Your distinction, your reward

Your reward is never in what you do like others. It is in what you do differently. Even if the problem you are called to solve is similar to another person’s calling, the style and strategies would be different. Life is a race that we all run but not for competition. Everyone has been given the capacity to finish strong as long as he keeps to his own lane. Mind and maintain your lane. Leave the rat race to the rats. The rat that wins the race still remains a rat at the end of the race.

You were made for distinction and collaboration, not competition. You start losing your own shine when your attention is constantly focused on what you are convinced others are doing better than you. I have always had a good dress sense. Several years ago, in the city where I lived, there was another pastor whose elegant fashion sense I admired to high heavens. When I stood by him, I felt like I was wearing something inferior. Until one day when he had to introduce me on a platform as Guest Speaker. One of the first things he spoke about was his unending admiration for my dress sense and how he was still learning to dress like me! What! That was a gentle rebuke for me and a poignant lesson. Sometimes, many of the people you admire and aspire to be like are looking at you and wanting to like you in other areas of your strength and competence.

No matter how fast you run, you are disqualified in certain races if you cross into another runner’s lane. Synergy and symbiosis are only possible when everyone in the equation brings something to the table. All the wealth and material resources you would ever need were placed IN you at creation. It is only when you connect to what is in you that you can activate what is around you for the outcomes you need. You must connect with your inherent value before you can connect it with others.

In the biblical account of creation which I subscribe to, the code for Adam’s life’s journey was hidden in Genesis 1:26-28. By extension, that is the MANDATE upon every man that comes into the world. The Creator has not changed his mind or the template. To ensure that it is doable, it was preceded by a blessing.

“And God blessed them, and said…” The word “blessed” means “fortunate, enviable, empowered to flourish.” The opposite is a curse which is an empowerment to fail. This other dimension is what Adam started to experience when he went out of alignment with the Creator’s original design. In contemporary language, we call it sin.

The blessing preceded the declaration of the mandate. Why? The blessing was a code of empowerment to succeed. It is the guarantee that empowers function in Eden. Eden is an environment where God has placed you to thrive. The word means “delight” or “pleasure.” It is an environment of blessing where the best in you (your assignment) flourishes almost effortlessly. Too many people create their own garden, then fast and pray for God to bless what they made, instead of simply asking God to lead them to the “field which the Lord has blessed”. When you connect to Eden within you, you will eventually connect it to your world, and it will connect you to your reward.

Eden is first and foremost a discovery before it is a deployment the place where your vocation seems like you are on vacation. The word ‘vocation’ is from the Latin “vocatio”. The verb is “vocare,” which means “to call.” It was originally used in connection with a spiritual calling or an assigned divine path that speaks about what you were called or born to do with little or no pressure.

It is your WORK, not just a job or profession that puts food on the table, as we are wont to believe in the contemporary application of the word. You can be sacked from a job, but NOBODY can sack you from your calling. You may sweep a spider out of your house, but you can’t stop it from spinning webs.

Not a few people have asked me the question, “How do I know what my Eden is?” My first answer is, “You don’t choose it. It already chose you.” It is that part of you that would commit to something you are currently doing even and would continue to do without complaining, even if no one is willing to pay you a dime for it. That is your real work. To do it, you need minimal training before you improve and the more training you get doing it, the more excited you get.

Your vocation, properly channeled in line with divine order, will eventually fund your vacations. Eden is the environment where your mandate is meant to find full expression. It is the atmosphere of supply and nurture where you not only find inspiration but also find a platform for cultivation. It is presented to you as a planted garden but you must cultivate it. Like any garden that showcases the gardener’s personality and signature, the outcomes are yours.

You are the gardener in your Eden. The look of a garden is the tribute the mandate pays to the gardener. It is also a reflection of the gardener’s creative capacity and the flexing of his potentials. You find your life when you find your garden.

Those who taught extensively about multiple streams of income taught us from the angle of the four rivers bringing supplies into Eden. Wrong! The rivers flowed FROM the garden, not to it. The wealth and resources that will enrich your environment and eventually you, will come from the wellspring within you and your relationship with your Eden.

There are no two ways to it. You are a treasure bank. What you are running around chasing is already IN you! What separates you from it can be wrapped in three words, IGNORANCE, FEAR and SHAME, the color patterns woven into the tapestry of Adam’s fashion line, vestiges of the Fall. Christ came to tear the veil of these things off our eyes.

Never be ashamed of the real you. You are always a bad copy of the one you try to be like. You registered for the rat race because you had no value for the race of destiny you were born to run. God never created you to compete with anybody else.

Every Adam comes with his own garden, made conducive for his flourishing. Running your life’s race in your place and space and at your ordained pace is your only guaranteed way to avoid disgrace.

No matter how hard you try to be like another, the best you can be is number two. So, cultivate you and your own value code as your designated platform to honor God and serve humanity.

Any other way to the top may be a shortcut that can cut you short.

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