Letâs say a friend asks you to come and receive a cheque of 5 thousand dollars, and in the bus, on your way to the friendâs office, the bus conductor starts to insult you.
Would you ignore the insults and continue your journey to your friendâs office or would you ignore the friend (and the cheque) to fight the bus conductor?
I know you will pick the former. But the truth is that many of us are actually doing the latter. We would forget about the cheque and stay back to fight the conductor.
A photographer friend of mine told me a pretty regular story.
He had studied estate planning and management in school. He got a job to work in a real estate company with a starting salary decent enough for him to stay. So he stayed, for a few years. But as time went on, he began to get tired of the job.
He began to feel limited, unfulfilled (like most of us feel in our 9-5s even though we fail to admit it). The feeling was so enervating that he decided to resign from his job.
As youâd expect, his decision to leave his job didnât sit right with his parents, especially his dad. His dad would recount stories of how he had to sell his motorcycle to pay for his JAMB.
Dad continued his griping and deprecative talks about how his son, my friend, was a disappointment. Not that I blame him though, almost every parent would act the same way.
But my friend was adamant, he wasnât going back to estate planning no matter what anyone said. He decided one day to start a photography business. But that made it worse. His dad was furious. And everyday, my friend would listen to intemperate bickering from his parents.
Of course, starting a photography business didnât sit right with his parents, and so he went through days and days of grumblings and bickering from his mum and dad.
It was really bad that other family members started to call him to express their dissatisfaction over his decision to leave 'an âastoundingâ job to start a photography business.
One aunt in particular called him and told him he was âthrowing away his lifeâ and would live to regret if he didnât rescind that decision.
On the pathway to destiny, criticism and condemnation are just distractions.
Sometimes, you are almost tempted to give up your dreams and run back to safety, you know, maybe they are right, maybe the idea of going off on your own hoping youâll succeed is an illusion. Maybe youâll hit a stumbling block and when you do, no one will come to your rescue because, after all, they warned you.
But my friend was resolute.
In the past, photography business wasnât a profitable one. Many photographers would queue at the entrance of event centers begging party attendees to please try their shots. It was called âWait and Getâ and it was a really dishonourable business.
But the advent of social media started to change things. Instagram started to define how photos should be taken, people happily obeyed and they churned out quality images day after day on the platform.
This changed the game for photographers. You didnât need to queue at the entrances of event centers anymore, you just needed to display quality shots on your Instagram and people would flock to your studio.
So the profession started to get better, more challenging, but more profitable.
His parents, of course, didnât know that. His dad still said things like âSo after paying through my tooth and nail to send you through school, itâs photo you want to becomeâ.
Letâs not kid ourselves, it wasnât easy. He struggled a lot, first to get the right tools and gadgets, then to acquire clients. He almost gave up because the struggle was too much and all the while, his dad kept on with the songs of lamentation.
Then one day, he got the biggest contract of his career. He was booked to cover an end of the year party for a multinational in Abuja (the capital city of Nigeria). The company was to appoint a new CEO and his auntâs husband (the aunt who said he was going to regret his decision), was the one being appointed.
They met at the party and the man was shocked to see him. âWhat are you doing here?â my friend narrated his uncleâs shock. âI am the photographer booked to capture this event, I came here with my teamâ was my friendâs reply.
To cut the long story short, word went round the entire family of how âsuccessfulâ he had become. Even his dad had to change his songs of lamentation to songs of praise.
You see, you may think you are going through a lot, but youâre actually going through transformation. You need to stop thinking about your current situation and think more about your destination. So what if youâre going through challenges? So what if your parents donât understand you?
You have a 5 thousand dollars cheque.
You may have chains on your hands and shackles on your feet, but they are only there to keep you on the path. If you were not bound, youâll stray off the wrong way. If you pause to lament about the chains, youâd be abandoning your 5 thousand dollars.
Letâs take a look at Paul and Silas. The Bible says they were arrested, flogged, and imprisoned for causing a public nuisance. And even while in chains, they praised God. The people who put them in the prison are the accusers, the âyouâll regret the decisionâ speakers, the singers of lamentation.
But because they trusted in a God that never fails, He came through for them. God always come through for those who are his. Maybe Heâs covering you up for a reason.
When you light a match stick, you have to first cover it up so that it can gain momentum and not be put off by the wind. But as soon as it does, you open it up, and the wind that was supposed to quench it helps it spread.
You are like that matchstick, and the reason youâve not been announced yet is because God is covering you up so that youâll not be put off by strange winds.
Heâs helping you gather momentum, Heâs pruning you, removing the things that can put off your light. Things like pride, anger, negative thoughts, etc. Donât be in a hurry to blow and then youâre blown out.
Look, when you are rich and famous, people will want to investigate the âsourceâ of your success but when you were poor and unknown, no one cared. This is because no one investigates mediocrity. No one investigates the source of poverty, they only scrutinize success.
On the pathway to destiny, criticism and condemnation are just distractions. To be a light is not to join in the lamentation.
Donât abandon your cheque.