In The Beginning...

EDOKA PETER-PAUL

Where ever you are today, whatever you are doing, either as a job or career or even in your relationship; there was a beginning. There was a day when you said to yourself: Today, I will start! But know this: that was not the day the dream to succeed began, that was not the day you started to walk towards that dream. That day could be the day you realized you have a dream to follow, a path to tread and a destiny to reach. It could be in the morning of the day or at noon or night hour when you were retiring to bed after a long day. It could also be at work or at play when someone said something or someone did something. Such realization comes from the everyday thing that we know and do; but at that instant, the ‘familiar’ thing becomes a ‘new’ thing because it was covered with insight and broader meaning to what it used to be.

There was a beginning. In the beginning, you were created in the image and likeness of God, and God breathed into your mortal body the breath of life, the life that is full of potentials and talents and genuine interests – all to the glory of God and the sanctification of the human race. It is not clear how long it took God to form you, but it is clear that your ‘formation’ involved getting some clay from the ground, molding you into a beautiful shape and breathing into you to make the ‘clay’ come to live. Before the breath you were just ‘clay’; lifeless and without meaning or purpose. But the breath gave you life and meaning to why you should be a living thing and not just ‘clay’. And not just a living thing, but a being that shares likeness with Him. God gave you all that He was and still is - His breath, Spirit and ability to reason just like Him.

In the beginning God made you for a purpose, to accomplish a task that only you will do – unless you refuse to do it by your own free will which God respects – God will take that task and add it to another person’s own, who has much and is using them well. Thus goes the parable of the Three Servants in the Gospel of St. Matthew 25:14-30 and that of St. Luke19:11-27, “... For to every person who has something even more will be given, and he will have more than enough; but the person who has nothing, even the little that he has will be taken away from him.” It simply means everyone has something inside to offer the human existence, and everyone is called to use even the little that is given. And when you don’t use what you have, it will be taken from you and given to someone else who is making use of even the much that is given.

In the beginning, your gifts, talents, abilities, potentials and interests were deposited in your being the moment God breathed the breath of life into your nostrils and gave you a spirit. That moment, the seeds of success, wisdom, knowledge and understanding, and the power to judge what is right or wrong were planted in you. That was the first assignment given to ‘man’ immediately he was created: to put his intellect to work and exercise his ability to manage his inheritance which God has freely given. The seed to succeed, the great seed of wisdom and the inestimable sow of knowledge and deep understanding; are all the things that flowed from God to ‘man’ and are meant to make humanity grow in the image and likeness of Him, under His ever protecting and directing will.

In the beginning, all these things were with you as you were growing up; as you went to all the schools you attended and they are still with you. The moment you said: Today, I will start, that is the moment all these things will be made visible to you and you can begin to feel them, to use them and to start accomplishing all that you were made to accomplish on earth. If no particular thing is deposited in your being for you to use while on earth, there is no way you would have it, even if you so desire it. God has given you from the beginning the entire things He knew would be relevant for you to live happily and successful in the times that has been allocated to you. So just like you have your unique face and hair and eye colour, so you have all that you had to make you achieve your purpose.

Did you just realized you have a dream to pursuit? Your realization is an eye-opener to knowing the means that you will use to reach that dream. And the moment you corporate with these means, your dream will be accomplished in what seems like a rush – but it’s not a rush because it has always been there, buried inside you. Probably, over the years you have been busy running after the things that were not meant to be yours. It could be that you saw your dad or mum doing a particular thing, maybe as a career or job or even skill; and the first thing you thought of is that same thing could be your own ‘calling’ too. And since you have tried several times to make your interest there yield fruits, and it seems like it will never amount to anything following that path, you realized yourself and your desire; and found out that you are different from your father or your mother and from what they both are engaged in.

Don’t you get surprise when last year you saw someone who was struggling to eat or wear good cloths, suddenly this year is eating well, dressing well and even riding a car? The secret could be this: All the things the person has now were there waiting to be claimed by that person. Maybe all these years the person did not know how to get to these things or what is needed to be done. But the moment the person knows and applies the knowledge; these things will come like in a rush to the person, to the owner. 

Whatever your kind of dream, goal or aspiration, there are means to reaching it. Some dreams and goals and aspirations have some paths in common while some other paths are better meant for some specific achievements. You must know the paths that would lead you to your ultimate goal in this life’s journey. You must identify or discover the paths that will lead you to the zenith of your purpose in life.

In the beginning of a relationship for instance, everything will appear smooth and rosy, and the future of that passion and desire for its success will be seen to be bright and beautiful. But such feelings and assurance do not sometimes live to see the sixth month of the relationship. It is either the parties involved are striving to keep it burning towards success or the relationship has hit the rock already.

It is often seen at the beginning of anything that is good, that challenges will come, trials will come – a sign that it is special and important and everything should be done to make it a huge success. That is why to do something wrong seems easy when it will not amount to anything good. But something good would be difficult at the beginning, which shows ultimately, that the success of it will be better, even with the challenges that are coming with it.

In the beginning of a promising relationship, the parties involved could be finding it difficult to stay away from each other for a day or two. But mid-way into the relationship, most times after marriage, the need to spend time with each other began to reduce and the passion for sharing every second together would begin to fade – at this stage, what is expected is to always ‘return’ to the beginning. Just like an illustration about the life span of a car: it started from the workshop where it was manufactured and given little fuel for it to start ‘living’. During the ‘life’ of the car, whenever it seems like its developing fault, the owner either returns it to the manufacturer or to an expert. And often, very often, the car will need fuel-refilling to keep moving which is its own ‘living’. Relationship and career and job however, need more care and attention for it to be strong and live its potential purpose. And the beginning should be the ‘workshop’ and ‘fuel’ that should be visited every now and then to get ‘strength’ for it to strive and reach the peak of its potentials. When you ‘visit’ the positive past and draw from it every reason to hold-on to that which is attempting to slip from your grip, you will have a hundred and one reason to work and wait for those great days to come again.

I am the only son and the last child. I will leave you to imaging how my beginning was. The beginning that I sometimes wished it could come back again – where I had everything I needed and everything my parents could afford. As a child with a caring elder sister, no child my age or older makes me cry and goes free. My sister would make sure that person apologized to me or cry for it. I grew up with so much care and attention that even as a grown up, I grave for those times to come again. It was that feeling that made me to write a thought thus: what my mother did to me-I don’t like it. What my father told me-I don’t like them. They should have told me that: “Son, one day, this childhood will end.” If they had, maybe today I would have been better.

But that was in the beginning, the beginning that I visited every time I am faced with challenges and needed motivation to strive and make the future of my kids better. That beginning is even the reason why I am writing as a career today – my elder sister would get me books to read in my free times and I would have to write her briefs after all. And because we spend quite time alone, we use reading and writing as our best friends. That is my beautiful beginning.

In the beginning, you must cherish the moments and create memories around you and within you; memories that would help you strive harder and with purpose in the near future. The beginning will later become the ‘fuel’ and ‘workshop’ that would give strength to your present and future, and help you to succeed.

There are five practical means to which every dream and goal can be attained or reached. These will be discussed subsequently as we explore the means to equip our selves today for brighter and better tomorrow.