August 19, 2008
June 14, 2008
Last week, I went to a shop to buy recharge units for my phone. I wanted to call my mum back in Ghana. I missed
home, but that’s not the point here. Stay with me on this one! After the man handed me the card, I asked him to scratch off the silver panel that reveals the secret code for recharging phone credit. He said, “No problem!” He took it from me and kindly did what I asked. I didn’t have a coin on me to do it myself. After he handed me back the card in the process of walking away, I was hitting the buttons on my phone then the man called me and guess what? “You forgot your change!” I didn’t forget I wanted to test his will. Almost few centimeters away, “Oh It’s ok!” I whispered to him. The man was SHOCKED! You could tell from his face. Maybe no one had done that to him before. I don’t know. His emotions and smiles just made me smile too.
Next day, I went to see this man again in the shop to buy soap that night. The man thanked me so much for yesterday. I said, “hey never mind” I bought my soap, and this time again I left the change. This time the change was much smaller than the other one. He drew my attention again when I walked away. This time I only waved, and he understood. The man nodded his head and smiled again. That one moment made me happy; putting a smile on a fellow brother’s face. Same thing happened with a taxi driver. He dropped me home one day from church. I gave him the money when we arrived and he claimed he didn’t have change. I was not surprised, it always happened when the money is a bit large. Maybe I was his first passenger for the day, who knows? You know happened? I told him to keep the change. Yes! Of course I know the change was big, but I just told him to keep it and got down fast, shut his door. The man pulled his head through to see me on the other side. He asked, “Are you sure?” I just nodded and smiled, and he said, “thank you, sir.” Hey the man was way older than I was. He could have been the same age with my father. I noticed that as he turned his car and drove away, he couldn’t keep his eyes off me. Maybe he thought I was some angel that had come down to assist him that day so he waiting to see if I would disappear…of course I couldn’t. I just walked through the gate. Whatever the man thought didn’t matter to me. I made someone smile today and that’s what matters.
I’m not saying leave all your change anytime you visit a shop, sometimes you do need it, I know. Just perform those little acts of kindness to people you meet. You think you can’t! Look out for opportunities to make people smile today. I’m sure you can, that’s easy!
June 12, 2008
I know maybe you were drawn to read this because of the title. I mean how can life, be vain! You’d say unless probably, you are not having a blast of what life has. Yea, sure I agree with you. I had always read the book of Ecclesiastes as a kid, and I still do many times, 
of course you can never finish reading things like that. You’re done; you still go back to them. Anyways, if you have read that book, maybe at least come across a pat of it. We would agree that, Solomon, the wisest man ever, call life vanity. He says it is like the grasping of the wind.
As a young boy did not quite get why? Someone the whole world looks to as the wisest man, calls life vanity! Just 10 years old I had life, I enjoyed it. As a small boy why would I say my life was nothing! It could not have been, I had my family, my friends in school, in my community, in church. My parents could give me all the things I needed. At least I was not naked, hungry, living in the streets. Hope you get me to this point. Look at your life; would you call it nothing, even if you had nothing. You have dreams and goals right, that makes you move on, doesn’t it?
Well, then after all the thinking, I grew into a teenager, around 16 years, revisited the book as usual, this time reflecting on this saying, perhaps you would call it a child’s thinking, but it couldn’t have been. It was real! It was happening to people. Let’s take this illustration to assess this. A man spends almost 25 years of his life, if not 30 in school. Of course generally after, he works. In the process, he has probably been with a woman, he wants to marry. Things get okay, they get married, they have kids, same cycle again with their kids, and parents see their grandchildren. I mean they are just okay! Well satisfied with what they have achieved so far (on the average) and then they pass out…Is that it? Is that all there is to life, you come, you grow, you acquire, you pass on, you die! I mean guys, let think about this for a moment, about this big thing call LIFE! So bigger than we can understand then for sure, I don’t know it all! I damn sure don’t! The whole concept is vain…
Vain! In a sense that, life is not for living only for ourselves, our dreams but for sharing our lives with others. Imagine for instance a miser, of course we know he doesn’t spend, much more give. Now put the same man in the illustration in the paragraph above. Trust me at the end of the road. We really have ONE BIG BORING one! Could you live that life? That Empty LIFE?
God gave us this life to share, of course HIM first. When you get your source right which is God, you can start off, not by yourself alone, but with HIM. Now imagine a man who gives; he puts a smile on people’s faces. His joy would be full, why? Because, he has found something to die for. Why did I say to “die for?”
Once I saw a tape, “The Six Principles of Success,” by Myles Munroe. He said, “When I gave my life to God, I thanked God so much for giving me a reason to live.” You know what God told him,” That’s good! That’s why I can’t use you now. You have found something to live for, when you find something to die for, you’ll be ready.” You see, the miser is living for his money, not dying for it. If you put a gun to his head, and tell him to choose between his life and money. He won’t think twice about leaving the money. Now! The man who gives, to put smiles on people’s faces, ask him to choose between living and dying for man he helps, with the same gun on his head. He wouldn’t think twice about laying down his life. Why? Because he realizes that the whole reason for him living is to share his life, he doesn’t mind dying for it.
Solomon said it “It is vanity.” He referred to the attainment of physical things. Do you have something or someone you would die for? Who you would give your all to see better? That’s life!
The Writer’s Pen
|
