Fola Ojo
I was young. Life was a struggle and a logjam. Everything around me was dark and frustrating. I thought I knew what I wanted in life. But I wanted everything. I jumped from wanting to do this, and then skipped to do that. The wind of life tossed me around wherever it blew. Many of my friends had heavy personalities in society to help them open doors. They had guides and guardians. For me, there was no human guide with a navigating rod whose instructing voice would say, “This is the way to go.”
Many were ugly assumptions about me. They came from friends and loved ones. I was left alone to figure things out by myself in a world of dog-eat-dog and bruising competition. That was a tough odyssey for a young man confused about the right road to travel in life. My mother knew that her stubborn son was confused. I am sure I annoyed her with many of my decisions and judgement calls. But she was certain that the road to success in life would one day open. She kept pushing me to do better. She kept believing. And slowly, I kept surging.
In my presence on my 24th birthday, two friends of mine doing well in the university began these horrendous jokes about me. They didn’t see any light at the end of my tunnel. They believed that at 24, I was getting too old to make good things happen for me in life. Well, they were right. Friends had graduated from the university at 24. A few had bought their first cars at 24! Many had good jobs at 24. People had gotten married with children at 24. But none of these was my testimony! The bottom of the ladder was my abode.
My friends’ jokes became a comedy fit for a sitcom television series. But it was a tragedy to me. I cried inside and it hurt. When they left my house, I cried out loud with tears falling freely from my eyes with no one to comfort. But I knew my abilities. I just didn’t know how to piece them together to navigate the rough terrains of life in Nigeria. And there are hundreds of thousands of young people who are in that situation right now in a city near you. God has created all of us with some talents. I knew mine. There are also many He has created with multiple talents. I believe I fall in that category. But I had no guide and guardian. I had no physical hands-on mentor whose words would have offered direction and instructions.
If you are reading this and you have no mentor, get one this season. True mentors help us achieve our goals. They are shoulders upon which we ride on to stardom. True mentors will help you discover who you are. You need them. Otherwise, certain mountains may not move until bigger hands help you push them down. My son, learn from my experience. You need a mentor. Don’t ever forget what this 12th century French Neo-Platonist philosopher Bernard Chartres once said, “…We see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic stature.” A man’s gifts and talents may not see the light of day until he rides on other people’s shoulders. The Latin saying, nanos gigantum humeris insidentes, corroborates that we can stand on the shoulders of giants to see even farther than the giants. Great men need men to become great. People play vital roles in people’s lives for we are all products of help from somebody.
One of the reasons I was slowed down early in life was because I had no mentor. And I had no one to speak for me when I needed some doors to open. We all need mentors who will sow time, teaching, and treasures into our lives. Their shoulders swathed up with honey bring about precious stones. A mentor is a selfless facilitator, a true teacher, an admirable adviser, and a candid counselor. They are not selfish facilitators, dare-devil dictators, and beastly brutes. My ordeal and struggles in life lasted longer than necessary. But eventually, the story changed. I cannot really put my finger on the season God changed my story. But tangible evidence manifested the same year my son was born just 24 years ago!
What about my two friends who made a mockery of me many years ago? I count it not against them. They were just young and unwise because time worked in their favour in that season of life.
I am sure that many who mocked you in times past look up to you today for succour. That’s my testimony too. The race of life is not to the swift, my friends. The quickest feet don’t necessarily breast the tapes into victory. Forerunners don’t necessarily become frontrunners in life. The battle is not to the strong. If it was, Goliath would have made mincemeat of David. But the battle is not to the strong. Time and chance happen to them all.
Now, let’s talk about Time. Time is like a speed-train. It keeps its schedule at every station and without stopping whether we do good or bad. You may delay your moves, but time moves without delay. If you are in trials, tribulations and many other troubles, understand that change will come with time.
If your chances of doing well in life were left in the hands of haters, your frustrating yesterday may still continue till today. But here you are today, but the creator of time in his own time stepped into your orbit and stepped you up. At the time set by the one who sets time for his own glory, you will laugh.
Time is in God’s hands. Time yields its treasures only to those who know and recognise it. Those who don’t know the time always time out permanently. People who get behind the time will be left behind by the God of time and seasons. I believe in God’s time.
