Skip to main content

The Minus Plus


This is one of my most reflective pieces, please, glean through these few words, I pray they bless you.

The Question

To live short but well, or to live long with many regrets or to live neither short nor long yet with no sense of purpose?

Clocking 30

So I clocked the Big 30 yesterday as people fondly call it, and today I begin the journey of a new chapter in my life. Honestly, I felt overwhelmed and excited that I had spent above ten thousand days on earth. I felt the love from all directions, seeing people celebrating me in many different yet equally important ways, and above all, I felt fulfilled.  

This was different, it was unlike other birthdays for me. Others came with excitement and exuberance; however, this one came with a deep sense of responsibility and commitment to the people looking up to me and above all the urgency and intensity of purpose upon my life – first to God, and then to humanity. 

Sometimes I ask myself some weird questions such as who invented the celebration of birthdays?  What is the essence of celebrating birthdays? Well, forgive me for being this crazy and for asking such needless and obvious questions. Isn’t it rather weird that every birthday we celebrate is an oxymoron? For every addition, there is a subtraction. Hence I was 30 yesterday, but then a year was taken from the years allocated to me. Thought of this alone is all overwhelming. 

What Next?

To celebrate my birthday, I had a small hang out with the kids of an orphanage yesterday with a few of my friends. While they were excited that I added another year to my years and was having a great time with the kids, I was lost in thought, asking myself what next for my life? It wasn’t a question of purpose for me anymore, but the question of time and the strategy to fulfil my purpose.  It wasn’t the question of how far anymore but how well. Truth is, when it's all been said and done, no one cares how long we have lived but how well we have lived and how much lives we have touched. I strongly believe that if we all can live with these thoughts ever before us, our lives will not be shrewd in the vagueness of purpose.


The Reality of the Minus Plus  

Permit me to say that every day is a birthday, and every day is a new year. Lately, this has helped me to be intentional and deliberate with my life. For every second, minute, hour, day, week, month and year added to your life, same has been subtracted from your life. The thought of this is scary yet motivating. What matters in between this minus plus is discovering your purpose, fulfilling it and what you have done for God and humanity. At my church band rehearsal yesterday, while appreciating them for celebrating me, I told them what would be next if this is to be my last birthday? In essence, what would be next for us all if today is to be our last?

Forgive me, I am not saying you are next to die, but I just want you to awake to the reality of time, the transient nature of life and above all, purpose fulfilment. Regardless of the age and stage you are now in life, permit me to ask you these questions: what have you done with your life so far? What are you doing with your life now? What will you do with your life before the curtain of your life is drawn?


Be deliberate and intentional with your life from today henceforth. Think big, start small and stay focus. Think globally and act locally. Be eternity minded and earthly relevant. Give credence to time, make it your best ally and get the most out of it.

It is true that you only live once. But if you live well, you will not need a second shot at living. Give it your best shot. Always remember the minus plus.

Thank you for reading

You can leave your comments 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IF YOU WERE PHILIP

  Permit me to tell you a bit about Philip. I met Philip in our undergraduate days at the University of Jos. He was never late even though he usually comes from home. I tried several times to beat him in punctuality but I failed on several attempts. Philip was cheerful, full of life, and always the spark of the house.  Last week was a tough yet defining week for me, I lost Philip who has been a friend for 10 years. Did I see it coming? Certainly not. Was I anticipating it sooner? I doubt it. But will we all die? Of course yes.  This is not a tribute but be patient with me as I share with you the lessons I have learned at the cause of his demise this week. I have no doubt they will bless your heart. Philip lived well : I know people are often guilty of saying things about people who are gone that are not usually true, but with a deep sense of honesty, humility, and certitude, at 27, Philip lived well. This is no fallacy, this young man touched lives everywhere he went, if ...
15 comments
Read more

THE CRACKED POT

There was once a servant water bearer who had two pots tied to a wooden bar, which he used to hang on his shoulder to supply water to his master from a stream down the hilly house. The pot on the left side is perfect and in good shape fulfilling its purpose effectively, whereas the one on the right is cracked and leaks water right from the stream up to the master’s house. For two years, the water bearer kept using those two pots just the way they were, with the perfect pot delivering full quantity of water and the cracked one delivering just half. Hence for two good years, the water bearer could only deliver one and half pot of water to his master on every trip he made to the stream instead of   two whole pots which ought to be some sort of reward for his effort of shouldering two pots. One fateful day, the cracked pot got worried and apologized to the water bearer, expressing how sorry it was for the imperfection that has marred its being, for leaking water from the ...
11 comments
Read more

SECOND TO NONE

  So in our last episode in the " Life - Make it Count" series, we talked about the first most important thing to do to make life count. We established that we have to count on God first, and if we are to count on men we are to do so only through the metrics of God and see them only through the lenses of God. One brain tattoo for me from that piece was the fact that if I count on God first, he will bless me with the right men and women that will make my life count.  Now let us forge ahead Currently, I am in more than two groom's men's WhatsApp groups. In one of the groups, there are over a hundred people, and the commitment and cooperation of the members in the group is super amazing. Less than a month to the wedding, a very significant number of people have made financial commitments. In another group, however, we are still over a hundred, with almost the same timeline, but not fewer than 7 people have made financial commitments. Two things separate these two grooms...
4 comments
Read more