do the extra ordinary, to live unlike other men and create thought systems contrary to what society regards has been standard or conventional. Each one of them were known for something in particular, they were unique as every other individual is but what set them apart is that they discovered that uniqueness and keyed into it. They were people of purpose. And that purpose determined every other thing in their lives.

One day everyone around right now will give their last breath and leave this world for another. But before you go, what do you intend leaving behind for the people still around, for the next generation? It would be selfish to come to this world and not change a thing in it, for at least some had to sacrifice their very lives for things to be different. A life of legacy is a life of purpose.

After all has been said and done...

Yes! That lifelong “success” dream has finally been realised…the houses built, the cars acquired, the businesses are running fine, the family’s happy and every other thing seems to be going on well…and yet there is still this dissatisfaction, this hunger that is crying out to be met. After all that has been said and done, what is the way forward?

The answer lies in the words impact, contribution, influence and blessing. There is more to life than amassing wealth and achieving a faulted conception of success. Success in its purest form is not only about setting goals and achieving them but also seeing to the welfare of others and helping to put a J on their faces. In every community, society or nation, there are maladies and problems that need to be dealt with and removed, to make the next person’s life better. In a psychology class recently, the lecturer asked us what we were doing here on earth, that is, our reason for existence. I sat and listened to my fellows’ responses. One said to live and die (lol), another said to be fruitful (lol) and finally someone said to be problem solvers (correct!). We are here to make the world better than we met it. Everywhere I look, I see problems and these problems demand solutions which everyone in one way or the other should be concerned about solving, because each person has a passion to deal with them. Thomas Edison didn’t like what he saw as regards electricity and he did something about it. There is something out there that is meant to be solved by none other than you. AIDS, hunger, lack of drinkable water, unpaid school fees, torn uniforms, addictions, malaria, exam malpractice, poor power supply, corruption in governance, roaming mad people…these and many more are the challenges before us. It is time to impact, to contribute, to positively influence and to be a blessing, after all has been said and done.

Lessons from a fish!

For years now I have been working as an employee at a farm not too distant from my house. Even though I got admitted to the university, that didn’t stop me from still working at that same farm whenever I went on break. My work there involves feeding the fish, removing the shooters (ones with growth spurts), change their water...generally to make the fish happy, the boss glad and the customer content. There was this particular day when something clicked in my head while I feed the fish. The whole concept about time and timing suddenly made sense. Being a person who usually doesn’t fancy waiting to get something done, I began to see the whole picture. You see, I noticed that when the fish are at a particular stage of growth, it doesn’t look like things will get any better with it. From Monday to Friday, all week long, it seems all the fish are doing is eating and swimming. Nothing seems to be changing with them. They looked the same way they did the day before. This can drive the impatient and inexperienced farmer really wild. But if a wise and patient farmer keeps at doing the right thing of feeding the fish, changing their water, and providing the right conditions in the correct adequacy, with time, he will be amazed at the change that the fish will produce.

The concept also works in our daily lives. Sometimes things look slow, bleak and tiring. At such times its normal to want to give up and throw in the towel. The same stage you were in the business years ago still seems like the same place it is. The same position your marriage was few years after marriage is where it still is; arguments about no baby, not enough money, a bigger house etc still plagues your home. As a student, it seems the whole school thing isn’t just for you. Every of your former classmates have gotten their admission and you are still there writing SSCE and UTME. At every level of life, each person has his/ her own share of troubles. But just like a car sticker says, every problem has an expiry date. So friend cheer up and wait for your own time! With each stage of life comes a lesson that we have to learn before we can move on to the next. Life is in stages and men are in phases. It takes time but like most things, before becoming a wonder they start up as blunders. Know what stage you are in; learn the lessons well, when tests come, pass in flying colours! Only then can you be licensed to move on to the next stage.

Nigerians, The Church People!

Every Sunday I see my people throng to their different churches,
with their attires, headgears and hats giving colours a peacock would be envious of.
They fill the pews as usual,
singing, dancing, clapping, listening and nodding,
their minds gone numb in this weekly ritual.
Afterwards they throng back to their homes.
They return to their normal lives,
some trying to be holy, some trying to survive;
never changing anything where they are.
Things even go worse as they watch.
The corruption is still in the system of governance,
examination malpractice in the exam halls,
the wrong values still in vogue.
They are ignorant!
Unaware of who they really are and what they should be doing:
Changing lives, communities and nations
Impact minded for the kingdom of God
Being prototypes of what Christian living should be.
The Church has to go back
and retrace its steps,
because without doing so,
They make abuse Christ's sacrifice.

Trashing the Moral Junk

It is said that you are what you eat. I couldn't agree less. Different grades of food provide different metabolical results and nutritional adjustments in our bodies. So also is what we feed our minds through the major sense organs- the eyes and ears. Everywhere we look to, information is acquired; in every direction we turn our heads, stories find their way into our ears. The information we receive then shapes us and we become who we eventually are today, as at now, as you read. The internet, books, friends, the media…all these and more are where we get all this information. And many of us have forgotten that not everything we see and hear is beneficial and can add value to us, we just take it hook, line and sinker. We forgot the filter at home, in church or at work. Our brains have gone numb; we can't feel the pain that comes with knowing the wrong thing until it is too late. Information, both good and bad, has become accessible to all, now at the fingertips, even of a twelve year old. Pornography fills the internet and is available with the right combination of words. What is to be done to survive the moral meltdown of the world?
What I see that can be done (you can suggest more as comments) is to replace the unwanted with the wanted, to substitute the flatulence with the scent of an air freshener. As human beings, we have the ability to choose. We are not pavlovian dogs. We have a will and can exercise it. No one can put a thing into our faces and force us to accept it, we are in control. We can always have a choice to avoid the decay and fill ourselves up with the right messages that will program us to think in patterns that bring positive results which eventually lead to pleasure (which is what most people seek when they go after the wrong things). Go to that seminar, pick up that inspirational book or novel or play that impactful message. I have discovered that the information we receive daily determines the quality of life that we live. To change our world, our nation and our individual lives, we need to control what we take in so as to create what we would like to see. It's time for us to be in control!
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