Chapter ten
LOVING YOUR LIGHT
In my part of Africa, electric power is epileptic, it comes and goes. When it comes, children and adults shout to herald its presence. When the light goes you hear a droning wail, especially in the night. Everyone loves where there is light. Everyone loves when there is light. Everyone loves when there is light, almost no one loves darkness.
There always this thing about liking what some other person has done better than yours. When I was little, I always thought that I wasn’t as a good a guy as my colleagues or peers. I thought I couldn’t sing as much as they could. I even thought that I never looked as nice as they looked. I hated my light.
As I grew, I discovered that if I didn’t love me for who I was and what I could do, no one would. I realized that it was because I wasn’t thinking great of myself that others too didn’t think great of me. I needed to find a way to add value to myself that I would appreciate too. That value wouldn’t come from outside, it had to come from inside. I began to develop my interactive capacity, I exuded confidence, I took charge of who I was and shielded myself from people’s negative opinions and it worked.
Over the years, I have observed that the value you put in what you do always turns out valuable to others in the long run even if others don’t see it as valuable in the present.
When I began to write with my writing talent, I had the places I thought I would reach if I attained my full potentials writing. I began to write life motivation bits for newspapers and blogs. I thought my write ups carried great thoughts, though since I was just starting up at the art, I made some grammatical and perhaps spelling errors. I had to deal with publishers who thought that I was wasting my time writing. They told me my writings didn’t reach the proficiency level of their medium. I also got a handful that saw beyond the errors I made into the wisdom that arrived from those write-ups. I ported with them.
Rather than feeling bad for those who critically destabilized me with their audacious verbal attack, I loved the light that others saw from me, who encouraged me. I loved the light of influences that arrived from my writing and I thought that I’d continue writing till I could possibly attract those who had criticized me. It worked. Those publishers who criticized me at the start now ask me to write for them.
If I had decided to accept the initial and daily criticism that characterized my writing talent, I’d probably not have written this book and the many books I have written.
Because I love the influence of my light, I am passionate about it. I spend so much time writing reading and looking for
better ways to use my talent. Amazingly, people are connecting with me now because of my passion for my light. I love to write today and it has being one light to bless the world.
Your light influence may not be shining too bright now and people are busy running you down, how you write, sing, run, speak. It is because they don’t see the best seller that you will write, the multiplatinum-selling songs you will write, the Olympic athletic champion that you will become, and the on-air personality that you will become. Know that it doesn’t matter what they see. Just love you for you.
Don’t forget that there is no basis for those who criticize you against what you carry or have. They are too blind to see beyond the possibilities of now so they think all you are offering is all there is about you. If you let them hate you and you give up on your light for it, you will be doing yourself harm. You will never go far. If they hate the light they see for any reason, blush it off. Don’t even think about it. Carry on with your light capacity, love it as you love yourself. Your light is you.
As a youth pastor at my university, I had developed a gift for teaching. I never knew how but I always felt these deep well of inspiration arrive every time I taught. It was a light but I got hated for it. Some person said I was trying to mimic one great minister or trying to speak like the whites. But I wasn’t. I spoke the way I spoke. The critical minds didn’t stop me. I kept at it with the hope that one day I would be speaking to millions at one time. I loved the gift.
Your talents are you. It’s like having a mouth to speak and you aren’t speaking because someone says don’t. You’d find it very difficult even if you try to bear it. You have legs to work and you are longing to get somewhere but you don’t because some person says you should stand at one place, you will soon feel unhappy about it and soon standing would be difficult.
Your light capacity should be allowed to shine. You should love your talent, admire your gift and seek how best to use it. If someone tells you it’s not good enough, that’s good enough reason to get you working at it. No one has the right to qualify you, everyone has to be qualified. That person who tries to qualify your talent or gift isn’t even qualified.
Learn to love yourself and what you have in you. That’s what the world is waiting to see. If it’s not from you, it’s being seen already.