Kill that story! (1)

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Life offers you achievements as well as frustrations in the same package, leaving you to sort things out and decide which you really want, depending on your perception and attitude. I have come to understand that there can be no lemonade if there were no lemons. Simply put, instead of moaning about the sourness of the lemon, I can choose to add the necessary ingredients and enjoy the tingling sweetness of the lemonade! What you accept from life is what it usually delivers at your doorstep.

If you are willing to pay a price and then turn round to name your wages, life comes up with the resources to pay. (Ouch! Why wasn’t someone kind enough to tell me this twenty years ago?)

Every life tells a story. Every man has a history. The unfortunate thing is that many people have come to accept their biography as their future, their experiences as their destiny. Know this for sure: You cannot succeed beyond your best story! Success has stories, so does failure. Successful people are those who have learnt to build a platform for motivation from their stories while failures are those who have turned their own stories into an excuse, a crutch, an unfortunate support system that validates a crippled mind. When the loser sees a rose, he complains about the thorns. When a winner sees the same thing, he admires the beauty of the flower.

For many years, my sabotaging story was that I was poor and broke because I was a Pastor who, like teachers of old, was supposed to get his reward in heaven and so, did not need any earthly treasures. Guess what? For many years after becoming a pastor, I was so broke that I had a feeling that broke people pitied me!

What is the sabotaging story you have been telling yourself and everyone that cares to listen about the reason for the present inertia in your life? There is an interesting account in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John in the Bible about a man who was crippled and was in a place for 38 years waiting for a miracle to happen. As the account goes, Jesus singled him out of the crowd of sick people who were taking turns to wait for an angel to move the water so they could dive in and get healed. I had always thought Jesus merely did this out of compassion until I saw something in that story that I had never seen in all my years of reading the passage.

Here goes:

Jesus: “Would you like to get well?” (Now this is freaky. Why else would he be here for 38 years? But wait…)

Man: “I can’t, sir, for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.” (Paraphrased from the New Living Translation!)

Look at the scenario again. What was the relationship between Jesus’ question and the man’s answer? None! Jesus addressed the man’s DESIRE, but the man addressed his CONDITION. Why? He had perfected a sabotaging story over a period that shifted the responsibility for getting well on to some imaginary people who were not showing up to help him into the water. Did I hear you say that was understandable – after all, he was crippled?

Examine his response again: “…while I am trying to get there…” The King James Version says, “while I am coming…”. It means this guy was capable of some movement, no matter how minimal! If all he did was to crawl one inch per day, angel or no angel, he would not have spent 38 years marking time and sabotaging his own destiny. In fact, one day, he would have come so close to the pool that the next visit of the angel would have found both of them romping in the water together! But you know what? Every time the angel came and he moved to go but was preceded by another person, he would cover the same distance back TO HIS BED.

One of your greatest enemies in life (apart from your sabotaging story) is the cushion pad that gives your story a soft landing. It’s called the fallback position. Comfort zone. This, coupled with his perfectly scripted and delivered sabotaging story, had totally eclipsed his desire for the real reason he was at that point – to get healed!

Thankfully, Jesus was not impressed. Hear Him: “STAND UP, PICK UP YOUR SLEEPING MAT (or bed), and WALK!” As simple as that? Yes! He didn’t even bother to offer a hand to lift the man up! Who did the standing and the carrying of the bed? The man. What if he had refused to? Afterall, he should have been made to walk before being asked to pick up his bed? Well, your guess is as good as mine.

Let’s bring this closer home. What is your own story? I hear several every day.

I have no money.

I have no connections.

I have no formal education.

I grew up in a village.

I have no degree.

I have no parents.

My boss doesn’t like me

I’m still young.

I’m too old.

I’m from a minority tribe.

I have no helper.

I’m from a poor background.

I was disappointed at the last minute.

The government has not provided the necessary amenities….

The list goes on ad nauseam. Is yours mentioned here, or can we add it?

I have news for you. If you don’t learn to walk past the story, you will forever be limited only to whatever it allows you to accomplish. Logic? You can’t achieve beyond your best excuse.

What is your best and most touted excuse? Check your present level of achievement. Your best excuse will still be higher than you! My advice is this: if you find an excuse, refuse to pick it up. If you don’t pick one up, you cannot have it. If you don’t have it, you cannot give it. If you don’t give it, it cannot sabotage your future. One good reason to succeed dwarfs twenty reasons not to!

I once got a phone call from a young man who claimed to be a 500-level Law student in a Nigerian university. He said he needed some money for his final year project. After listening to his tales of woe, helplessness and desperation, I really wanted to help but instinctively, I put a call to my son who incidentally was an undergraduate in that university at that time, to verify the authenticity of the young man’s story and person. It turned out that such a person did not exist in their Law Faculty. One week earlier, another person had sent me a text with a similar request and more pathetic story – complete with the account number to pay money into – claiming to be a student of a Federal Polytechnic. I am beginning to think it was one and the same person… continued.

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

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