CHAPTER 10
#4. DEVELOP A FIGHTING SPIRIT
It was Jackie Robinson who said “Above anything,I hate to lose”. Having signed up as a rebel against your condition, the next step naturally is to develop a fighting spirit. Jesus warned His disciples that His spirit is never happy with the one who places his hands upon a plough and goes back. Same it is with life. There are no more miserable lives than those who are in the habit of giving up. Develop a fighting spirit. Build up in yourself a resilient mental attitude. Every form of failure can be salvaged; the one that cannot becomes a veritable learning experience. So, refuse the urge to stay down when you are hit down. Always fight one more round. Be determined within yourself to win the battle of the mind-nature’s greatest and foremost battle field. Fight. The truth is, the man who refuses to let the mishaps of life to keep him down too long cannot be kept down by any man.
A fighting spirit is the spirit that won’t let go.It is the spirit that defies all odds. Hiram Revels (1822-1901) in 1870 fought his way to becoming the first black US senator. Ralph Bunche (1904-1971) in 1950 became the first black NobelLaureate. History is full of names who through insatiable determination and a dogged fighting spirit withstood all overwhelming oddsto achieve that which was hitherto impossible. Despite her constant battle with racial segregation and abuse, Condoleezza Rice doggedly rose to become America’s first female National security Adviser and later the first black female American Secretary of state. Determined to convince the difficult and unyielding medical board that local anesthesia is better than the general anesthesia, Dr. Evan O’NeillKaneon Feb.15,1921 in New YorkCity became the first doctor to do himself appendectomy. A fighting spirit pushes you on even when situation seems hopeless. It gets the best out of every worst. Carr Moseley Braun, against all impossible odds, fought her way towards becoming the first black woman elected to the US senate. Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927) on May 1872 became the first woman to run for the US presidency. Corazon Aquino, despite the political assassination of her husband, fought on to become Philippians’ first female president.
I remember Nelson Mandela telling the South Africans, “The struggle is my life, I will continue fighting (for freedom) until the end of my days”. Indeed, there is no battle free age group, gender, profession, race nor nation. It’s a hard world.Fight to finish. One man said.“Life is a daring adventure or nothing.” Only them that dares wins. Resolve to remain resolute come what may.Avow never to bow out. It is only in the cemeteries that I have seen people without problems or adversity. Indeed adversity as Lord Bryon will always say “is the first path to truth”. Be stubborn to obstacles, rugged to challenges and hug patience with all tenacity. Never say quit, keep hope alive and the light of passion ever burning. Hear Conrad Hilton, “Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” What oxygen is to the lungs, observed Emil Brunner, such is hope to the meaning of life. Never, ever quit. The Persians have a regular poem: “In the hour of adversity be not without hope”. Refuse to be discouraged. Never call it quit. Hear Hendotus, “Some give up their design when they have almost reached their goal while others on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before”.
Strive on. Always remember what made you start in the first place. Quitting wastes previous efforts. Be determined to reach the finishing line. Don Quixote wrote, “One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars, and the world was better for it”. Be that man. Keep fighting until you win. The tide will turn if you refuse to be tired of trying. James Corbett wrote this timeless line, “Fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round-remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped”.
During my teen years, I so much enjoyed the WWF wrestling mania. My favorite superstar then was Shaun Michael. Lean, fragile and yet grossly tenacious, Michael was the toast of all WWF faithfuls. Each time he faces an opponent, he would be at the receiving end of over 90% of the blows. You would so much beat him until it seems he will bleed to death. But the ex-soldier, Michael, never gives up. Each time you are about to win him, he would wait till the referee is about to hit the floor of the ring the third and last time before raising a weak hand. Then the fight continues. He will keep doing as if he is dying meanwhile he is only resting. Just when his opponent is getting tired of beating him, Michael would summon the last iota of strength in him and give his opponent a blow that would unfailingly send him to the floor. Then, Michael would stand, hold the ring and start stamping his foot repeatedly on the floor while waiting for his opponent to getup. Immediately he gets up, Michael will give him a superb kick in the underside of the jaw and win the duel.
In 1962, not even the state Governor of Mississippi nor the oppressive law guiding the state could stop the hard fighting James Meredith from gaining admission into the University of Chicago. The University had attempted to obstruct Meredith’s admission based on the fact that he was black. Infuriated, Meredith filed a suit and won. However, Ross Barnett, the governor of Mississippi refused the court’s injunction to desegregate the school and allow Meredith to enroll. The matter got to President Kennedy who immediately intervened and sustained the court order. He sent Federal Marshal to Meredith who escorted him to University of Chicago for his enrollment. Mighty forces always come to the aid of those who are resolute to fight on despite all odds. As Napoleon Hill would put it, “What we do not see, what most of us never suspect of existing is the silent but irresistible power which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face of discouragement”.
However, don’t just fight a blind bull-fight. To fight-to-win, know exactly what you are up against. A good doctor identifies the actual problem and then treats it. Find the root cause of your failings. What are the exact factors militating against your progress? Fightingwithout wisdom is often a little like hitting your head against the wall.
CHAPTER 11
#5.DAILY RE-COMMEND AND RE-AFFIRM YOURSELF
Never allow failure to make you lose your self-worth. Failure does not change your looks, how then can it change your worth? Stop every feeling of inferiority. You are still a qualified candidate for divine success. Don’t feel unqualified. No one, no matter one’s title, is really qualified enough for His blessing. Sir William D’Avanant once wrote, “If mercy were not mingled with His power, this wretched world could not subsist one hour”. As no man is better qualified for divine blessings than the other; also no one is more qualified, by birth or skin colour, to succeed than the others. As the world wisest man will put it, “Times and chance happens to them all”. God’s blessing to us is independent of what we are but on whom we are in Him. A father still plays his role – of feeding and training his ward, irrespective of the ward’s indiscipline, disrespect and ill-repute. Prophet Isaiah described our self righteousness before God to be as filthy rag. I don’t encourage sin; neither do I condemn the sinner. The heavily demon possessed Mary Magdalene, once caught red-handed in adultery, was the first to see the risen Lord, Jesus. The Samaritan (harlot) woman is forever remembered as the first evangelist in Samaria. What of Rahab? She didn’t only become the savior of her family but equally booked her name in the genealogy of our Lord, Jesus. Spare me that your doctrine, I am yet to see a sinless man who never sinned. Even God has always preferred the imperfect men to the perfect angels. Moses was not perfect, but God still used him perfectly well. Moses was not only a stammerer, but one with a very bad temper. Yet he remains, till date, the only human that came closest to seeing God, howbeit His back. We always pray to God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How perfect we would all readily believe this triad was. But the man of faith, Abraham, once lost faith in Sarah and God’s promise to them. Abraham did not only impregnate his house girl but also fathered the terror-prone Arab world. The friend of God, the father of faith and patriarch of world’s three major religions- Christianity, Judaism and Islam, was once a sugar daddy.Laughs.Likes of Obama, Clintonetc complain of having a bad father that abandoned them with their mums. Yet, both parents being his descendants could have claimed Abraham as their model. Abraham kicked out Ishmael and his mother. Isaac almost followed the same trend as a father. He married a woman who began her matrimonial career as a barren woman. Later, after a divine intervention, he went on to father a set of twins that were enemies and staunch rivals right from the womb. Fear freak Isaac, who lost most of his inheritance to the herdsmen of Gerar (Gen.26:18-20) failed as a family man. Just as his father who lied before Abimelech that Sarah was his sister, not wife, Isaac denied Rebecca before men of Gerar (Gen. 26:7-9). What of Jacob? The Greatest Supplanter; he was a cheat from the cradle to the grave. None of the trio lived a spotless life, yet God so much used them that all the three major religions of the world Christianity, Islamic and Judaism revere them as great patriarchs. I always tell my friends: God doesn’t remember the past except to heal it and make something great out of it. He will remain ever faithful despite our unfaithfulness. He will always prefer the penitent publicans to the tithe paying, holy living Pharisees. In the days of the Apostles, God bypassed all the tongues speaking converts with rich spiritual experience and records, but rather chose Saul of Tarsus, the highly sinful persecutor of Christians. Let God be God and every man be man. His ways are not our ways. The one who sees the end from the beginning often works from end to the beginning. When God begins to be fathomed by human wisdom, he would seize to be omniscient. God is more interested in your ability to bounce back than he is in your frequenterring. Jesus was always addressed as the son of David, but just how perfect was David? Just as no armor in Israel fitted/marched him during his combat with Goliath, no divine blessing would have fitted him if holiness were to be the criteria for success. Little wonder he himself wrote in Psalms, “If you are to count iniquity, who will stand?” My God; that solo solely summarizes this subject. David fornicated with the wife of Uriah, his committed soldier. He again took a step further to kill Uriah in order to marry his wife, Bathsheba. Yet, surprisingly, it was still this same Bathsheba God gave Solomon, David’s successor, as son. Again, just for the sake of food, David was ready to wipe a whole family if not that Abigail intervened. Although I will always respond to the greeting; “how are you?” with, “lam perfect” I still know that am not really perfect. I rather press, daily, towards the mark. Meaning? I am not yet there. There is always a better me to work towards becoming.
Let us talk about Solomon. How perfect was the man who got an open cheque from God? Each time I pray for the Wisdom of Solomon, I pause to ask: “What of his sins?” Till today, King Solomon remains the all-time world record holder in Polygamy and the best professor of Lust Science and Technology. God did not reverse His blessings on Solomon after he sinned nor did God call it quit with Abraham after his escapade with Hagar. When God decided to destroy the world, the Bible said in Gen 6:8, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord”. One now begins to ask,“What exactly qualified Noah for this grace?” Nothing was known of Noah prior to that verse, yet I can rightly vouch at any time that Noah was not the most righteous and holy living fellow on earth then. His end of stay in the ark was marked by a drinking spree that led to his cursing his own grandchildren, to thousands of generations. What of the great prophet Jonah? The great man of God was grossly ethnocentric and tribalistic. Despite his initial stubbornness and sheer disobedience to God’s command, the Almighty still sticked to Jonah. Even while in the belly of the fish, God heard and answered his prayer. What will you say of your pastor if you see him chasing a prostitute? Prophet Hosea didn’t only chase one but also married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim! God so much hates fear and doubts that He authored a whopping 365 “thou shall not fear-s” in the Bible. Yet the Christian Holy wreath recorded in Job 1:8 that God boasted of the fear-freak Job. Shun self-condemnation! God never condemns you except you do. He sees you not as a failure but a learner. You are like the eaglet learning to fly. The day you perfectly master the art of flying, you will fly to heaven to be with Him...and that means death! Yeah, that is why we say that in the University of Life, there are no graduates.
I still insist that you don’t need to be perfect for God to bless you perfectly well. Living right is not solely the criteria to be blessed rightly. God will always extend to us a right hand of fellowship even when we fail to live right. He said through Isaiah, “Come let us reason together. Even if your sins are as red as scarlet…” That is, even if you are the worst sinner on earth! Mark it ‘even if’;meaning that your sin is not the issue here but your willingness to come actually is. Many who were so sin conscious that they failed to appear before God left all the blessings for the sinners who did. God said, “come and I will make you”. Jesus followed the same principle when He told sinful Peter and his twin friends, James and John, “follow me and I will make you…” Stop waiting to make yourself first! Don’t wait until you get to your sin-free state. There is no place that far! God sees beyond the now. He saw a champion in the chaff called Gideon. Although in the eyes of men, Peter, James and John who failed to catch a fish all night were mere failures, Christ saw in them men that would emerge as world shakers to thousands of generations. Dare to see yourself the way God sees you. If he says you are qualified, then you are…no matter how many people that refutes that fact. God is no respecter of persons let alone their spiteful opinions about you.
Three views about ‘you’ are paramount in life – Gods opinion, your opinion and people’s opinion about you. The third is the least important, that is if it is important at all. Nobody in life knows you well enough as to know what you would be tomorrow. Many who made significant difference in life were first written off by people before they became accomplished. David was advised that he did not have what it takes to face Goliath. Rudyard Kipling was fired as a reporter for San Francisco Examiner. His dismissal letter was reported to have read; “I am sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use English language. This is not a kindergarten for amateur writers”. Wow. Yet Kipling went on to become one of the world’s most famous writers. Beethoven was advised to shun music as his voice was like an ugly wind blowing through a window.One day a partially deaf four year old kid came home with a note in his pocket from his teacher, “Your Tommy is too stupid to learn, get him out of the school. His mother read the note and replied “My Tommy is not stupid to learn, I will teach him myself”. Guess whomTommy is… Thomas Edison! Edison only had three months of formal schooling, yet…the rest is history. Amos was rejected simply because he was not from the family of prophets. Sarah and Elizabeth were once famous as barren women and the list goes on and on. Yet these people are still being celebrated hundreds and thousands of generations after their demise, as great champions.
The second is your opinion about yourself. No man has successfully made it beyond the boundary he set for himself. David though without a sword or even a pen knife, told Goliath that he would cut off his head… and he did. Mandela told the whites that he would one day rule South Africa against all odds- he did. Joseph announced to his family that he would one day become the world greatest and…. he did. Young boyish Clinton told his shocked teacher that he would one day be like the American President, Robert F Kennedy that on that faithful day visited his school…he did. Obama over looked his skin color and poor background when he set his eyes on the White House …he got there! Yet despite how important your opinion about yourself may be, it is not the most paramount. You can be wrong, very wrong. When Jacob was told his last son was withheld in a strange land, his honest opinion was that things had turned against him. Yet, although he was quite sincere, he was sincerely wrong. Many who thought theirs were finished never knew they were only rebutting. Gideon sincerely told God he did not have the necessary qualities required to lead an army against the Midianites. Jeremiah sincerely told God he did not have the necessary qualities for the role of a prophet. He even went as far as beginning his book by listing the few good people in comparison with the many bad people in his background. Peter pleaded with Jesus to depart from him a sinful man. When NnamdiAzikiwe lay on a rail track to be crushed to death, he sincerely thought he was of no use again. Yet, our turn out in life is not always dependent upon our personal opinion. No matter how sincere we are, we are often sincerely wrong. Sampson said, “I will go out as other days and shake myself off”. He was equally wrong as the Philistinescaptured him this time. Let God be God and every man remain a man. Only the manufacturer of a product knows the true potential of his product. That brings us to the third and most paramount opinion-Gods!
God can never be wrong! He always has the final say. He formed each and every one of us and destined us for a specific purpose. He told Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee…and I ordained thee a prophet unto nations” (Jere.1.5). God ordained you a champion ever before you were born. He endorsed you a success long before you were conceived in your mother’s womb. You may not look like it now but all round success is in you. Success, said Baby Mum, is God’s tonic wine to His people just as healing is His bread to his children. He told Jeremiah,“I knew you!” Although most of us may not have this privilege of a direct one on one communication with Him, the truth remains that it is the same with all of us. He knows you by name. Your destiny is inscribed in His palms. Doubts may set in when adversity strikes, yet adversity is God’s propellant for his children’s advancement. As, according to physicists, neither car nor human can move effectively without friction; no one can successfully progress without the friction of adversity. God is not man! He neither has a Bsc, Msc nor PhD to think like the most learned of men. That is why you cannot fully comprehend Him with your flesh and blood without a divine revelation. True. We all need a revelation of our own true self. No one no matter how old has fully known oneself well enough save by divine revelation of one’s maker. Elisha prayed concerning his servant, “God open his eyes”. Hagar sat near a well of water, yet she and her son Ishmael almost died of taste until God opened her eyes. No one fully knows one’s ability and capability except revealed to one by the creator. At the end of creation, the Holy Wreath said that God saw that you are good. That fact hasn’t changed. You are the best of your kind. You have in you all that it takes to stand out-even among the outstanding. Even when his own parent saw no good in him, God saw a king in David. If God said it, that settles it. Check out His verdict: You are the head, not the tail, above only, not beneath. You are the best. Whatever you set your mind to do shall prosper. He said through Zephaniah (3: 20), I’ll give you honor and praise among all the people of the earth. Yes, we don’t need to join illuminati in order to illuminate God’s glory. Unlike the cultists, the blessing of the lord brings wealth, and He adds no trouble to it (Prov. 10:12). I love it where He pledged through Isaiah (41:10) “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”. Are you passing through trials? God says ‘Be strong and courageous. I will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Deut 31:6). Maybe what you need is wisdom? He said through James (1:5) Hegiveth such freely. Just ask! He said through Isaiah (60:15b), “I will make thee an eternal Excellency, a joy of many generations”. In verse three He gave this assurance, “Kings shall come to the brightness of thy rising”. You are good enough to be sought after by royalties, Presidents and Governors. You are the best. You legally bear my own image. Like Jacob who was labeled a supplanter and die hard cheat, God has called you a prince. In Isaiah 62:3, He affirmed: “You shall be a crown of glory and a royal diadem in the hands of your God”. Wow! Like Rahab, many may see you as a prostitute, yet He only sees a little savior in you and a potential great grandmother of the Lord Jesus. God said concerning you, “It is well with you and you shall eat the fruit of your labour” (Isa.3:10).
Know this for sure, God never sees us as losers. He in whose image you were made has never lost, so you can’t. Rather, God sees us as potential winners who only need to be shown the way (Jn.14:6). When a crowd of sinners, beggars, destitutes, cheats etc gathered to him in the desert, the Bible says, “He had compassion on them…” (Mark 6:34). He never condemned them nor did He see them as weeds only good for burning in hell. No; rather He saw them as roses and potential champions, good enough to form a mass choir in heaven. He was just like His father who looked beyond a fear freak, error prone, complaint ridden Gideon, to see a potential conqueror of the Midianites. He sees us differently (from how others do). Where people saw but a checkered woman with five failed marriages, Christ saw a restored sinner who could restore Samaria for God. People reviled and put away Matthew as a despicable tax collector but the Lord looked unto him and sawan apostle to the nations. In the blind He saw the sighted, in the lame He saw a sprinter and in the dumb a preacher. He sees the best in us when every other person could see the worst. He sees a friend in the public foe and a victor in the villain. When Zacchaeus climbed the sycamore tree, every other person saw a crookand a gold digger but Christ saw a searching heart. In the days of Peter others saw an impulsive fisherman, but Christ called him the rock upon whom He would build the church.
You are qualified. God doesn’t ask the opinion of men before pin pointing one for His blessing. As healing is bread for His children, success is His tonic wine for His loved ones. His will is that you prosper and be in health while your soul prospereth. Stop disqualifying yourself. If sin were to be a prerequisite for failure, the whole earth would have been a failed state. Let’s begin again with this question: “Have you ever felt so depressed that you willingly opted for suicide?” Two among the Major Prophets in the Bible did. Being often depressed and suicidal is not a good credential to be found in the CV of a prefect man. Yet that aptly describes Prophet Jeremiah. Elijah did not only chicken out at the threat of Jezebel, he also employed God to kill him. However, we still revere them as great prophets of old. A man who denied his master three times because of a little slave girl is not even worthy to be called a servant. Yet, God so much used Simon Peter that even his shadow healed the sick. Just few days after denying Jesus, the now risen Lord appeared to him, personally employing him, “feed my sheep!” (John 21:15-17). Stop the ‘unworthy’ excuse. Only the Lord God has the power to judge you. What is His verdict? His judgment reads “qualified and fitted.” If God says you are qualified, then you are-no matter how many men who try to proof otherwise. God knows you more than you know yourself. He understands your faults more than you do. Yet he loves you even more than you love yourself. He is your father. Ohafia people will say, “obinwaadighiagba.” If your past still keeps you unqualified, then Christ’s death on the cross was a mere formality.
Maybe your own excuse is not really past sins and failures but failed health. You are not alone. The great Saul cum Paul was sick most of his life. Timothy, his son, had severe ulcers and was permanently placed on drugs. Beethoven lived to become the greatest musician, yet he was deaf most of his life. He composed most of his music as a deaf man-imagine.Alexandra the Great and Julius Caesar were both epileptic. Both Napoleon Bonarparte and Hitler lived with only one testis each. Helen Keller was born blind. Odims was born asthmatic. Laughs.Check it; no modern player has had more reoccurring injury problems than Ronaldo Luis Nazarro de Lima. Yet the Rio de Janeiro, Brazil born striker retired in 2011 as the greatest ‘pure’ striker in the history of modern football- If not in history of football in its entirety .Greatmen are those who not only endured great adversities but advanced through them. Many today would love to be likeKanuNwankwo, PapilloYet, just how many would stand the ordeal of a heart transplant? Oscar PIitorius, the famed South African blade runner, is a double amputee. He never allowed feeling inferior before those who have two legs to kill his dream of becoming a prized sprinter. Job shouted, “I am not inferior to you!” (Job 13:2). Despite my adversities, disabilities and failures, I still know all you know plus more; I can still do what you can do. God can still use or bless me. I am not inferior!
Our problem is praying for great testimonies without great tests. It just doesn’t work. No one makes an omelet without breaking an egg. Great triumphs are products of great trials. No one becomes a great champion without the trauma of great battles. Always remember, it is the coral on the ocean side that is constantly being tested by wind waves and storms that grows healthier, stronger and more re-productive. Why? The Kite rises against, not with the wind. Challenges change us for the better. No wood becomes a King’s table until it courses through the ordeal of the carpenter’s workshop. It is the coral’s continuous battle for survival that produces its alluring changes that men admire. A muscle strained is a muscle developed. You can’t become a macho without a strenuous exercise. Challenges are simply channels for positive changes. Adversity triggers one to one’s next level. Like the coral on the ocean side, man is designed to grow by pain and pressure. This reminds me of my childhood. Each time I fall sick, my family and I observe that every sickness leaves me taller; and the more severe the sickness is, the taller I grew. Thus, from that moment of self-discovery up till today, whenever one observe and comments that I am sick, I would immediately refute, “no, I am just adding height”. Be positive about it. It is not mere adversity but God’s little way of advancing and advertising you. He works on mysterious ways His wonders to perform. You are not sick but just growing. Yes it’s not that you are bankrupt, rather your divine account is about to erupt. See it the way God sees it.
Affirm yourself. Never allow failures to make you lose yourself worth. Always remember that you are still unique and very important too-people will still mourn you at your demise, no matter how many times you fail-Laughs. Each time I am faced with a challenge, failure or depression, I always write it boldly in every nook and cranny of my environment, including all social networks in the internet saying: “ODIMS-still the world Greatest!” I have never for once lost sight of that fact. Imbibe that. There is no force great enough to keep you down except you choose to stay down. There is no temptation or adversity that comes your way today that is uncommon to man. Someone somewhere at some time faced aneven worse situation and turned it fo