Are you restless enough?

The truly restless.

There’s a popular bible story about twin brothers Jacob and Esau.

Jacob is notoriously known for taking his brother’s birthright and Esau cried bitter tears because he couldn’t do anything about it…

Or could he?

You can read the whole saga in Genesis 27 (You should totally Check it out!)

Recently, I had a chat with my friend Abby about the ‘rat race’ that we are all in. She said she was beginning to get bored driving the same route to work every day, and we imagined doing the same thing for 30 years! Unbelievable. But yet, we do it. We all take the safe and comfortable route (myself included, which is why I started to really think about it)

This morning, I thought about the story in Genesis again, and I zoned in on verse 40. Isaac says to his son Esau “You shall serve your brother; and it shall come to pass, when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck”

It gives me the picture of a powerful bull that’s chained to a pole. He’s strong enough to pull out that pole and run off, but he just doesn’t.

Many of us are like that; full of dreams and ambitions. We are passionate, talented, competent, creative, hardworking, eloquent, organized, morally pure, peace-loving, visionary, but most of us just spend our life like a hamster in a cage running around his wheel.

Earlier, I asked the question if Esau could do something about it.

It turns out that he could! And if he can, so can I.

SO, why am I thinking this way?

I’m getting restless.

Restless denotes unable to be still or quiet. However, restless can also mean not satisfied with your situation and wanting a change¹.

I am NOT satisfied with where I am and I am inquiring to now if I can do something about it.

What can I do?

“Break the yoke”, “shake off the yoke”.

What if the reason I’m still where I am because I don’t want to break the cycle?

What if I’ve grown so comfortable with it, I’m used to the routine and I really really don’t mind the rat race?

It’s up to me and no one else to break whatever chain is holding me back from living the life I live in my dreams.

It’s up to me to grow restless enough to shake off that limitation because, all the time I had the strength to do it. All along, I had the power to change my own destiny, to create my own reality.

Are you restless enough?

There’s a wonderful verse that says The whole of creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.

When are you going to manifest?

There is no better moment than now.

So, what can I do?

1.      Find your identity, redefine yourself if you have to

I’ve written a short article on defining yourself. Truth is, we still forget who we are, because life keeps battering us into believing who we are not. Find your identity.

2.      Face your fear

What is holding you back? The victim mindset? Self-pity? Bitterness, anger or resentment? Insecurities. You can rise above all of this when you choose to forgive yourself and forgive the past enough to let it go.

If you feel insecure or incompetent, get as much training and help as you need. There are millions of resources online for free.

Develop yourself to rise above your shortfalls.

3.      Throw his yoke from off your neck

Choose to believe a different reality. Believe the reality of your dream and act it out. Live out your faith. If you believe that you can do it, go ahead and work towards it. Train yourself and don’t believe the lie anymore.

I love Maya Angelou’s poem “Still, I rise”

Believe that that his yoke is not strong enough to hold you down anymore, shake it off!

Are you restless enough?

¹https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/restless

Iron sharpens Iron

‘Iron by Iron is sharpened, And a man sharpens the face of his friend’ Proverbs 27: 17 (Youngs’ Literal Translation)

I especially like this translation of the verse because it gives a slightly different perspective on this verse.

First, 'Iron by Iron':

This tells me that the only element that is competent, adequate, sufficient enough to match Iron is Iron. It can only be sharpened by itself.

We are not of the world (John 17:14). We bear a different spirit, the spirit of God and He dwells in each of us that are born by Him.

Who are the people in your circle of trust?

Choose your company wisely and keep an eye out for whom you accept counsel from.

The second perspective is 'is sharpened':

The goal of the coming together of iron is to sharpen.

Matthew Henry* tells us in his commentary on the verse that when we come together, it should not be to slander, or banter or speak ill of each other but to improve each other.

To sharpen means many things. In this context, it refers to how we make ourselves more alert, wiser, more precise or more thorough.

As Iron by Iron is sharpened, this is how we are to sharpen the face of our friends.

When a believer has a conversation with you, do they leave with a sharpened face or ears tingling with gossip? Do they leave improved or ashamed because you have spoken without grace?

*Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, PC Study Bible Formatted Electronic Database Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Photocredit: thinkradiant.com

The GOD-kind (2)

"I have given you authority" Luke 10:19
The son of GOD came and gave us authority; the right to become sons of God (John 1:12).
And then, he left.
He left us here in this realm and ascended to the heavens. But he left his own spirit here "allos parakletos". The Holy Spirit.
His first disciples received this power to be witnesses with signs and wonders following. They started a revolution!
But this was well over 2,000 years ago.
Time has passed again, just as it did after the first Adam fell and we have forgotten who we are.
We live as mere mortals under all the elements of this world; toiling night and day and reaping no reward.
The world system has battered us into conforming; we have conformed again to the status quo. Mere mortals, servants, princes on foot, defeated.
Where is our salvation now?
Where is the Spirit that was given over 2,000 years ago? Does He still move on the earth?
John 14: 17 says "He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognise him. But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you." (New Living Translation)
We can infer then that He is still here! Dwelling in the ones who have received him; in the ones that know him.
He is alive and present. He has not abandoned us according to his promise "I will never leave or forsake you".
There is a reason Jesus Christ said that he would lead us into all truth: He will teach us the truth of who we are in him. Even though we have forgotten, He will remind us.
So, what now? For the ones who are beaten by life's challenges and hardships:
" Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way" Isaiah 35:3 (New International Version).
Fill yourself up with hope again!

Then, renew your mind with God's truth about your identity.
You have the responsibility to be transformed by renewing your mind (Romans 12:1,2) so you don't conform again to the identity that this world tries to conform you to.
To conform means to act in accordance with expectations; to behave in the manners of others especially as a result of social pressure (wiktionary.org)
You are NOT who this world says you are. You are WHO GOD says you are!
You have the right to BECOME the son of GOD.
Take it!
Life's hardships do not determine or change what I am. They may challenge my faith, they challenge my way of thinking, but they should not change who I know that I am.
I am a son of GOD.
I may be going through a tempest but I am still a child of God.
What do I do?
I decree a thing and it is established. I speak the word that my Father spoke to me:
"The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places and I have a godly heritage"
" I and the ones God has given me are for signs and wonders"
I believe, therefore I speak. I speak UNTIL I become.

The God-kind

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name..." John 1:12.
One of my favourite animated movies while growing up was Disney's the Lion King. I remember the scene where Mufasa appears to Simba in giant cumulonimbus clouds and says to him "remember who you are!"  (In his booming voice of course)
For a while, I had forgotten who I was.
Who I am (in essence) never changes; a lion will always be a lion and a 'man-cub' will always be a 'man-cub' even though he is raised by wolves or gorillas. It doesn't change what he is.
What it does change is his way of thinking. His own thoughts about himself. So, this 'man-cub' thinks like a wolf or a gorilla and, like Tarzan, bends his fingers in and walks on all fours even though he is able to stand up tall with his head high.
The 'man-cub' remains a gorilla until an encounter that changes his entire psyche: he meets another man who thinks like a man, who knows who he is and functions in that knowledge.
According to biblical history, we are sons of Adam, the first man ever created. Adam's father was God himself (Luke 3:38)
After the fall in the garden of Eden, Adam lost his deity and we all became mortals. All of us fell short of God's glory until we had an encounter.
In the new testament gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) we read about another son of God who was not created out of dust but born of a woman. The son of God came to us; he looked just like us but he was different. He was God! He spoke as God, he walked as God and he lived among us as God. He performed miracles all out of love. His name is Jesus, the Christ. He came to heal, to seek and save the lost race of the God-kind. Since the fall, we were lost and he came to find us. He opened our eyes to a new and a living way. He came to bridge the gap himself and restore us to God's glory. We truly are God's glory.
 

So, what are you about?

It's already the second month in the new year, reminding us how quickly time flies.
If you're like me and wanted to launch out on social media this year, you most probably would have been bombarded with trends from left, right, and centre leaving you dizzy with opinions and ideas.
So, what are you about?
If you haven't done so already, it's time to define yourself.
To 'define' is a verb (so, it's an action word) that means different things given different context. However, the meaning that particularly interests me is: 'To express the essential nature of something' (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/define).
First things first, YOU CANNOT BE WHO YOU ARE NOT.
That contradicts the very meaning of the word 'define'.
I know there are thousands of trends, especially over the internet, but you must take the time to find yourself. Find your own essential nature, your basic form- without environmental influences.
Spend time with yourself. Get to know yourself; your likes and dislikes, your passion, your voice.
Why do you want to be out there? what have you got to say? it doesn't matter if someone has said it before, you say it in your own voice.
You make it uniquely you.
So, what are you about?


 

“No man is an Island” – John Donne

As we work further into the new year, another important resource that we will need to achieve our goal is the right network.

The world is growing closer to a global village and our connections are key to our relevance and impact here. Who are you connected to right now? Now just virtually, but in the real business world.

We must have at least one mentor whom we aspire to be like and who we take time to study and learn from. Simultaneously, we should be building horizontal networks for mutual support to share information and ideas.

No matter how much we read, there is always that someone who has the little piece of information that we crucially need or has a very important connection that will be helpful to us. Make your networks purposeful this year; not only to take but also to give your time, ideas and expertise. If there are networks or relationships you had last year that did not get you anywhere, now is the time to consider reviewing those relationships. They are not worth investing your time in.

Surround yourself with like minds, with people who you admire, inspire you and vice versa.

Enjoy your journey into 2018!

Your greatest resource in 2018

As the year unfolds, we have made new resolutions or renewed old ones that we are very intent on keeping.

We are hopeful, we pray for strength but we mustn’t forget to take action.

The truth of the matter is, a huge responsibility lies with us to make this year different, to make this year count.

Why?

We have the greatest resource known to mankind, and it has been given to us to manage. That resource is TIME.

Take the time to LIVE

In 2018, we all have 365.25 days (no, it’s not a leap year😊), and 24 hours in a day. How we manage our time is entirely up to us because TIME has been given to us to control. Determine to be purposeful about managing your time.

I’m a working mum, and for me, this is a lot more demanding. I think to myself sometimes that all this purposeful living is hard work!

BUT, if you are NOT satisfied with where you are right now; if the person you dream you are in your head and the person you are right now are two different people, THEN you have work to do.

Not a job, but work to do. Your job should be about your life and not the other way round!

If you work in a very demanding job, remember to take the time to LIVE your own dream. Work hard to make that dream a reality this year.

The second resource that we all have is talent, and everyone has got at least one!

Talent is a marked natural ability or skill. You’d be surprised that whistling and finger-snapping actually take skill. There are loads of books that talk about talent and time management.

I especially love Rick Warrens ‘The purpose driven life’. Read and read a lot to guide your journey this year.

In conclusion, combining time and talent equals all sorts of possibilities! Just imagine what you could do, even with time alone.

This is your year, make it purposeful, make it count.

#yearofthebutterfly

The year of the cocoon?

I read a nice story about how the Chinese came about naming their years after certain animals. It was an interesting story, and I enjoyed reading about the significance of each animal for the Chinese.

I believe in naming special events, people, phenomena. A name is a unique identity, it indicates something, and gives it significance for you.

For me, 2017 was the year of the cocoon. I didn’t begin the year with that name, but for me, it was a year when I literally wanted to crawl inside and just stay hidden.

Why?

Life.

Sometimes life gives you some seriously hard knocks that make you question every single thing about yourself. If the knocks are hard enough, then you question your core values, your beliefs, and your faith.

We all know the butterfly life cycle.  It's also one of my class' favourite stories (The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle). The Caterpillar eats so much food and then builds a cocoon around himself. If he had a human brain, I imagine that in his mind he would have a conversation like this:

"There must be a purpose for my existence. It can't be just eating and crawling all over the ground.

What am I here for? Why am I in a cocoon?"

Questions are very important if they help you find out why. If they show you a purpose or at least lead you on to something.

Everyone is born with a purpose which is why by default we all have dreams.

As we grow up, we learn to conform to the status quo, life beats us into being 'normal' and gradually we stop dreaming. We 'mature' and stop believing the possibility of the impossible.

Imagine the caterpillar on the ground admiring all those birds flying around him in circles before he ducks to hide so they don't eat him.

Then all of a sudden, instinct takes him into a cocoon.

Life does that for all of us; brings us into a period of incubation where we are forced to really think about purpose, to conceive dreams and ideas, to find our identity and most importantly to metamorphose - to change.

This change is tricky - it happens either for the better or for worse.

Difficult challenges in life can make you bitter, resentful, cynical, distrusting or they can make you humble, grounded, full of faith and gratitude.

When it is time, he breaks out of his cocoon and emerges a beautiful, colourful butterfly that can do what he only dreamed about before - FLY!

In conclusion, let your dreams be your north star. They will guide you to your true purpose. Challenges happen to everyone. Everyone is going through one process of change or the other so there's no need to go around acting like you're the only person who may be having it hard. It's simply life's way of getting you back to the basics of discovering your purpose, re-discovering your dreams and finding out your strength.

So while last year was the year of the cocoon, I am so pleased that this year is the year of the butterfly.

I have had the opportunity to question my core values and I am so grateful to have answered those questions.

I hope you do the same as you go through your process.

Happy NEW YEAR!