Success & Significance

http://inspiringbetterlife.blogspot.com/2011/11/feeling-insignificant-redefining.html

I believe obedience to your conscience transcends all definitions of our world’s understanding of success.

Success is great, sweet and we all want it. No one is looking forward to failure, and as we know it, success has many fathers. But of higher value is significance. Significance is derived from our value system. Our conscience informs our value system. It's important to strive to have a clear conscience when faced by situations that could be tempting. A clear conscience is worth more than what this world can offer. It's the peace of mind. When you can sleep in peace, eat in peace, walk on the street in peace, that's what this is all about. This world and its materialism can't offer that to you.

In this day and age, we are looking for material things. We are willing to do what it takes to get what they want. We have a generation that is living a plastic life. Social media has even made it worse. We post things that we very well know is not true, but we want people to see an image of us. We wake up to create a perception of who we should be. We are all caught up in a bubble. Some fantasy out there. Where is the courage to own our stories? To embrace who we are so we can work on who we want to be. That’s why we get conned, taken for granted, used by people to achieve their own success why we remain wounded and hurt.

I once had a chat with a senior friend who told me that in life, we seem to be caught up in the following; Success, significance, then submission. We go out doing whatever we can to gain success; once we get it, we remember we need to be significant, then we realize we are out of strength and now have to submit to those around us to help us even do the basics of this life. This is if you are lucky to live long enough. I'd rather you get caught up in significance because it does come with its twin; success.

I have a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. I’m glad I went through the process. It formed me and set me on a path that became my story. On the early days of building AYLF Kenya, I received a number of offers for good jobs. Tempting offers that would have changed my life. I remember attending an interview only to reach there and be told that they forgot they had set up an interview for me. Weird, isn’t it? I went all dressed up, ready to convince these guys to give me the engineering job since the AYLF story was not working. They told me they would contact me about the interview. I'm glad they have never contacted me. I sent out a few more applications which I wonder if they were being received or it was just not meant to be. There are a number of interviews that for one reason or another never happened. I wonder if I went on pursuing an engineering career. Maybe I would be successfully, perhaps not. But what I know, I have a lot of joy and satisfaction when I get back home after a long day spent in figuring out about AYLF and related issues. I derive significance in doing this. It's been a journey worth taking, and I'm still on it. God has blessed me with material things that I used to wish I would get. I know He has so much in store for me. I sometimes wonder what God is up to when he exposes me to things that I had not even imagined.

https://www.proctorgallagherinstitute.com/8947/the-road-to-significance

This might make sense to you or not. But if you find yourselves caught up in the race of pursuing success so that one day you will be significant, I invite you to rethink that approach. This does not mean you abandon your career, but how can you pursue your career in a more significant way. In a way that is driven by your conscience and value system. Inspired by what you believe in. This will call you to be obedient to your conscience, assuming you care about it.

If this resonates with you, seek to obey your conscience. Look for a small community of friends who you can do this together with. Being accountable to a few and practicing with a few. It’s about building a community of friends to share each other’s journey of significant by obeying their conscience.  You have to be deeply committed to each other and desire to see each other grow in this journey. You have to create support, encouragement and accountability platform for each other. The community has to be as small as possible so that there is active engagement by all involved.

Find a community around you and see if these conversations make sense to you.

Transformed & Blessed

https://ashleightonplom.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/jealousy/

I believe true transformation open us to the blessings in store for us.

All around us, there are more blessings and favors beyond what we can imagine or comprehend. God has in His mercies blessed us, but unless we completely transform ourselves, we may never experience God's blessing.

We are called upon not to conform any longer to the patterns of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we can test and approve the will of God for our lives. His good and perfect will. This is a call to personal transformation. It doesn’t mean that you have to be all perfect. What it all means that we are all “work in progress”. You ought to embrace that and intentionally engage in this personal transformation journey for you to experience the fullness of God’s Will.

A commitment to transformation opens our eyes, hearts, minds, and selves to the will of God around us. The famous story of Jacob being transformed is a perfect example of how transformation is critical for us to experience God's blessing. Jacob had to acknowledge who he was and then welcome, and commit to a journey of transformation; then he was able to experience God's blessings in his life.

We are all in different paths, and we need all kinds of transformations. Some of us are caught in up all manner of struggles, perceptions, attitudes, disobedience, etc. We are in situations that have in ways more than one stood on the way of us experiencing something better. Be it sin, our view of life, personal struggles, the paths we have committed to, our way of life, etc. We are prisoners of our own redemption. You need to ask yourself, are you where you would like to be? Are you happy with your life? Do you feel like you are living a full life? If your response to the above is No or maybe, then, what is it that makes it not a clear YES. Could it be a situation that all you need is to acknowledge, then commit to transforming from it!

How well do you know yourself? How well do you understand your tendencies that could be standing on your way? What's your pattern of transformation? Do you know what it would mean for you to transform your situation? Can you do a tendency inventory and seek to understand yourself? It’s in understanding your tendencies that you are able to know how these tendencies might be working for or against you. Understanding the impact of your tendency could be all you need to liberate yourself and experience the blessing of a new reality. This calls for intentionality.

www.giantworldwide.com

I have a tendency of avoiding conflicts. Instead of addressing issues, I’d rather wish them away. This has led to some of my relationships that maybe could have facilitated growth in my life and those around me, being very accidental, not intentional. Some people have also misunderstood me, and this has, in turn, brought conflict and more conflict. This can be an unending circle of conflict. The more I avoid conflict, the more I’m finding myself in conflicting situations. My current journey of transformation is how do I handle conflict. How do I address conflict with someone in a very productive way because as we all know, a conflict could be very productive if handled well! I need to stop running away from conflicts.

Well, most of us are very accidental, and we just wait for things to happen then we blame everything for our lives. We wish we could have a different reality, but here we are. We dream of a better reality, but we are not intentional enough to work on it. Maybe all the transformation you need is to be a little bit more intentional in your life. Gain the courage to do the uncomfortable. It's about courage over comfort.

If this resonates with you, seek to be transformed. Look for a small community of friends who you can learn to do this together with.Being accountable to a few and practicing with a few. It’s about building a community of friends to share each other’s journey of transformation and blessings.  You have to be deeply committed to each other and desire to see each other grow in this journey. You have to create support, encouragement and accountability platform for each other. The community has to be as small as possible so that there is active engagement by all involved.

Find a community around you and see if these conversations make sense to you.

Image Credits: http://www.businessmalawi.com

By Gabriel Achayo

Life Map

www.giantworldwide.com

I believe life is lived forward but understood backward.

Years, months, weeks, days and hours roll by, and we have to focus on what the future holds for us. Sometimes we get so occupied in the fantasy of a better future that we forget to pay attention to the present or the past. We all have a past. It may be ugly, beautiful, boring, etc but it forms part of us, and we can’t ignore its effect on how we face the future.  

Many times we are told to forget the past. This to me isn't good advice. It doesn’t mean that we now focus all our efforts on our past. Whatever attention we give our past, we can’t change it, but it can help us be very intentional in how we want to design our future. Reflecting and seeking to understand our past with a clear grasp of our present is a great source of wisdom for living our lives forward. God is continuously at work in our lives, and we have to know that even in that unpleasant past, there was something God was doing. Our past is important, let's seek to understand it, so we intentionally design our future.

 

www.giantworldwide.com

 

We are all a product of Nature and Nurture; these two contribute in a big way who we are. As much as we may have nothing to do with both, but it defines our ability to choose how we want to experience our future. Every day we are faced with choices, tough ones and not tough ones. We make mistakes; we go through failures, we get disappointed, we succeed, we experience moments of joy, etc. At the moment, we may never clearly see through to understand why a situation is playing out but with time, looking back we can join the dots and appreciate why it happened. It’s in the joining of these dots that we can see a pattern, a thread that we can generate an understanding of why us, why then and what it means to the future. 

When I failed a subject on campus that I had never even imagined failing in, I remember getting worked up how my world was over. I blamed God. I told God he was unfair… my exact words as I stood in front of the famous result notice board in the America Wing, University of Nairobi was “God you are unfair.” I felt God had not lived out to His faithfulness. I had done my part and was wondering how could this be. Little did I know that God had ideas about my life. The same played out when my father died. I was only 11yrs old. I couldn’t comprehend why this guy who I admired so much was gone. I didn’t know what life meant after that. A lot of things happened including conflicts at home. We had to relocate from our main home to rent a house in a shopping center about 2-3kms away. Here again, God proved that He had it all in control. What looked like the end of the road was a new chapter in my life. I can go on and on…

My Life Map

I can now look back and join the dots. The dots lead me to something that now I can say; I bless God for my father dying and me failing. At least for these two experiences. There are more experiences in my life that I can now look back and smile in my heart. I know most people would not see it my way, but it's what my story is. It's my narrative, and this narrative is what gives me hope that God is always at work and I just have to remain faithful in what He has entrusted me with. I recently drew my Life Map; I encourage you to do it. Contact me if you need help with it. Life Map is a quick way to capture your story from the time you can remember to the present. It helps you summarize your life story. As I reflected upon it, a lot of things, I had taken for granted and just quickly moved past made a lot of sense to me. 

We all have a story, and we are the only one who can tell our story. Our stories might be tough, complicated or beautiful and smooth, but we have to own it and reflect upon it. We have to intentionally look into it with the main goal of discovering what God has been doing and how we ought to respond. We are not the same and the usual “How to’s?” will not all over a sudden fix our lives. We have to discover our own unique paths from our stories. 

What’s your story?

If this resonates with you, seek to draw your Life Map. Look for a small community of friends who you can learn to do this together with. Being accountable to a few and practicing with a few. It’s about building a community of friends to share each other’s stories and learn from it.  You have to be deeply committed to each other and desire to see each other grow in this journey. You have to create support, encouragement and accountability platform for each other. The community has to be as small as possible so that there is active engagement by all involved.

Find a community around you and see if these conversations make sense to you.

Image Credits: http://www.businessmalawi.com

By Gabriel Achayo

God & Service

Image Credit: https://stacyjross.wordpress.com/tag/motivation/

I believe that God is experienced through Service.

Serving others and those that God brings our way is a sure way of experiencing God. True service is an expression of love. If we love, we have to serve. This could be in a variety of ways depending on the context. When a couple serves each other, they experience love. When a parent serves a child and vice versa, it's a show of love. When you truly serve your community be it people who are at different levels and class, senior or junior to you, the motivation has to be love. As we know, by loving others, we demonstrate that we love God. Service could be actions, time, words etc, whatever we offer to others as an expression of love.

We serve God by serving others. We give to God by giving to others. All these are a demonstration of love if they are done in truth and spirit. It's a perfect way of worship to God. Since God is love, the only way to really experience love or God is through service to fellow mankind. Service to mankind is service to God.

We are told that faith without works is dead. Through works, we serve others and hence demonstrate the love of God. Service is not only limited to what we may consider to be “religiously acceptable” acts. We need to offer service in the market place, by building and transforming our country. God has called us to join Him is transforming our communities through service, love and with Him.

Image Credit: http://lawofficer.com/leadership/on-the-beat-servant-leadership/

 

We have heard people all around us use the statement “a servant leader.” In my understanding, there can’t be any leadership without service and also no true intentional service without leadership. So to me, it’s like our teachers would discourage us from using the statements “repeat again.” Anyone committed to bringing forth transformation which is the essence of leadership cannot do it without serving or being a servant leader. Without being with the people, listening to them, walking the journey with them, helping them see and experience what they would otherwise not have experienced by themselves, liberating them, is transformational. It’s what leadership is all about. This is what God has called us to. Calling yourself a leader and yet you are not serving people, is occupying a slot which can be occupied by anyone. A life that doesn’t yield any form of transformation is a wasted life. A venture or course that doesn't bring forth personal or community transformation is a waste of resources. Why call yourself a leader yet you are wasting your time and wasting the people around you.

In order to transform, I believe the starting point is to serve. You can’t only be so much focused on bringing transformation, and you fail to serve. You fail to identify where your people are and build a bridge for them so they see the transformation you would like them to experience. You have to show them the "how," and that is service. From 2008 to 2016, I spent my life and passionately engaged in a community program in Kawangware, Nairobi, Kenya. This program had a mandate of providing hope to the young men in this community. I worked with a lot of young men. They came and went. Others transformed others didn’t. In all these, what was revolutionary or stood out for these young men was the service they received. Be it from the people who they interacted with or me. This touched their hearts. They appreciated a level of love and care because they were being served by people who believed in their potential. Instead of only telling them how the future is great and has a lot in store for them, they were shown love by service. They experienced the now; the present. Love is experienced in the present, not in the future. If you serve me now, hence love me now, I will stick around and work with you to experience what the future holds for both of us.

In doing all these, if you serve with joy, the benefit is mutual. The love is mutual. The transformation is mutual. If you intentionally serve with pleasure, your service is meaningful. Hence the people around you experience God in a way they will never forget him. They might forget you, which is okay, but they may never forget God because you served them with joy and pleasure.

If this resonates with you, commit to serve those you come into contact with intentionally. Look for a small community of friends who you can learn to do this together with. Being accountable to a few and practicing with a few. It’s about building a community of friends to share each other’s journey of leaders who serve.  You have to be deeply committed to each other and desire to see each other grow in this journey. You have to create support, encouragement and accountability platform for each other. The community has to be as small as possible so that there is active engagement by all involved.

Find a community around you and see if these conversations make sense to you…

Image Credits: https://www.goodshepherd-naperville.org/connect/adult-ministries/small-groups/

By Gabriel Achayo.