STUDY 4: KNOWING YOUR ADVANTAGE

  

If you have ever seen a skilled tall guy in the basketball court dribbling the opponent players who are not as tall, and with the ball dabbles straight to the net to score a point, you will fairly relate to the word ADVANTAGE.

The tall guy just seems to have an advantage in that court but have you ever wondered about the other tall guy who is trying to get a chance as a flight attendant but the job specification clearly states out – “Not for people taller than 6 fts?”

What seemed to be an advantage to one is looking like a disadvantage to another person because the conditions and needs are different and advantage is dependent on what extent a person fits in and meets the need.

It is therefore true that one person can be very useful in a particular setting but also very useless in another setting and this is why it is very important that we understand our individual advantages as we live-on in the world.

It’s simply a question of what can I offer to my world?  What virtue can I add to my world?

I know you have heard a lot about purpose, purpose discovery, destiny and to some of us it still sounds surreal… You’ve really not been able to fit yourself into the picture. You are still trying to fix the puzzle of life, trying to determine what and what will lead you to that glorious destiny, a glorious destiny does it just happen?

How do men ever become great? How do men fully express their God given potential? How do they walk through the paths of life victorious, living the life they were predestined to live; well favoured, dominating and conquering the world to the fullest?

It starts with this little word-(discovery), and certainly, if anything is discovered it means it had been enclosed for a time, it had not been seen yet it was somewhere in the corner.

I hate to see people suffer for the pain they can avert if they only knew that the possibility to change is within them. You see why I’ve always been after getting to know the truth? The truth saves a lot and this is the time to get this right…

How much of yourself do you know? 

How much of yourself have you discovered?

Do you think there is anything more you should discover about yourself?

Every outstanding entity, organization, business, know themselves and even so, their advantage, they call it competitive advantage, some call it unique selling point (USP), It is what makes them stand out in the field, the market place, it is part of what inspires the demand for their product and services- Their uniqueness.

Now, even though we were made in the image and the likeness of God, we were all created significantly unique to add a different kind of flavour to our world and that’s why if you check around, no one on the earth currently is your exact resemblance, there is no other you on the earth or will they ever be, and even though you are a twin you will definitely know that you both are different. So, that alone keeps everyone on the advantage level; we all have something to bring to the table, something unique but that is left for us to discover, refine and deploy, so that the world can benefit from who we are.

But how can we go about that? Self-discovery? Self-refining? Self-deployment?

I would love to say a lot about this yet with the shortest well capture words we will get to understand.

I don’t know if you love cars but I had a friend who fantasized so much about having Ferrari, and buying the latest model of Range rovers for me, he really loved car, and kept in touch with different models. The little I know about cars  and their models is that they are designed to satisfy customers in a unique way, so I can go all to the way to buy a limousine model x4 because I need a bit of luxury and cruise or I can get a Toyota Hilux depending on the nature of the road I want to use it on and the kind of job I want it to perform for me … So, all I need to do is identify the kind of need I wish to satisfy and then go for the car modelled to best suit that need. It’s quite logical and that is the same way we are made, we are created to suit a need, can you remember the bigger picture we talked about in the first study? 

Understanding this will help us map our path to fitting into the bigger picture. 

Now I presume the question you would ask is, how do I know the kind of model I am? (chuckles…) and how can I fit into the plan?

We will start with the word- Self- discovery

For gold to be discovered and mined it takes diligent search, suspecting and analysing promising areas but you know, sometimes the suspicion doesn’t come out true and many times that’s exactly what we try to do with ourselves, we self-guess, not self -discover. That is why you could see someone try a whole lot of different things in different seasons of their lives but still do not  find satisfaction, the person is likely just self-guessing; doing this and doing that to see which one goes well for him,  and while it is not bad, it’s sad to see people guess all through their lives, living frustrated and in pain, and of course unfulfilled.

 This is totally different from, being involved in several things that are part of a process and are building you up towards the life you should live.  I am talking about a directionless, garbage in, garbage out, kind of life, where the person is wandering, doing this or that just so they can find destiny. Sometimes they discover where to fit in, in the evenings of their lives and sadly some die unfulfilled never getting to live at all the lives they were designed and meant to live, never getting to be a part of the bigger picture… (may we never live such lives)

On a journey of confusion, they sink so deep that they could never recover hence, we cannot afford to self- guess, we must get to a point where we are so sure that this is the kind (quality) of life I am meant to live, and I will live the life.

Peter’s journey to self-discovery, self- refining and self-deployment is a model I’ll love to us to look at…

Can you remember the Peter to whom was said “And upon this rock I will build my church and the gate of hell shall not prevail”?  That fisherman who later became one of the first Apostles of Christ, working miracles, signs and wonder through the name of Jesus the Christ? Do you remember?

Peter who was formerly called Simon, had gone out fishing like every other day to do the normal hustle, yet that day held something more for him, that was the day he had a call to a higher life and though he was in between options,  he decided to follow Christ and be made a fisher of men.

Truly, the journey to self-realization begins with a choice to follow Christ, because really man outside God is empty, wretched, lifeless and that ‘self’ is in a deplorable state without dominion and victory, this is why man must be ‘made’ by God and the journey to making and becoming begins with following Christ and as we  continue in the study how we will see the circumstances that brought about Peter’s self-discovery  and how he was able live out his truest self….see you then, and thank you for being a part of Identity Challenge.