Rick Joyner once said: “If our life is always easy, it’s because we are called to a lesser purpose.” Every storm has been customised to teach and school us on something very critical to our next level.Every storm is a school.
Every trial is a teacher. Every experience is an education. Every God-given dream will experience adversity.There is no education like adversity. We would never be all that we are to become if we avoid all the risks and discomforts outside our comfort zone.
If you stay in your comfort-zone, you won’t be able to see what the world has to offer you. The struggle of today is a prerequisite for our survival tomorrow. Our response to adversity would either leave us better or bitter, groaning or growing. William Arthur Ward said: “Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.”
A happy life consists not in the absence, but also in the mastery of hardships. Life’s adversity is simply a proof that the enemy considers your assignment very achievable. Circumstance does not make the man; it only reveals him to himself. Every problem introduces a person to himself. The journey of life is not always easy, but the challenges and lessons are what build us up to be the person we are. Max DePree said: “We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.” A Greek poet, Homer, said: “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.” Every adversity in life advances us into the next level.
Viktor Emil Frankl said: “What is to give light must endure burning.” When the late amiable Nelson Mandela was being interviewed on how he felt to have become an extraordinary man as a result of his being the first black President of South Africa, instead of bluffing on his major feat, he redirected his interviewer to the secret of his awesomeness, saying: “I am not extraordinary because I became the President of South Africa; I became extraordinary because I went through extraordinary circumstances.”
In 2008, billionaire businessman Femi Otedola was in bankruptcy and heavily in debt to the tune of $ 1.2 billion due to the oil crash and naira devaluation. He was faced with two options. According to him: “I had two options, either to commit suicide or to weather the storm. I decided to weather the storm. I just knew it was a phase I had to go through. You see God prepares you for greater things and of course, experience is the best teacher so I had to learn my lessons. I took the bitter pill.” Like a cat with nine lives, Otedola has surmounted many hurdles to stay afloat in a game where many had become victims.
From topping the list of Nigeria’s debtor to becoming an emperor and gladiator in one of the toughest economic ecosystem in Africa, it is no doubt that Femi Otedola has been ordained to last. Like a comeback kid that has refused to die, he has survived betrayals, doomsdays and economic reforms to become an enigma where many had fizzled.A man formed in the crucible of life’s greatest adversity; it was in this moment of his life that he eventually discovered the stuff he is made of.
In spite of adverse circumstances, many ordinary people have risen to be great. The key is in our decisions, not our condition. Your circumstances don’t make you inferior; your responses do. You must endeavour in life to ensure that where you are going does not in any way look like where you are coming from. No matter what you are going through in life, you can rise above your background. You may succeed when others give up on you, but you would never succeed if you give up on yourself.
The past exists for three reasons, to learn, unlearn and relearn from it.When you have a winning attitude, every challenge becomes an adventure. A winning attitude converts a mess into a message, scars into stars, trials to triumphs, bitterness into ‘betterness,’ frustration into fuel, misery into ministry and adversity into advancement.
The story of Femi Otedola shows that you can rise again if you don’t give up. It is not failure when you are finished; it is failure only when God has finished with you. In life, it is hard to beat a person that never gives up. No matter who has given up on you, the truth is that you still have a chance. Never count yourself out, even when others count you out. Life has two rules: One, never quit, and two, always remember rule Number One.
To the youths, never quit, because once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit. Be bold and mighty forces would come to your aid. Don’t ever give up on your dreams and aspirations. Don’t be afraid to fail, because only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly, as our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.Don’t ever allow your condition to determine your destination, and if you have ‘bought’ that lie that you would never amount to anything, the truth is: YOUR LIFE IS BIG, far bigger than you have ever imagined. Where you are coming from is not what defines you, but rather where you are going in life. Our response to adversity would either leave us better or bitter. The struggle you are in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow. Don’t give up!
