Month: September 2013

Joy in achievement

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I attended a business breakfast a few weeks ago and I left with two lessons that I have been applying. “50 goals” and “just keep showing up”. 50 goals a year equates to roughly, one goal a week. So the idea is that you achieve a goal every week. They don’t even have to be huge goals. Some of mine have been as small as cleaning my room right through to acquiring a musical instrument. It is so exciting when you see small things adding up to huge things.

When it comes to showing up when I’ve committed to doing something, I sometimes can make excuses for not showing up. I find I have to force myself to go where I need to go even when I don’t want to or when I’m scared and I’ve found it’s changed a lot.  I have been practicing my screening after not doing well at my first job and over a month have seen a real improvement in how many slides I can screen in an hour as well as the quality. I’m not perfect but going even when I don’t feel like it has been a real help. One week I had to go in the rain, and travel on a train and walk for fifteen minutes after a three-day conference that required early starts, long days and late nights and with a bad attitude that needed fighting.

The other thing that keeps coming to mind is how King David, was meant to be fighting a war and stayed back and like my elder brother told me once, not doing what we are meant to at the time we are meant to is sin and sin leads to more sin which leads to death. There’s the old saying, “an idle mind, is the devil’s workshop.” The point being that, if David had gone to war, where he was meant to be, he wouldn’t have been on the roof of a palace watching a naked Bathsheba taking a bath and he wouldn’t have found himself an adulterer and a murderer and his family wouldn’t have ended up fighting itself.

Lately, I haven’t been very good at showing up unless absolutely expected to but forcing myself is helping change my attitude to things and though I am far from perfect, I am way better than I was when I lost my job in April. My shattered confidence is slowly returning and I have set a huge goal this week…It’s going to be hard but it can be done! Apply for five jobs. It sounds pretty easy but for me, after losing my job after six weeks, it has been really hard to put myself out there again. So people, get achieving. You can never experience the fullness of what God has for you unless you are willing to get up and try. Resilience isn’t about when you get up but that you do get up. This week, I’m going to have to show up (when I’m alone and no one is watching) and apply for those jobs. Lets just hope there are five jobs out there to apply for…

Celebrating life

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This is probably the first year since my Uncle died four years ago that I have not woken up feeling low and depressed, or felt the need to feel that way. Today is my other Uncle’s birthday. So rather than focusing on what’s lost, I choose to give thanks for what I do have. In constantly focusing on what we will never again have, we sometimes forget that every single day, is a blessing and that we can be what that loved one was to us, to someone else. While there might always be a struggle for joy because of loss, it’s a struggle worth having. While sitting in the dark the whole day because of grief might seem attractive, if we allow ourselves to see it, there is a whole world out there that is more attractive than the depression death brings.

Celebrating life, requires we get up and live it, not drown our sorrows in alcohol or drugs or waste it spinning wheels of death as we do burnouts or encasing ourselves in darkness refusing to take part in the land of the living. I’m glad that when God chose to take Isaac, he did it on my other Uncle’s birthday because it gives us something happier to celebrate. Today I can look and say,  today God decided to call Uncle Isaac home, but today also marks the day that he gave us Uncle Solo, a man we love to bits and vice versa. I can celebrate the man who was Isaac and also celebrate a man who is Solomon. There is no shortage of blessings and even in death, Uncle Isaac continues to be a blessing, so I will enjoy the day, rejoice in it and be glad in it.

A21 Campaign

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I haven’t been posting very consistently but today I wanted to bring your attention to the A21 Campaign which is an organisation that is working to end modern-day slavery. According to the website, there is a person trafficked every thirty seconds and the average age of the victims is 12, usually for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Worse still most perpetrators don’t get convicted and very few victims are ever rescued.

All human life is priceless and it breaks my heart that we as the human race can be so calloused that we can take humans like ourselves and subject them to degradation and bondage, worse still a child. But there is always hope, we can all play a part and help change lives. Every small action counts and every life saved is a victory so if you are at all interested, head to the A21 campaign website and start from there. If you are in Western Australia, head to the Australian Christian Churches website and check the events section where you will be able to find out about the Walk for freedom which will take place on the 23rd of November 2013. It is being organised by the Australian Christian Women but you don’t have to be Christian or a woman  to take part.

 

Home…A reminder of God’s grace part 2

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Okay so last post was a bit heavy. Here’s a lighter one, one telling you what was so good about Zambia. There’s something about being home that is liberating, maybe because I’m the kind of person who loves being around people (Not huge crowds) and in Zambia, people were plenty. Before leaving Zambia, I hated, crowds, still do, but having been in Perth for six years and not seeing as many people out and about, I didn’t mind the crowds of Lusaka at all. maybe after a while, it would have bothered me, but for three weeks, it didn’t. I enjoyed being around family and we did rub each other the wrong way once or twice, but there was plenty of joking and laughing. I am truly grateful because our family has something that most don’t. We have unity that most families don’t and we are far from perfect but we are truly a unique bunch.

We managed to see at least seven of my grandparents  and unfortunately only two of my great grand parents, plenty of mothers and some aunts and uncles, one of them being my Uncle who passed away last week, siblings and cousins and a few friends.

After spending time in Zambia for three weeks, we headed to Zim, where the hospitality was beyond words. We attended my elder brothers wedding – I have a Zimbabwean brother 😉 -and boy was it fun! Its funny because generally, I hate it when people speak in a language I don’t understand but this time around, I quiet liked it and by the end of  five days, I was beginning to understand Shona.

The food in both places was tasty and coming back here, the difference is noticeable. The weather was very mild and the scenery was just lovely. Generally, the trip home, has left me even more unsettled in Perth but for now, this is where I am meant to be. The trip was definitely a God given gift and I am grateful!