Promise

The Platinum Set: Odd And Unique (Part 1)

In a bid to outstandingly stand out from a selected group of people, it is imperative for one to possess something that the others do not have. In my post, ‘The Real McCoy’, I talked about the fact that each individual is the only one of his kind. Others may be similar but they are just not quite the same. Unsurprisingly, a way to stand out is to realize that one is unique and consequently choose to be noncommittal to the norms and unspoken rules of the community or society. I searched my mind for the best example I could use to buttress my point. I couldn’t come up with anything better than the set of students to be admitted into the University of Ibadan for the 2009/10 Academic Session. Especially those of us who were chosen to study Physiology.
The story starts with me…

TO BE CONTINUED.

Auto Mode

The basal ganglia is a portion of the brain that is respönsible for some of our especially unique behaviours in our day to day activities. For example, when we were younger, we found it difficult to perform the skilled movements of our hands when writing the different convolutions of the letters of the alphabets, as well as the numbers. Now, when we write, we simply think of the words or numbers that we write and not the individual complexities of each alphabetic or numeric symbols. The same phenomenon occurs when you compare the ball juggling skills of an accomplished player such as Lionel Messi and those of an unsporty person like myself. For Messi, controlling a football would almost be second-nature, while I would have a hard time staying on my feet. The only reason why you could write so well without stopping to think about how you actually wrote is due to the fact that you’ve kept on writing and writing over time. Also, Messi’s ball control skills are impulsive because he has continually played the ball on and on and on.

You have the capability of going into an automatic mode without consciously thinking of what you are doing. And during this automatic period, the character you exhibit is a product of what your habits have been over the course of time. For example, there was time I found myself in an awkward situation where I had to give a minispeech. I did not know what to say. I consciously thought of a few limes but they were not going to be enough to carry me through the speech. So, I just started talking! I was not actively thinking but I was just talking. Soon, I started listening to myself and I found out that I was making sense. What I was saying was acceptable. It could have been better, however, if I had been feeding my mind with more edifying materials than comic strips, novels and school books.

The basal ganglia is not the same as the mind, since the basal ganglia is only concerned with the subconscious performance of voluntary motor functions. However, they are both dependent on the principle which is our minds. Just like the evolutional theory of use and disuse, if Messi would suddenly decide not to play ball for a considerable period of time, ball control skills would no longer be second nature to him. The same applies to our writing skills. In the same vein, if we develop good/bad habits consistently over a period of time, whenever we enter our ‘automatic’ mode, we’d naturally ooze with good/bad, as the case may be.

The good news is that it’s never too late to pick a good habit or drop a bad one. Psychologists have discovered that it takes only 21 days to learn a new habit. So, why not purge yourself of all bad habits and make up your mind to feed yourself with positively edifying material. In the end, it would all be worthwhile.

Because You Don’t Believe Doesn’t Make It Less True!

I had a discussion with a friend of mine not too long ago. He was shedding more light on some simplistic truths about life that seemed so good to be true. I like calling thes truths, ‘CHUNKS OF SOLID MEAT’ because you have to possess some level of maturity before you can believe them. I’m still having a hard time recovering my equilibrium after being hit by these truths. While I would not talk about these particular truths, I would like to talk about our attitudes to the truth. Especially when it is too good to be true.

Yes, we are living in a world with a lot of scam mails, get-rich schemes, lies and deception. And these have caused us to build an invisible wall around our minds as to what we decide to accept. In fact, we always point back to the fact that the quickest believers always need broad shoulders to bear the consequences of quick believing. True, trusts are betrayed on a daily basis but amongst that rubble of trash, there can always be the place of the pure truth.

This is the point where intuition and discretion are paramount. God has placed in the heart of every man a kind of sixth-sense gut feeling. Some could call it conscience but it gets sharper and more accurate when one is filled with the Spirit of God. This intuition/discretion/conscience plays an important role in helping us to sieve all that would come to us posing as the truth. Eventually, after our hearts and minds have tested all things, we are left with the truth(s).

Indeed, the reason why many people are hurt by easily believing whatsoever that comes their way is because they believe on impulse. Once the information appeals to their emotions, they immediately jump on it make it theirs. Acting this way is dangerous. Dont be brash. When next you are faced with a truth that you find so hard to believe, please do not hold on to your emotions, past experiences, personal prejudices or what other people feel about it. Instead, test the truth with your gut and if you have peace within you, you can go ahead and embrace it.

The Narrow Way

When I was much younger, I used to have a uniquely funny imagination of heaven. I had just read the words, ‘Strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it’. I was scared! At that point, I made up my mind that when I died (at the ripe old age of 120), I would ensure that my soul remained stable on the ‘straight’ road to heaven, so I won’t slip off and fall into the eternal flames of hell. I also told myself that I would try as much as possible to squeeze myself through the narrow singular gate to heaven, peradventure, with patience, I would find a way through. And you thought I was smart!

As I grew more matured with age, I discovered some basic truths about this whole Heaven and Hell business:

1. God did not make Hell for human inhabitation. It was meant as a centre of punishment for the devil and his cohorts. However, God loved, and still loves man so much that He gave man the freedom of choice. Thus, where man would spend eternity is a by-product of his choices while he was alive on earth. And by that, a man can partake of the punishment meant for the devil and his demons.

2. If you have time to read through the Book of Revelations in the Bible, you’d discover that Heaven is soooooo big. So big that if every individual from the time when man was created till the end of time itself were to have a mightily large mansion each, there would still be ample space left. Why then would God make Heaven this big, if He only planned to allow a few people to trickle in? Arbitrariness and disorganization are not part of God’s characteristics. Reading carefully through the book of Revelations, we find that at the end of time, the population of Heaven would be so much more than that of Hell. People from all tongues, tribes, nations and colour are going to be in Heaven. Hell is a crammed up place. It is a place of population explosion, so to speak, because the ‘resources’ of Hell were only meant to ‘cater’ for satan and his demons, not man!

3. Also, from the book of Revelations, you’d discover that Heaven has 12 extremely large gates that are ALWAYS open. What’s more, it’s God’s earnest desire for all to make Heaven. His Spirit continually cries out to us, non-stop, ‘Come, come, come’.

Phew! Now that is settled, why did Jesus say, ‘Strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it’???

The world is under a great bondage that majority are unaware of. The Bondage is UNGUIDED FREEDOM. A guy and a girl that like each other start living together as husband and wife without bothering to get married. When the going gets rough, they simply walk out of each other’s lives and move on. Nowadays, the rate of divorces are so much such that a marriage now seems to be the prerequisite for a divorce. In the name of freedom, an individual that finds himself in an exalted position decides that the next item on his agenda is to siphon his organization’s funds to some personal foreign back account. People now indulge their apetites and massage their egos at the expense of their souls.

What Jesus had in mind by the ‘straight’ gate and ‘narrow’ way can be summarized into one word: DISCIPLINE. In order to get the very best out of life, we have to subject our natural instictive desires and apetites to that which is right. When one’s highly disciplined, he is bordered all around by the right principles and guidelines. In that way, he’s prevented from staggering through life without a due sense of responsibility. The narrow way is not the popular way (Check my write up on ‘The Novel Way’ www.promisetewogbola.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/63/) and this is why Jesus said only a few find it. Only a few are willing to subject themselves to a disciplined lifestyle.

The narrow way is tough. People would snicker at you. They would taunt you and scoff at you. But at the end there’s an abundance of life in its superfluity. Choose the Narrow Way. It’s worth it.

His Story

Crushed, the heart bleeds out,
every single drop counts the time
as it passively walks away.
It was not always meant to be this way,
The blueprint- potential and purpose as fulfiled bedfellows.
But surprises, however unwelcome, a’times
can be the spice of life.
The wind of change blows with the fervour of a boxer and
the proud peahen’s underparts are exposed.
Laughs are shared but not without the feeling of raw shock
Told and retold, the stories live on
even in the city’s very bellies.

But then the switch is flipped on
and there’s light!
Things fall apart, yes they fall,
as the old must make way for the new.
Things also fall in place, in place
of the chaos that ‘inertially’ reigned supreme.
It soon makes sense as the jigsaw puzzle is complete.
It all makes sense- the crises, the cross must come before the crown.
The bones heal and the warts disappear
The face becomes radiant once more, as the pairs of yesteryears vanish.
All gone- drained away in the cesspool of distant memories.
Fulfilment and Joy acknowledge no such bounds.

Three Words Remix

Great is He
Dwelling inside me,
despite my flaws-
Blatantly exposed imperfections
I knew them
and know them;
I know now,
Not knowing how
But was powerless
Odds against me.

You showed up
Amazing in grace
Mysterious in wonders
Saving me totally-
At one (mo)ment

Old habits beckon
Again I disappoint
You come by
Clothing me righteously-
Grace’s Unforced Rhythms

I proclaim it
Your Wor(thy Lord)ship
Words are colourless
Shying from justice
to my gratitude
I’d just say
Spirit, Son, Father,
I love You!!!

Word Salad

Fresh, raw and undiluted,
each bite tastier than the one before.
He custom-made it to fit, like a hand in a glove,
into all situations and circumstances I find myself.

With each mouthful, it penetrates my heart;
enjoyable, fearsome and fierce,
it always strikes a chord or two within my essence-
the treasured gold hidden in the earthen vessel.

I’m left uncomfortable with the status quo,
so there’s a yearning, and a rattling too,
a rumbling that exudes with zeal never before found.

The weak are strengthened, and
the runners motivated to race committedly.
On the long run, Desire pants
but the coolness of the taste revives again.

Ever complete, ever nutritous,
Ever powerful, ever beneficial,
the inner one which was once merely existing,
now lives.

Peter’s Net

Have you ever been in this situation before: You wanted something so badly. Then you got it. After that, you are almost shocked to death that you got it?!! It has happened to me so many times and I’m going to share the most recent with you. By the way, if you looked at the title of this post and you are expecting a story about Peter Pan, you are in for a very big surprise.

I started blogging late May this year. After the initial excitement of maintaining a blog had died down (Check ‘Number Of The Day: 11’), I decided to surf around the blogosphere to interact with other bloggers. That was when I saw it. Bloggers who had spent the same time period (or even less) that I had spent had almost ten thousand times more clicks and follows than I had. I was a bit downcast and discouraged because I had tried all that I knew to just make sure I had more traffic to my site. I told my friends about my blog, I shared links to my blog on twitter and groups on facebook. But I just couldn’t raise the amount of traffic that was getting to my blog. Then it happened. One of the bloggers I follow dedicated a particular post to his readers. You could ask anything and write anything. It looked like fun and it was fun. I read the previous comments on that post and I saw other bloggers writing links back to their own blogs in the comment section. So I said to myself, ‘Why not give it a try?’. Before that day ran out, I had the highest number of views that I had ever seen on my blog. It was scary. Suddenly, I found myself running out of breath to keep up with the comments that I was receiving. It took me the presence of mind not to start wishing for those ‘dry’ days all over again!!!

Funny enough, I saw a similar story to mine in the Bible. It happened between Peter and Jesus in Luke 5. And no, they were not blogging! Jesus was preaching at the bank of a particular lake. However, He was having a little of a crowd situation since the people were pushing on to Him to hear Him better. Who could blame them? Anyways, Jesus beckoned to Fisherman Peter who appeared to be through for the day since he was already washing his nets. Jesus asked to make use of Peter’s boat as a floating altar in the lake since that was the only way He could avoid being crushed by the crowd. It was an ingenious plan that probably prevented Jesus’ earthly ministry from ending prematurely. As soon as the highly interesting teaching session was over, Jesus discerned that Peter had a bad day. Apparently, Peter had washed his nets, but there were no fish. Now, pay attention. If you read the King James Version of Luke 5 vs 4, Jesus said, ‘Launch out into the deep and let down your NETS for a draught’. But in vs 5, Peter’s response was, ‘Master, we have toiled all night and have taken nothing: nevertheless at your word, I will let down the NET’. ‘Nets’ and ‘Net’ are NOT the same thing. In case you didn’t know, ‘NETS’ is the plural tense of ‘NET’. Peter was a fisherman and he might have had dreams of the day he would catch so many fishes. However, the Day came and he decided to play it safe. Maybe the guy just didn’t want to embarass anybody, in case the whole exercise flopped. At least, the fact that Peter even ventured to drop a single net showed that he believed Jesus’ words. Peter expected the miracle but his preparation for the miracle was poor. How many times do we ask for rain to fall, yet we don’t carry umbrellas? How many times do we ask for babies, yet we don’t buy baby cribs, clothes and the works. Luke 5 vs 6 tells us what eventually happens to Peter’s net. It broke. The miraculous supply of fish tore Peter’s Net. Infact, One ship and other nets later, the weight of the catch still threatened to sink the ships.

The next time you are earnestly seeking a miracle in your life, I think it would be better to start making adequate preparations, especially in your mind, to receive the miracle. After all, it’s better to die in misery than to die of the shock that a stupendous miracle would bring!!!

Operation S.A.L.T.

‘When salt looses its saltiness…’

Imagine what would happen if suddenly there was a scarcity of salt! It is a fact, although relatively unknown, that salt was once a luxurious good. Only those with influence and affluence and power had it. Once upon a time, salt was so much valued that it was the acceptable legal tender in many different communities round the world. Though the times have changed, salt still weilds so much power and authority over our diets and lifestyles. Salt is synonymous with flavour and taste and without it, the world would be colourless to our instruments to gustation.

Jonathan Swift in his adventure novel, ‘Guilliver’s Travels’ clearly portrayed a scenario resembling what would happen if we were to stop using salt. Guilliver had travelled to a horse tribe and there, salt wasn’t used at all. The amazing thing was that after initial challenges, Guilliver adapted. I believe the same thing would happen if salt should suddenly go scarce. People would adapt!

Salt is naturally salty in taste (of course!), and when it is added to tasteless food, the food adopts the taste and flavour of salt. In the same way, we are meant to influence our environment with the good and positivity we have in us. Now, imagine what would happen if salt is sprinkled in tasteless food and the food still remains tasteless. Salt then has no reason for existence. It is no longer salty and hence lacks the ability to cause taste and flavour. It’s now adopting the tastelessness of the food to which it was added. In the same way, the moment we stop oozing goodness and positivity, we can no longer influence our environment. Instead, we are the ones being influenced by whatever is going on around us.

As I mentioned in ‘Evil’s Open Secret’, the international policy makers and top government officials of the nations of the world are in a state of confusion. Just the same way people would adapt to scarcity of salt, people are adapting to this state of confusion. For example, in Nigeria, corruption, bombings and accidents have become almost a daily occurence on the news reported by the various media houses. However, on the days when there are no stories of bombings or accidents or corruption, the populace say there’s no news. It amazes me how people adapt in just a short period of time because ten years ago, there were no bombings in Nigeria!

The situation we find ourselves in the world today is a dire one. First there is a scarcity of individuals who can be called ‘salts’. The good thing about salt is its power of influence. You don’t need a whole bag of salt to flavour your food. Just a little is enough. However, the few ‘salts’ we have are loosing their saltiness by being the ones influenced by their environment.

In a world that is lacking in positive role models, why not stand your ground and be a person of influence to your environment. Be the positive change you are dying to see in the world. Remember, if you don’t influence your world, the world would adapt and find some use for you.

‘…it is cast out and trodden under the feet of men’

Let me know your thoughts.

Aaaaaargh, Think!!!

I took the television set and smashed it on my head. There was blood everywhere. And glass too. Okay, I’m sorry to disappoint you but I did not actually do the aforementioned. I just decided to let you in on the situation I’m in now. I’m having a hard time here because I’m not having the inspiration to write anything. Nothing. Nada.

I tried writing a poem to express what my mind is feeling but all the words came out flat. I know there’s a lid covering the wellspring of thoughts. Usually, I try to locate the lid and do something about it. Other times, I simply wait for the inspiration to hit me. Today, I’m going to try something new; I’d just take a leap of faith and write.

The only word that is ringing in my head now is: THINK!!!
And that about sums up my emotions right now.

The world does not run on petroleum, coal or any alternative source of energy. Err….at least not primarily. The world is run on ideas. Ideas rule the world. Why? Because if the mind can picture anything, then that thing is possible (check my article on ‘Words Onwards).

For starters, how about working on that creative part of your mind that is still lying fallow after all these years? And for those who are thinkers, what do you allow your mind to regurgitate upon? Thoughts that can benefit you and the world at large or thoughts that would ultimately bring you down.
The choice is yours. Choose wisely