HOW DO YOU DEFINE THIS LIFE?

DEFINING THIS LIFE.......

This life is a game. This life is a puzzle. This life is funny. This life is a wicked one. This life is a transient one.  This life is blah blah blah. I am pretty sure you have come across all or some of these phrases describing our world. But I believe each of us depending on our situation will see the world differently. Just like the proverbial maxim “your description of the elephant depends mainly on the part of the gargantuan animal you are touching”.

To most people in pain, no matter the cause of that pain, this world is wicked. To those who are well to do and have peace in their families, this world is a wonderful thing. To the man who misplaced his last GH¢1000 he had just withdrawn from the bank, this life is unfair. To the jobless poor man who finds this money by the roadside, this life is very generous.

The suitor who gets accepted jumps up and punches the air saying “I have found my missing rib”. To the suitor who unfortunately does not win the favour of the lady-this life is unfair. Rarely will you find many people describing this life in the same way, there are always bound to be differences. But we are talking about the same world right? Why then do we describe it differently? The definition of “matter” is the same, no matter who is defining it. So why do things change?

Maybe the fact that we see the world through our own eyes, experiences, aspirations, disappointments, successes etc. is another way of describing the world-This life is how you make it, it is how you see it. It is how you want it to be, make it to be and believe it to be. Suffice it to say therefore that we cannot rely on anyone to define this world for us. Unfortunately for us, this life is not like any other thing to just read off from google or from a dictionary, you will have to define it for yourself and work things up from that point.

It is from your definition of the world that the principles and standards upon which you function as a human being are based. If you define this world as just being a care-free world, then anything goes. You will live your life without any social inhibition. What a pathetic life it will be to live. If you define your life based on a strong scriptural foundation, surely your principles, standards and morals will be entirely different from our care-free friend up there.

But there is a middle line over here. If you live your life without any definition then again you are in the middle of these two people we have just described.

What this immediately makes bare is the fact that you cannot use somebody else's definition of the world. In other words, it is impossible to live another person’s life. You will have to live your own life. But the comforting thing is that we completely have the free will and what it takes to define the world and live it. Therefore it will be unfair to blame anybody now or in the future for any predicament you will find yourself in.

Your friends, family and colleagues, may help you to live this life based on your definition if it is a good definition. Otherwise, they will still try to impress on you to correct your perception of this life and to live a better more purposeful life. However, in all of these, they have no power to make you do it. The “ACTION” must emanate from you.

My exhortation to you this day dear friend is that for all you want to be, for all you perceive this world to be, for all you want to see in this world-YOU ARE WELL ABLE. Never in this life wait for somebody to do something you can do and must do. The greatest American Civil-rights activist and preacher Martin Luther King once exhorted his congregation to be the change they want to see in the society. Never think in this life that you are just one person and hence cannot effect any change.

Seek every day to learn something positive to make your own life better and more formidable. So my dear, take that bold step today to define your life.

Wutor Mahama Baleng

PRACTICAL ACTION VERSES WORDS

ACTION SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

I am a great fan of Eddie Murphy basically because he makes me laugh. He is never serious-not in any of the movies I watched. I also am a great fan of Wentworth Miller, because of the wonderful role he played in Prison Break. His enormous discerning power really stirred something in me.

But when I watched ‘A thousand words” by Eddie Murphy, my perception about him changed almost in a second and I learnt two things from the movie.  One-that you can learn something from anything including this simple article you are reading. Also, I appreciated much better the credence in the saying that ‘Action Speak Louder Than Words’. Most of us are surely familiar with this statement, we pick it up without even knowing where and then we also start parroting it everywhere we go. But have you ever sat down to think about what this statement has in stock for you.

Majority of us have very close friends that we share virtually everything with. Especially girls, they (girls) are more loyal to their girlfriends than they are to anyone else. If you are a guy and you have a secret you really want to keep, think twice before telling your fiancée (no disrespect intended, my mom told me that).

But actually, that is not the focus of this article, the point I was making really is that, there are certain people that we cherish so much in our lives that we cannot do without. We think about them every blessed day and night.  To such people we want to express our love, affection, appreciation, etc to.  Now, there are two ways we can do this, we can just tell them (Words) or show them (Action).

Which will you choose?  I suspect you just chose Action. But which of them do you really demonstrate? Most of us go for words.  And words are equally powerful, but I believe our actions are more powerful. Our actions speak in a short time, louder and clearer than our words.

Because of the natural tendency of us humans to be deceitful (remember the good old serpent used words to convince our greatest grandmother to sin?)  We say all manner of things just to ensure we do not fall into trouble to the extent that we sometimes lie. But you see, you cannot lie with your actions. With, action, you need a certain degree of energy without which you cannot perform it. A person, who tries to deceive through action, could easily be made out. Imagine you sit in thirty-minute class close to this guy you just do not like and pretend to like him for the sake of the class.

Verily I say onto you that will be the most twisted thirty-minutes of your life. It is like magic, you want to pretend to act, but you cannot do it. Her pen falls under the table close to your leg. What do you do? He mistakenly hits you while yawning? He sneezes and some droplets escape onto your hand. You will surely snap at a certain point in time. The point is, it is difficult to act.

The most difficult things to do in life mostly are the most valuable and cherished things. Therefore, even though it is so hard to act instead of talk, it is worth it. When you act, you are convincing, you are original and you are sincere. So instead of telling that friend of yours he is special to you, show them they are special to you. Instead of telling that lecturer of yours how wonderful he is in class, show them how wonderful they are.

As I noted earlier, words are equally important. So what is my beef, my beef is that, use more action and less words in your daily life. 

Wutor Mahama Baleng

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