< How to live for the future now >

Barack Obama didn’t become “44” in the way you’d imagine. I mean, 44th POTUS. Interestingly, he was handpicked from a street corner by Kerry and sold to the American voters. By ‘street’ I don’t mean he was roaming the streets in the way we know; it’s the fact that Kerry experienced Obama’s magic at a small fundraising by a street corner and immediately saw the next US president in him. To make it come true, he simply arranged to have him be the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic Convention, where next to everyone was left in no doubt that ‘change has come to America.’ Of course, by the very next convention, 2008, he was there again to announce his candidacy for president. Without mincing words, Obama showed up to that big stage, 2004 Democratic Convention, wearing the badge of his ‘next level clearance’ – and everyone was in no doubt. And we all know that it ended in praise.

Down here, in Nigeria, a certain man ran for president more than once to no avail and decided to settle for governor. And, for a whopping 8 years as governor, succeeded in proving to all and sundry that it’d have been a big mistake to have obliged his request for our votes in 2003 – and 2007 – for the highest office in the land. Now, he would almost certainly never be president. Why? Because he failed to secure a ‘next level clearance.’

Lemme share something quite personal with you. I woke up yesterday, Sunday, feeling plenty, plenty things – as expected. And so I decided to turn my gaze to God, to have him say something to me. As if the heavens conspired in my favour, I found the perfect words with which to call his attention, Psalm 27:8-9, “Of you my heart has said, ‘seek his face.’ It is your face, O Lord, that I seek. Do not hide your face from me.” And in a remarkable turn of event, and I knew it was Him, he led me straight to a friend’s bookshelf, got me to pick a particular book, and got me to reading the book from the back, and then I found it! By the way, the book is Wallace D. Wattles’s “The Science of Getting Rich.” Kindly read it, whatever it may take you.

Here’s what I found, and I do care to share with you: YOU CAN’T MAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL UNTIL YOU SECURE CLEARANCE FOR IT. What that? Here’s Wallace’s exact words, “Every person who does one thing perfect is instantly presented with an opportunity to begin doing the next larger thing.” And if you’re complaining about your environment, he says to you, “Your only way of reaching a better environment is by making constructive use of your present environment. Only the most complete use of your present environment will place you in a more desirable one.”

The point is: Who you are, what you have, and where you are, already hold the magic to whoever you wish to become, whatever you want to have, and wherever you desire to go. But you must first prove faithfulness in little things (how effective you are at the current level), which is what will give you clearance for the next level. Funnily, you won’t be needing to figure out how to actually get to the next level; you will just wake up one day to find yourself there. This principle delivers like magic.

This revelation meant something to me, at a personal level. I hope I didn’t bore you.

Your No. 1 fan,
Cornel