WHAT WILL YOU DO?
WHAT WILL YOU DO?.
About four months ago, I was deeply saddened to hear about the death of Professor Stephen Hawking. I came to know about Professor Hawking when visiting a wax museum earlier this year. His wax figure was among those of academic geniuses Einstein and Newton. I did not see his name anywhere and was unable to know who he was. After doing some research, I found out that he was Stephen Hawking, a legendary British physicist.
Why was I so interested in who Hawking was? Well I saw that he was physically disabled, he had been so since the age of 22 after being diagnosed with a motor neuron disease (a brain problem that causes the sufferer to live no more than 15 months). Hawking however, lived 54 more years, and dedicated those years of his life to science, unable to walk and speak but made huge contributions to physics and authored multiple books. He died peacefully at 76 years old.
If there is anything I want us to learn from the life of Hawking it is the importance of using what you have and the importance of hard work. The bible often mentions the importance of hard work and dedication and as Christians we should be epitomes of these qualities. The book of Ecclesiastes, especially talks about hard work in;
Ecclesiastes 9:10 New King James Version (NKJV)
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.”
The verse above says “whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might”, some other versions say “with your strength” , “do your best” , the NLT version says “whatever you do, do well”. This means that anything you do, whatever field it may be in, do it with everything you have, work hard at it. The time is now because this earth is not forever. The reality of life is that, it will not last forever and there’s a time when we will not be able to work any more and also a time when we will not be around to even work any more. If we don’t use that wisdom and knowledge now, when will we use it?
If we try something what is the worst that could happen, we may fail. And that’s only a probability, that’s only a chance. On the other side of the coin, we may succeed, we may outperform our expectations but only if we tried. How long will we box ourselves up and live small? Paul tells the church in Corinth;
2 Corinthians 6:11-13 (MSG)
“Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!”
Our lives are not small, but we are living small, especially when we are able bodied to do the things we so desire to do. Yes, “with God all things are possible”. (Matthew 19:26,) But have we even tried anything? Do we even believe that we can do big things?
Paul’s teaching to “open up our lives expansively” does not mean that what we do has to be something ground-breaking or phenomenal to the world. We do not have to discover the latest technology or have the most amount of something; No!. Do all you can with what you have been given, in your own little way. God has given every one of us gifts, it is now on us to discover it, harness it and utilize it for His Kingdom and His glory. Even if you feel you have done everything you can do, there is still so much more to do with God.
Quotes from Les Brown and Myles Monroe explain how the cemetery is the richest place on earth. It holds so many unwritten books, untold ideas, unused intelligence, unsung songs and so much more.
It is not too difficult and we can start today, not tomorrow or the day after. Start today!.
With God all things are possible.
Ifeoluwa Jaiyesimi.©
The Revolutionary Righter.©