In Transit

Hi everyone,

How was your week? For those of us in Lagos, it was a week of traffic jams and political acrobatics. Nigeria is possibly transiting to a new government (my personal preference) and I have also had transitions on my mind.

At various points in time in our life, we stay in a state of transition for a period. I am currently in transit, having left my former state but not quite where I want to be. We can be in transit in different areas of life - financial, spiritual, emotional etc. and it can be a trying time isn't? Personally, on some days I feel a bit frustrated, yet on others I'm able to smile and thank God for where He's taking me and for keeping me during my transit period.

Transit can be tiring, sometimes boring and often tests our patience. The longer the transit time, the more our patience is tested. Whenever I feel frustrated I remind myself that "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but it is GOD that shows mercy". Translated another way, that means "God's purpose is not a hit or miss thing dependent on what we do or don't do, but a sure thing determined by His decision, flowing steadily from His initiative". 

How comforting! Yes I would prefer to be in the land of abundance but I'm grateful that my needs are met just in time! There are many more things that could be better but no doubt it could also have been much worse. 

I learnt long ago not to compare myself with others. I am running my own unique race and my comparison is to the plan that I believe God has for my life and my life only. I used to tell my kids in their younger days that I don't mind if they get low grades in school, if I know that grade is the best that they are capable of. What I quarrel with, is getting an average grade when they are capable of much more. Even an 80% by someone who is capable of 95% is unacceptable. A 40% by someone who has been given up to be a 20 or 30 percent person is deserving of an applause.

How can we endure our transit times? An attitude of gratitude and a realization that this too shall pass helps me through. Keep the goal front and center of your mind, work diligently towards it, but rest assured in His promise that YOU WILL get there, sooner than later. His Word assures us that though it tarry, we should wait for it. God is not a man that He should lie. He is able to keep that which we have committed to Him and perfect it.

Transit time is a season also, surely, there is an end to it. Use the time well, developing your strength in the areas that need to be worked on. Sometimes that's what transit is for - to enable us prepare for the glorious future we see. Other times it's to make the future ready for us, I like to to think. If we get into our future before all the pieces are positioned, it's disastrous. Timing is important and God knows the best time for every aspect of our life. 

If you're in transit like me, I hope you've gained something from my thoughts this week. If you aren't, keep these in your left hand as my Yoruba people will say. No doubt you will be in transit at some point and then these words will hopefully serve you well.

Till next week, be safe. Blessing on you and yours,

Your Friend,

Olubunmi

Seasons

Well friends, it's the end of another week. How was your week? Productive? I trust however it went you made the best of it and lived your best life to date. Mine was very good, busy good and quite interesting actually.

So finally I'm talking about seasons. "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose". I learnt this phrase long ago, through some song, (can't even remember it now) before I ever knew it was scripture.

Life is in seasons isn't it? And those seasons run in opposite cycles sometimes.  A time to be born, and a time to die. A time to sow and a time to reap. A time to laugh and a time to cry. A time to pick up and a time to put down. A time to go to school and a time to work and use that school knowledge. Some seasons are forced on us, and we would wish they didn't happen while other seasons are entered into joyfully.

Nothing by itself lasts forever. Only that which God does lasts forever. An understanding and realization of this fact is key to ensuring that we can make the most of the seasons we currently are in and are prepared for the next one. Jaci Velasquez sings a song - Live every moment as though it were your last. Quite honestly, that song was an "Aha" moment for me many years back.

Each of us have a responsibility to ourselves and to God to make the best of every season. Within each season there is also most times a bell curve. Things happening in that season build up, peak and then seem to reduce in intensity until gradually it runs its course and we find ourselves in a new season.

Some seasons last many, many years. Marriage for example, is a season we pray lasts the rest of our lifetime after it happens. Using marriage as an example, we see also that within a broad season we also have sub seasons. The child rearing years are one. The empty nest one is another and so many others in between.

If you're single, there are sub seasons within that. If you're a student same story. Work life? Oh, too many seasons to count! So what's the point here? He makes everything beautiful in its time. Each season we are in can be beautiful as we make the very best of it. We can and must find joy and the silver lining in the less than pleasant seasons and dance and leap for joy in the great seasons. I was chatting with someone on a trip last night and she was saying she can't stand the cold English weather. I smiled and said to her that if she's properly clothed, she won't even notice!

That's how it should be with the seasons we find ourselves or sometimes put ourselves into (we make our own bed sometimes, right) ? If we are prepared or prepare ourselves once we realize what is going on, the season will work out for our good. This also implies that we should adopt the Boys Scouts motto. Be prepared. Bible says if we faint in the day of adversity, it means our strength is small. In the good times prepare your spirit because that's what will sustain you in the day that's not as good as you would like it to be.

Preparation includes learning. We must seek knowledge continually. Beyond knowledge, we must use what we know to gain skills. Again going back to the event I attended yesterday, one of the speakers pointed out that anyone can acquire the same knowledge you have in a few minutes once they get on Google, that great equalizer. However, they can't exhibit the same skills you have by a similar approach. So it's what we do with the knowledge we have that matters, we must turn the knowledge into skill and that is what will be our competitive advantage or the strength that will enable us to shine in any season.

So my friends, seasons come and go, but we can outlast each one if we are prepared and keep learning as an attitude and lifestyle. Remember, He makes everything beautiful in IT'S time. Also, we mustn't keep looking back trying to stay in any season once it's past. We should move on and live our best life in the new season.

I hope you have a good weekend, whatever you choose to do. Whatever season you are in, I pray for you the grace to excel and overcome. Blessings on You and Yours,

Your friend,

Olubunmi

Knee-Mail

 Hi everyone, 

Another week has flown by. I was able to take a breather and get some rest with a lighter schedule. How was your week?

Alright! First off, let me give credit to whom it's due. The title of this post comes from Nicole Mullen's song - Message For Ya. "Have you done your knee-mail lately" is the last line in the song. I rather liked the word so I borrowed it. Thanks Nicole!

You've probably guessed what knee-mail is. Old school people call it prayer. Generation Y or is it now Z will likely identify more with knee-mail. There's someone who will smile when he reads this, we often discuss whether kneeling is a requirement in prayer and we are yet to convince each other. So, while I don't think it's a requirement that you have to kneel to pray always, no doubt the act of kneeling is associated with supplication to a higher being, i.e. God.

Irrespective of your posture or position, prayer is critical for us as believers. Communication is critical for all relationships, both physical and spiritual. Prayer is our means of communication with God. Prayer comes in many forms and differing lengths but at the heart of it is two way communication.

We express our hearts to Him in song, actual spoken and unspoken requests for our needs and in our attitudes as well. He speaks to us via His Word, through His Spirit who gives us sometimes a word that just seeps into our hearts or just the quiet peace and assurance after a particularly uplifting time of praise, worship or regular prayer. If you have the prayer language of the Spirit, even better.

He uses other people to speak to us as well, from the pulpit, friends, family or nature itself. Have you ever looked at a sunrise and been reassured that there is God and He's all powerful? I felt that way about 5 weeks ago when I woke up about 30 mins before sunrise and just stayed outside watching the day gradually appear. I knew without a doubt that day, that God is very much alive and sure as the sun will rise, His Word will be fulfilled in my life.

How long? How often? There are no rigid rules on prayer. Joyce Meyer said its how long it takes for her to be full. Just like when you eat, sometimes you gobble a full plate, other times you just nibble around, because you're still full. One of the good things Jesus did for us (and there are many) is that we now have God in us, friends. He's no longer in some far away temple that we can only approach every so often. We can speak to and with Him as often as we want. He's a friend!

In my university days some friends of mine used to say I was always speaking to my self, and to things around me. Really what was happening was that I was (and still do) sharing my daily life and experience with God. He's the one person I can talk with about anything. If I'm cooking and I'm not sure if the salt is enough you may hear me say - Holy Spirit should I add more? That's how closely I relate with the God Head. If I'm studying and something doesn't quite make sense I relate it to Him and ask Him to explain it to me. Sometimes he does that by helping me to remember something the lecturer said, other times He gets me to ask some other human being, lol. Or maybe its a challenge with my family - I chat with Him about it (apart from specific prayer) asking for insights or wisdom or whatever it is that I'm needing.

Where am I going? Prayer is a vital part of our relationship with God. It's how we share our life with Him. It's not just about asking Him for stuff, that's part of it. However, I encourage us to go beyond that. Let's involve Him in our daily life, make Him your friend. That's what He really wants to be.

He's the best person to meet our emotional needs. No human being can meet all our emotional needs but He can, by himself and partly through the friendship and love of other human beings that He brings into our life.

So I hope that answers the question of How often and how long. There are days I wake up and just spend an hour in worship and praise. Sometimes just singing on my own. Other times, I play one of my worship playlists from Spotify (which has become the best thing since sliced bread for me). That may be all for dedicated prayer time that morning. The rest of the day would then be just chatting with Him in the course of the day.

Other days I wake up and just spend time praying in the Spirit. Yet on other days it's a combination of everything. Sometimes it's 30 minutes, other times it's an hour. When I require specific guidance I could pray in the Spirit for a few hours.

I want to encourage you to share your life with Him on a daily basis. Don't rely only on dedicated prayer times. That's good and needed but touch base and check in with Him often in the course of your day as well. That's really the point I want to make today.

I look forward to catching up again next week. Blessings on you and yours. Have a great weekend.

Your friend,

Olubunmi

He wants your attention!

Hello Dear Friends,

It's been a very long week and I couldn't write this post earlier. I've had a really hectic 2 weeks, first with my 9 pm days last week and then this week having to prepare for an exam I took this morning. Thankfully, the exam went relatively well and so now I can breathe!

I was chatting with a friend a few days ago and I made a comment that I try to ensure I give God His due because I don't want Him to catch my attention with a challenge. I then thought I would write about that because it struck me afresh after I made that comment.

If you have kids you know that they usually won't get our attention when they are being good. When they do something wrong or misbehave, we give them full attention. The way God deals with us I think works in a slightly converse but similar way. Remember Jonah who got caught in the belly of the whale? I'll come back to him.

When life is good and all is truly, physically well, there is a tendency to relax and not be as spiritually active as we would be in times of need or want isn't it? For example when we are looking for a job or have some other big need. How many times one would fast? How long one would pray? How faithfully one would go to church? When we get the job ( or whatever else it was that was needed) it became more difficult to find time to pray as much. Sunday became a real day of rest when perhaps we need to recoup for the week ahead. Now, I exaggerate. What I've described is probably extreme and not typical of most of us but I'm trying to make a point here.

I made up my mind many years ago that when all is physically well and I'm not just confessing to make it well, I would appreciate God as much if not more than I do when I am in need. Yes, it does take a bit of creativity sometimes to juggle all those balls we talked about last week but the idea is - I don't want Him to try to get my attention with a challenge! Let's face it, on the way to that blessed office that meets the monthly need for a paycheck, if the car developed a fault or, God forbid a family member was in a life or death situation, I would attend to that issue and put work and the office on the back burner wouldn't I?

Well friends, if we neglect God in the good times, we are creating a loophole that the devil can exploit to go and ask God for permission to test us. Remember Job in the bible? And Apostle Paul's thorn in the flesh? If you don't know these stories I'm referring to, please Google them. They are worth reading. I could give you the scripture reference but wouldn't that be too easy (wide smile)?

God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. If we continually give Him that which belongs to Him, recognizing that of our own we can do nothing, Remembering that our ability to get up in the morning itself is a testimony, we put ourselves in a seemingly weak position where God knows that He is our strength and then He doesn't have to allow a challenge to come our way in order to remind us that He's God and we are dependent on Him. I hope I'm not making God to look wicked but He is a jealous God! He wants first place in our life.

Back to Jonah. He had an assignment to do. He refused and was going to run away. How foolish, where was he going to run to that God wasn't? I remember Amy Grant's song - Everywhere I go. That's another good one to Google if you don't know it. She talked about not being able to get away from God. God had to "capture" Jonah in the belly of a whale to put him in a position where he had no choice but to face God and repent. Jonah said "they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy". I read this as  - feeling good in the good times is vanity if I forget the source of the good times. This may lead me to the point where I forsake or lose out on His mercy.

So my friends, let's remember our creator in the days of our prosperity (my paraphrase of Ecclesiastes). I choose to Praise Him, Worship Him, fellowship with Him and with the other members of His body. When we put Him first, every other thing remains in place. Always remember, all it takes is one piece of bad news to change our priorities. Let's reduce the probability of getting the bad news by ensuring that the giver of good news is our first priority. Problems are very humbling.

Next week is a lighter week, so I'm going to take things a bit easy and that means you will be reading from me sooner than later. Hopefully I'll get to talk about seasons next week, if the wind doesn't blow in another direction again. Have a good weekend. I pray Blessings on you and yours.

Your Friend, 

Olubunmi