GOT A PROBLEM? THIS IS HOW TO USE IT AS A SPRINGBOARD
Problems
can be some of the best personal growth opportunities you have. This story you’re
about to read will give you hope, and encourage you to pull yourself together,
do something about your mentality, and take bold steps to walk out of that
crisis into your next level of success.
Today, May 7, is my birth day. Exactly 18
years ago, about this time, I went through a serious challenge that would have
marred my destiny if I didn’t know how to handle it. Rather than being weakened
by it, I came out stronger spiritually, mentally and emotionally. I also came
out better, materially. I look back with great thanks to God who was always
there for me. I joyfully share this story with you in the hope that it will inspire
you to use whatever problem you’re going through as a springboard to greater
heights in life.
It was in March of 2000, I boarded a public
transport, 18-seater bus from Calabar in Cross River State, to Uyo in Akwa Ibom
State, all in Nigeria. Then I had no personal car, even though I had worked for
years. Ten kilometers into a journey
that was to be about 80 kilometers, I heard a terrible shout from a woman who
sat in the front seat. Before I could look up, because I was reading a book, I
heard a terrible bang that resulted from head-on collision between our bus and
another vehicle that came in the opposite direction.
It was as if I was dreaming, because the
bus, as I learnt later, had tumbled several times. When it eventually came to a
halt, it landed on the door side with almost everybody trapped inside it. I
wouldn’t know how myself, my brief case, and one leg of my shoe that pulled
out, came out of that bus. I lay by the road side and watched how villagers
came out with axes to break the windows and the door to bring out corpses of
fellow passengers. As I learnt later, 13 persons including the two drivers
died, some immediately, some later in the hospital all of us were rushed to.
For six weeks I was in the hospital, and for
the next six weeks I was convalescing at home. Some doctors had feared I
wouldn’t be able walk again. Those three months were very challenging. Our
children were young and had to be dropped and picked from school every day. My
wife was shuttling between hospital, school and home daily. In the care of the
little ones, management of my health, finances, and all round, it was a real
trying moment for us.
Each night as my wife would want to leave
those small children alone in the house and come to stay with me in the
hospital, she would burst into tears; the heart of a loving mother going after
her children.
Personally, I engaged all the faith I could
gather from God’s Word, I summoned up all the courage I could muster from all
the inspirational books and tapes I was listening to, and daily I was stronger
on the inside. I never lost my presence of mind, smiles, and cheerfulness all
through. This so assisted me to recover faster than it would have been
ordinarily.
Within the three months I could neither go
to work, church or any other place. However, I used the period particularly the
six weeks I was recovering at home, to so meditate on the Scriptures and pray
so earnestly, that one day God told me “in
three months, I’m giving you a car.” I began to reason within myself thus:
I worked for years and couldn’t buy a car, and in the last three months, I’ve
not been able to run around for money, where will I get the money to buy a new car.
All the same I believed God. When my wife
came back from her shop, I broke the good news to her: “In three months we are
driving a car of our own.” She looked at me with such a big surprise on her
face. Why? She knew that whatever little money we had saved, we had used it to pay
medical bills. She also knew that there was no other savings anywhere. But I
persuaded her to believe God with me. She did.
Guess what? With no money in my account, in
exactly three months, we got our first car in that same year 2000. How did it
happen?
How I
Used My Problem As A Springboard to My First Car
(1) I
changed my mentality. I didn’t look at owning a car as any uphill task for
me anymore. I saw it as a real possibility. I believed what God told me.
(2) I
engaged the force of faith by taking action: God put in my heart to
approach a man, a great friend, a bank manager. I went to his office and told
him it was time for me to drive a car. On discovering that there was no money
in my account, not even in his bank, he told me that I was not yet ready for
it. But when he noticed that I was never going to take a no for an answer, he
did something wonderful.
He took me behind the bank premises, and
pointed at a car and asked me if I would want to drive that one. With smile I
said yes. I smiled because I agreed with my wife for that specific car without
telling any other person in the world, at least up to that point.
(3) I
walked out of that bank a car owner: We agreed on how I would pay for it
from my salary. Twenty percent of the price of the car was this bank manager’s
contribution towards its purchase.
I used my problem of being involved in a
ghastly motor accident that consumed 13 lives, as a springboard to begin to own
and drive cars of my choice. It challenged me to refuse to trek any more. Your
problem may be different from mine; if you don’t watch it but take steps,
you’ll sure come out stronger and better.
Dear friends, God spared me to live to
enrich your lives. I appreciate all of you who have been visiting our blog and
reading our posts. I wish I had gold I would give you all. But the inspiration
you draw from this account is my birthday gift to you. Isn’t it more golden? To
God be all the glory!
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1 comments
Dear Sir. Your writings have begun to inspire me in my life's journey. Thank you dearly for taking time to inspire others. I have read your book: The Mind, Your Amazing Power, and want to read it AGAIN. I'm seriously drawing inspiration from it. Big thanks to God Who enabled me to come across someone like you!
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