PROBLEMS ARE OPPORTUNITIES

 I don’t want to ask again what happened to you. What happened to you is not as important as the opportunity you make out of it. What you make happen with what happened to you happens to be far more important than what actually happened. Great men build castles with the bricks life challenges throw at them.

The life of Saul cum Paul gave me a mind blowing lesson. Despite his gruesome torture, persecution, challenges and frequent reoccurring jail terms, Paul wrote 1/3 of the Bible’s New Testament. Today, with the Bible as the fastest selling book in the world history, Billions of people have read and are still reading about Paul. His books, long after his demise, have been shaping people’s lives aright.

Pilgrim’s Progress was written while the author languished in prison. During Beethoven’s pit of deafness, the world best music maker and his music were born in him. Christ’s life was cut short at the cross of Calvary, but that made Him the name above all names.

Stop telling people what happened to you, tell us what you made happen with what happened to you. Adversity is a school. Fail all the way to a successful graduation if need be. The problem is not in the failing but in the refusal to keep trying.

The truth is that most great things that last are always born out of great groaning. The name Job is today perpetually famous as the life and time of Mr. Job of Uz occupies 42 whole chapters in the Bible – many thanks to adversity.

Polish your determination and trust God again. God turns disappointments, delays, setups and setbacks to a stepping stone to your glorious throne. Always look out for the positive side of every situation. Never forget this: Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. It all depends on your outlook. Two men saw the same cup, one said it is half filled, the other said it is half empty.

A bend in the road is not the end of the road, unless one fails to take the turn. Stepping out of a university after six years without a certificate induced an urge within me to obtain three degrees instead of one. At the end of three years in another region, I did not only obtain three professional degrees, but did so in the three best universities in my country.

Adversity pays. It is like a divine jet with which those who understand its intricacies advance to a glorious height.

Life has thought me that God is the best master chef ever- little wonder he promised to provide our daily bread! Best chef. He garnishes our great success stories with little doses of failure. No wonder you will always pass failure on your way to success. You will.

Divine success is like two slices of bread with failure sandwiched in-between. Failures, like sandwiches, make the bread of success so sweet and palatable. A wise man enjoys success as much as failure and he wisely learn greatly from both. I am yet to see a failure or adversity that never left me more successful and better placed for something bigger.

 Even if you wish life were a bed of roses, do not forget that roses have thorns. It is the rose we focus on and appreciate never the thorns. Yet, there can’t be roses without some thorns. That is why all the great men in the world history are those who managed their failures and adversities effectively.

 Indeed, no doubt about this, big shorts are just but small shots that kept shooting. Saints are sinners that kept going. Often, it takes multiples of failures to give success -ask Mich Ns. To keep trying, that is the secret of success.