Pearl Harbor is one of US naval bases – located in Oahu on the Hawaiian island. On Sunday, December 7, 1941 (during WWII), naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan suddenly and deliberately attached Pearl Harbor, killing an estimated 2,403 Americans. Recall that America wasn’t in WWII yet, which is why the attack was unwarranted. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed that day “A date that will live in infamy” – and got Congress to declare full scale war on the Empire of Japan next day.

As part of this ‘full scale war,’ President Harry Truman, on August 6th and 9th respectively, sent the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki packages that will change everything forever. That package was Einstein’s atomic bomb. And it’s been hell in those cities ever since.

75 years later, December 27, 2016 to be precise, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s Prime Minister, visited Pearl Harbor to offer what he called “sincere and everlasting condolences” to the victims of Japan’s unwarranted attack 75 years earlier. Obama was there with him, and graciously received those heartfelt condolences. I was also there to watch him, but on CNN. 😎

You get my point already, right? It’s never too late to apologize. Trust me, better late than never. Mind you, by and large human beings are good people. They want to forgive their offenders; only that they don’t like to dish out forgiveness on a platter of gold. They want you to fly from Japan to Hawaii, and then say you’re sorry, and they really don’t mind that it took you 75 years. I trust you understand what I mean.

There’s a hidden lesson God revealed in that movie with regards how He runs His packages. Since you may not have noticed it during your watch, lemme quickly share; it was so silent that it needed rapt attention to grasp.

Recall that at a point during Grace Wesley’s trial, bothering on talking Jesus in an 11th Grade classroom, Rev. Dave Hill (Juror No.12) slumped in the courtroom and was replaced by the crazily made-up, loose-looking, and multiple-coloured hair alternate, Miss Marshall. Also recall that the replacement of Rev. Dave with a loose-looking alternate simultaneously made Grace’s camp lose heart and boosted the confidence of the opposing end. Her looks convinced them she’s gonna vote against.

However, it turns out that the same loose-looking alternate saved the day, as her vote tipped the scale in Grace’s favour. How, you may be wondering? Lemme leave you clues. Playback to the last court scene, wherein the jury foreman announced the verdict. Observe that our gaga-looking alternate was the last to leave the jury stand. While headed for the door, observe she stopped in front of Grace and smiled at her, that sort of smile that says, “We’re in the same Jesus’ boat.” One more clue. Just as she was about to exit the door, with her back facing Grace and Tom, Grace saw that right behind her neck, closest to her hair, was a cross tattoo, plus her gentle strides announcing victory.

You can trust that the presence of Rev. Dave on the jury would have adversely affected things. And since God was always gonna win, He had His winning plan in tact from the word go; Dave only had to give way.

Meanwhile, stop judging by appearance; there’s usually more to people than meet the eyes.

And if you haven’t, do whatever it takes to see “God’s Not Dead” 1&2. Please do.

A story was once told of a man who refused to give way for the King’s convoy to take its course. He was so insistent on having his right of way that the commotion caused by his defiance called the …

Source: It all begins with self-leadership

A story was once told of a man who refused to give way for the King’s convoy to take its course. He was so insistent on having his right of way that the commotion caused by his defiance called the King’s attention. Desirous of meeting someone who had guts enough to oppose royalty, the King went out to meet him. “Who are you, man, that you dare defy the King?” asked the King. “I am also a king,” retorted the man. “Over what principality do you reign?” asked the King in response to his seemingly bogus claim, since his attiring didn’t reflect conventional royalty. “Over myself,” was the rather mischievous response that followed. He was king over himself indeed. Though obviously laughable, there is a peculiar take-home for everyone: We’re all kings, at least over ourselves.

It is a natural human tendency to want to lord it over others; to want to have others respect our opinions; to want to force others to comply with our will. At the same time, we develop whiskers of resistance towards others’ lordship; we insist that our own opinions be respected, even amidst more appropriate ones; we’re hell-bent on letting our wills reign supreme, especially when they clash with those of others. Perhaps this accounts for why human beings are termed to be naturally selfish.

The implication of this natural tendency towards selfishness for leadership is enormous. This is exactly because it directly contradicts what true leadership is really about: selflessness. The true leader must, as a matter of fact, be all out to serve – and not to be served. Also, the true leader must, when necessary, be willing to lay down his self-interest at the feet of the common good. However, these are hard choices to make. Choosing service over lordship and choosing selflessness over selfishness is not bread and butter. Yes, it all begins with the dealing with the self.

The following will prove to be of help in our bid to develop self-leadership. Already stated, the presence or absence of self-leadership has implications for leadership at large.

DISCIPLINE: Call it self-control or self-restraint, discipline ensures that we do what we’re supposed to do, whether we like it or not; whether we’re comfortable with it or not. For instance, if one’s rising time is 5am, discipline ensures that one gets out of bed at that time, irrespective of how much more one would have loved to tarry in bed. Truth be told, an undisciplined person necessarily makes a poor leader, since they come into the leadership enterprise with bad habits such as procrastination, negative compromises, laziness. Of course, they get to infect their followers with such habits. On the other hand, the disciplined individual makes a leader of uncommon breed; they don’t let things slip off their fingers, as they keep to their schedules and stick with their plans.

COURAGE: The emotion of fear has eaten really deep into many a person. The natural tendency in this regard is to immediately take to flight in the face of danger. There is no doubt that exposure to danger can be injurious, but fleeing from ‘every’ danger will make for an uneventful life. It is also important to know that the ‘fear-factor’ has a way of magnifying danger, such that most of the dangers people flee from are either trivial or even figments of their imagination. Therefore, courage is a very important virtue that is possessed by those who lead well. Mind you, courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is more about acting in spite of fear. Courage is more about braving the odds, taking risks, and looking forward to a positive outcome. In fact, without courage there is no leader in the first place, since the onus lies on the leader to chart the course of collective action in the waters of uncertainty.

DELAY GRATIFICATION: The average human being usually not only wants things but wants them ‘now.’ They go for it as soon as they feel the need for it. And this has set many people on the path of destruction, since having ‘now’ what should be had ‘later’ can be destructive. Teenage pregnancy, for instance, results from having sex now which should be had later – in marriage. A person who is poor in delaying gratification will definitely make a poor leader, since they will be impulsive in making decisions, hence dragging their followers into their mess.

OBEDIENCE: Obedience is simply submitting one’s will to the will of another. This can be a very difficult thing to do, that is, having another’s will reign supreme over ours. A disobedient person will make a poor leader, as there is always a higher authority to obey at every leadership level. The leader also has the followers to obey, what we’ve come to call the ‘will of the people.’ To make a fine leader, obedience at a personal level is super important.

HUMILITY: Without humility, service is impossible or merely lip-service. Humility, they say, is the queen of all virtues. Humility is not so much about having a low estimation of oneself, as it is about understanding that all human beings have equal dignity and worth, and as such be accorded respect. The proud person makes an arrogant leader, and pride is known to have always gone before a fall.

William Wilberforce, one of the youngest MPs (Member of Parliament) in English history, stands out as one who realized purpose. In collaboration with his friend William Pitt (who became Prime Minister), and a few others such as Thomas Clarkson and Olaudah Equiano, he was able to pull down the stronghold of the slavery institution in the whole of the British Empire. Yes, he fought tooth and nail, gave it no just his best but his all (in spite of his poor health condition), and persevered until the very end, the day the Speaker of the House spoke these beautiful words:

“I declare the Bill of Abolition of the Slavery Trade be passed.”

However, by staking his life for the abolitionist cause, not giving up when they recorded a woeful loss on their first outing on the floor of parliament, after the backbreaking hard work put into the collection of thousands of evidences and masterfully crafting their case, and by pressing all the more harder until success was recorded, he got something that very few people ever get to have: “fulfillment.” And no one captured the picture fine enough than the elderly Lord Charles Fox, who took it upon himself to give a vote of thanks after Wilber’s bill scaled through. He said:

“When people speak of great men, they think of men like Napoleon, men of violence; rarely do they think of peaceful men. In contrast to the reception they’d receive when they return home from their battles, Napoleon would arrive in pomp and in power, the man who’s achieved the very summit of earthly ambition, and yet his dreams would be haunted by the oppressions of war; William Wilberforce, however, will return to his family, lay his head on his pillow, and remember that slave trade is no more.”

Frankly, purpose is everything, and the realization of it is a duty everyone must discharge. For ‘Wilber,’ it was to fight social injustice and oppression. He found it. Kept at it. Realized it. And knew fulfillment afterwards.

Given that the challenge that confronts many a person is discovering their purpose,  the following tips would do. I gleaned them from being in the audience of Barrister Cosmos Okolo.

1. Seek revelation:

God created everyone with purpose, and he intended that all men and women should live purpose driven lives. If you haven’t found yours, then you can trust that the creator can reveal it to you. The Holy Ghost is the No.1 unveiler of purpose; “Seek and you shall find.”

2. Study your anger:

Don’t ignore your anger because it carries some revelation about you with it. Anger reveals your anointing. To say the least, the problem that provokes you the most is actually saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

3. Compassion is a signpost to purpose:

Mind you, compassion is superior to pity. While pity merely requires you to feel sober over the poor condition of another, compassion moves you to do something about that condition. The word itself actually comes from Latin words that mean ‘to suffer with another.’ So, what is that need around you that makes you cry? Mark this: “If nothing is bothering you, then be sure you will not cross the border of mediocrity.”

4. Take the stress test:

Note that God does not call a person into stress; his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Every assignment of His is eased by grace; grace being that which makes easy what would naturally have been difficult. So, where do you find God’s grace super-abundantly at work in your life? Knowing this is important because the end of purpose is peace and fulfillment – not stress. What is that thing you do effortlessly?

5. Embark on a voyage of discovery of what you can die for:

Martin Luther King Jr. was so sure about his call to civil rights activism that he was very willing to die in pursuit of it – his purpose. He even likened himself to the biblical Moses by saying: “I’ve been to the mountaintop; I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there myself, but I’m sure we’ll get there.” And he was killed the very next day. Frankly, anyone who’s yet to discover what he/she can die for is yet to know why he/she was created. Yes, anything that can take a man to the cross isn’t ordinary.