I
can keep the charge - Israelmore Ayivor
“All
that Adam has, all that Caesar could, you have and can do ... Build therefore,
your world”- Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I once had a patient in my ward whose bad health
condition turned into a testimony by a practical application of a self-can-do
spirit.
It all happened when a colleague patient, G.Y in the
bed next to M.K’s bed seemed to have recovered so rapidly from his ailment and
was to be discharged while M.K was still battling with his mobility impairment.
Seeing G.Y walking, M.K shouted aloud till almost
all nurses in the hospital yard could hear him saying; “I can also walk, yes! I must”.
This exercise of faith made M.K to stand carefully from his bed unto his pair
of legs. With his mouth still repeating these words of encouragement, he
gripped the frames of the bed with his hands with the fear of falling. He then
took a deep a deep breath and begun to release his hands carefully from the
support. To his mute surprise, he did not fall! More surprisingly, he begun to
move his legs, and alas, he walked a distance of about five metres.
To me, the observations and assessments I made on
M.K informed me that M.K had recovered from his ailment earlier, but for the
fear linked to how he felt at the onset of his indisposition, he couldn’t
realize it. He thought he cannot walk all because of fear!
As a matter of fact, each and every one on earth has
a reason for being sent here; a divine purpose of him/her being created. The
only problem that enshrouds us from doing what we were sent to do is our
inability to realize the potentials we have to turn things around to celebrate
our successes.
Our ability to make something great, commences from
the moment we exercise our abilities to appreciate the undeniable fact that our
future is rightly present in our own palms. You owe it to yourself to decide
whether to make your daily song that you are capable of doing what you dream
about!
“You
have the brains in your head;
You have the feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You are your own. And you know what you know.
You are the guy who’ll decide where you go”- Dr. Seuss
Are you among the numberless folks whose daily
dreams are to make great impacts on the planet you arrived on years ago? It
will seem and it will be very difficult for you to be counted among the great
achievers God produced, if your doubts keep nailing your brains against
statements like “I can’t”, “I am too small”, “I will fail” etc. Whenever you
think you can’t, just “knock the ‘T’ from the ‘can’t’...”,
said Samuel Johnson. Guess your new word; “I
can” it is!”
Every human being who lags or remains without
something to die for, actually have to acknowledge the fact that he or she has
a great problem. Can you guess what that problem could be? The “…problem
is you’re holding too busy holding onto your unworthiness”- Ram Dass.
“It’s
not who you are that’s holds you back. It’s who you think you’re not”-
(Attributed to Hannock McCarthy)
It is time you believe you are destined to make it
great in your career, education, attitude and talents and win in your own
style. Never occupy your mind with thoughts of incapability, impossibility and
inability. Behold “nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who
dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstances”,
said Bruce Barton.
“If
you hear a voice within you say “you can’t paint”, then by all means, paint,
and the voice will be silenced”- Vincent Van Gogh.
Paul Tillich advised every aspiring achiever; “The
courage to be is the courage to accept oneself in spite of being unacceptable”.
Yes! As you dare to pursue your dreams and achieve, just behave within yourself
as if you are already wearing the crown of success now!
Don’t waste your precious time presenting yourself as
a failure. You have the ability that someone out there doesn’t have, but is
making it very greatly. I guess that’s what Sa’Di was saying that “People are
crying up the rich and variegated plumage of the peacock, and he is himself
blushing at the sight of his ugly feet”. Oh no! You must not inculcate that
unappreciative attitude of the peacock. You can make it greater and bigger with
what you have. Focus on it. Karen Ravn in a short poetry shared;
“Only
as high as I can reach, can I grow.
Only as far as I seek, can I go.
Only as deep as I look, can I see.
Only as much as I dream can I be”
Most people provide reasons why they can’t do
something and these reason become excuses that erect big barriers between them
and their bright future. They want to see the whole staircase before taking up
their steps. It doesn’t always work like that. Listen to what James Allen said;
“If your real desire is to be good, there is no need to wait for money before
you do it. You can do it now, this very moment and just where you are”. But “if
you do not believe you can, you have no chance” said Arsene Wenger.
“I
know who I am. I don’t have to brag. I know what I contributed. I know what I
did. You think you can do it better? Hey, go right ahead; the stage is yours”-
Al Lewis.
“You can do what you have to do, and sometimes, you
can do it even better than you think you can”, said Jimmy Carter. By this
quotation, I believe Jimmy was just acknowledging the power that God has
deposited in us with which He does exceedingly, abundant things on earth;
“….able
to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to
the power that works in us”- Apostle Paul (Ephesians 3:20)
God has destined you for greater things. Just accept
this fact and never ever doubt in your heart what you are capable of doing
through the power God deposited in you! Say it with passion; “I CAN MAKE IT”!
Note the following points;
- · You are in God’s mind
- · God must also be in your mind
- · Your future in God’s mind
- · God must also be in your future thoughts
- · You are your own best friend
- Believe by the grace of God, YOU CAN MAKE IT.
“A
great deal of deal talent is lost to the world for a want of a little courage.
Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from
making a first effort” – Sydney Smith
The
charge to keep:
All of lives consist of many chains of
responsibilities to be discharged. Duties and choices confront us on hourly
basis, obligations stir us up in the face and all that we need to do is to
fulfill their pressing requests if they prove themselves to be purposeful.
As a matter of fact, God is fully aware of the
responsibilities we were sent for and for that matter, He correctly deposited
specific gifts, unique to each and every one and expected “a strict account” of the
duties he requested.
Once there is a duty to fulfill, or “a charge to
keep”, there will definitely be a potential to work the duty out. Dr. Myles
Munroe said “Potential is only manifested when you make demands on it. Therefore
the key to your potential is your willingness to work”. That potential is
“ability” and the assigned duty is a “responsibility”. God gives the “ability”
so that we can “respond” to the “responsibility”, and that ability gains its
roots from the passion to fulfill the responsibility.
Matthew Henry’s commentary on Charles Wesley’s hymn “a
charge to keep I have” provides us with an in depth insight into the
awareness of our calling. It reads;
“We
have, every one of us a charge to keep, an eternal God to glorify….. a needful
duty to be done, our generation to serve and it must be our daily care to keep
the charge, for it is the charge of the Lord our maker who will shortly call us
to account about it and it is our utmost peril if we neglect it”
What then could we say is the simplest definition of
“a charge”? Many definitions exist and may seem relevant, but this concept
focuses on the lines as follows;
“A
charge refers to a property, a person, thing or an event that is entrusted into
the cares of someone, back by a relevant potential to do so, supervised by the
charge giver and assessed through a strict account”
“A property” could be a congregation, a school, a
hospital, a family or any related task.
“A person” could be a student, a nurse, a doctor, a king or a family
head. “An event” could be a ceremony, a crusade, an emergency, a predicament or
even a joyful moment.
A trustee is the one into whose care the property,
thing or event is put into and is this person is endowed with the a potential and
tasked with an account. That is to say whatever you are born to do, you are
equipped to do! And also whatever you are equipped to do, you will be asked to
account for it. The trustee in one way or the other is given talents, gifts and
added to them is the ability to utilize them for his charge keeping assignment
excellently.
The superior of our charge is Jehovah who will one
day open His hands to receive the breakdown of how wise or foolish we have used
the precious treasures of talents, how successful or failing we had been and
finally accord us with a reward or punishment to whoever deserves it. That is
the main reason why Charles Wesley called it “a strict account to give”.
“Every
human being has a work to carry on within, duties to perform abroad, influences
to exert, which are peculiarly his and which no conscience but his own can teach”-
William Ellery Channing
In our charge keeping duties as aspiring achievers,
we have to acknowledge the features of our business; else, we will run the
Lord’s company down into liquidation. And guess the reward of collapsing God’s
business venture; this Matthew Henry called “our utmost peril”. There are five
(5) main features of our charges as follows;
A
God to glorify:
The superior of our charge said through his trustee
Moses in the scriptures; “Keep the charge of the Lord…”- (Leviticus 8:35). The
Lord’s commanded commandments and more regulations around which He expects us
to turn our visions around. All we have to do is to trust and obey.
A
calling to fulfill:
Everyone has been called with a specific talents and
gifts. We are expected to work within our scopes of calling and work perfectly
with all commitment. That’s what Martin Luther King Junior said that; “If a man
is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep the street even as
Michelangelo painted or as Beethoven composed music or as Shakespeare wrote
poetry. He should sweep the street so well that all hosts of heaven and earth
will pause to say, here lived a street sweeper who did his job well”.
All
powers to engage:
Power refers “potential” or “ability” and is used to
“respond” to a “responsibility”. Why should we engage “all” but not “little” or
“part”? The answer still boils down to the fact “strict account”. Carry Grant
put it this way; “my formula for life is quiet simple; I get up in the morning
and go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best as I can”. There is
no doubt that if God send you to go and build 100 castles on earth and you came
to build 99 and the last one is an “uncompleted” building, you are one of those
unfaithful charge keepers!
A
strict account to give:
We will go back to our supervisor sooner or later and
there we will be expected to present a report on how we run the charge keeping
business. Yes, that’s how Christ always put it; “I must be about my father’s
business”- Luke 2:49. Erma Bombeck published how she hopes to present her
account. She wrote; “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would
hope that I would not have a single talent left and could say ‘I used
everything you gave me’.
“Christians
are not left in the world by accident, but are placed there on divine
assignment from their Lord”- John Macarthur
As an aspiring achiever hoping to make every you out
of your God given talent, take note that God have deposited every relevant
potential in every talent just as He put big trees in a small tree. “You came
into this world, pregnant with unlimited potential”- Dr. Myles Munroe. The fact
that you are still alive is an evidence to prove that you still have something,
a peculiar charge to keep.
“Here
is a test to find whether your mission is finished. If you are still alive, it
isn’t”- Richard Bach
Don’t waste your life pursuing immoral activities
that only ruin your dreams. Don’t engage yourself in social vices that only corrupt
your ideal purpose. Don’t accommodate criminal adventures that only demoralize and
defame your true beauty. All they do is to assign you to a counterfeit charge
and you waste all your seventy years plus more chasing vanity and carnality and
profanity!
Rise up to day. Say you can do it! Start declaring
and making steps and make great impacts with the task you were programmed to do
even before the world was created. In actuality, it doesn’t matter how bad your
life had been. God still loves you and wanted to save you and then give you back
your dreams!
God still get something to do with you!
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