Dalai Lama in Beyond Religion.

"Within the scale of the life of the cosmos, a human life is no more than a tiny blip. Each one of us is a visitor to this planet, a guest, who has only a finite time to stay. What greater folly could there be than to spend this short time lonely, unhappy, and in conflict with our fellow visitors? Far better, surely, to use our short time in pursuing a meaningful life, enriched by a sense of connection with and service towards others.".  Dalai Lama in Beyond Religion.

Anger

"Stay away from Anger. It hurts only You.
If you are right, then there is no need to get angry. If you are wrong then you don't have any right to get angry. Patience with family is love. Patience with others is respect. Patience with self is confidence. Patience with GOD is faith. Never think hard about the PAST. It brings tears. Don't think more about the FUTURE. It brings fear. Live this moment with a smile. It brings cheer. Every test in our life makes us bitter or better. Every problem comes to make us or break us. The choice is ours whether we become victims or victorious. Beautiful things are not always good but good things are always beautiful. Do you know why God created gaps between fingers?  So that someone who is special to you comes and fill those gaps by holding your hand forever. Happiness keeps you sweet. But being sweet brings happiness." ~ Unsigned

Ordered Steps

When we allow God, the Source of all things, to guide and shape the way we think and act on a daily basis, our steps will be ordered. At that level of thinking and acting, we welcome  success or failure with equanimity. Each missed step becomes our greatest teacher. Each step forward is an opportunity to take the next. Each step backward lets us stop and restrategise before we take another step. We are no longer perceiving failure to accomplish any task as l failure in life but as another opportunity to learn new skills. 

The lesson in being hurt

For every hurtful action people throw at us, be it physical or emotional, we receive two things: first, the Pain and second, the Lesson. Most often, we only receive the pain but leave the lesson. Most often, the lesson is powerful and more positively impactful than the pain. We have no control over what people do to us but we have the power to control how we respond. This is another great lesson in Stoicism.

Listening to God in Silence

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grow in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.” Mother Teresa

Where do you go to find God? How often do you go there to meet him? What is your feeling like each time you go there? Peaceful? Excited? Afraid? Relaxed?  Happy? In what kind of environment do you like to meet God?  Noisy but boisterous? Serene and meditative. What do you want to be seeing when you are listening to God? Objects of saintly nature? Plane and undiluted? Do you talk to God more than you listen to Him?

You can meet God anywhere anytime.  He is the God of the silence as well as the God of noise.  He is the God of everything that is natural. But to hear God, you need the moments of silence. You need to be in the quiet. You need the space and time. Space +Time + Quiet = God. Some people find it hard to maintain some moments of silence. God is not in a hurry. He can wait as long as it takes you to find the space and moment of silence. The art of finding the space and moment of silence is a learnable skill. With loads of distraction here and there all the time, it can be hard for most of us to hear God. It is easy to talk to Him than to listen to and actually hear him.

For me, I have learned to meet and recognise God even in everything I do. I see God in the food I eat, in the water I drink, in my children, in my wife. I see God in the television programme I watch every day, in the car I drive, in the air I breathe in and out, in the shirt I put on and in just everything that is good or bad. I see God in everything I do from the moment I wake up in the morning until the time I retire to my bed in the night.

You can start to listen to and hear what God is saying to you by learning to listen more and talking less. When you are eating, you meditate on God’s providential power for humankind and remember those who have nothing to eat. When you put on your clothes, you meditate on God’s divine protection over you and you remember those who are naked. When you are drinking water from the tap, you medicate over God’s blessings and remember those who thirst for even a drop. When you have your children around you, you do not take them for granted. You meditate over the gifts and remember those who are still asking God for the fruit of the womb. When you retire to your bed in the night, you meditate over the provision of your shelter and remember the homeless. When you open your mind’s eyes, you will see God in just anything all around you. God tried to use those objects or subjects to speak to you. He only wants you to be silence and notice. That is the only way you can hear Him.
 

The Patient Widow

In a certain town in biblical time, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought about him. There was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with a plea for justice, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

The judge refused. The widow persisted. She never felt any rejection. She kept knocking on the door of justice. Finally, and really finally... the judge reneged, changed his mind and said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

The fact that the judge finally favoured the widow for his selfish purpose was irrelevant. What gave justice to the widow was her Patience and Persistence.

When your determination to achieve anything in any area of your life is greater than any obstacle put in your way, you can count on Patience and Persistence to overcome them.

In God There's No Division

I am a Roman Catholic today because of my late father who was one of the earliest converts to Roman Catholicism in my community. Two of my late Uncles, Pa Momodu and Alhaji Yesuff were among the earliest converts to Islamism in my community. Today, some of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are Christians while others are Muslims. We all remain members of the same big and united family irrespective of our different religious backgrounds.

When I was growing up, we all lived in the same compounded. We celebrated both Christmas and Eid Al-Fitr festivals together as one big happy family. We ate Christmas rice together in fellowship. We shared Eid Al-Fitr meat together. At Christmas, both Christians and Muslim children sang and danced together on the streets in joyful moods. The elders, both Christians and Muslims, in appreciation of our childhood, gave us money which we all shared equally irrespective of our individual family religious differences.

My father had no problem with me going to the Mosque every Friday holding the Holy Qur’an of my great uncle Yesuff. In turn, he was happy to see me going to the Church with my father every Sunday. I never saw any contradiction in the message that I was getting from both the Church and the Mosque.  Both preached the message of God’s love, kindness and compassion for mankind. Both preached the message of God’s desire for mankind to live in peace and harmony with one another.  Both preached the message of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Children from both religions grew up with clear images of the differences between good and bad. Children grew up to know and understand that relationship based on love for one another builds. They also learned to know and understand that relationship based on hatred for one another destroys. As far as children were concerned, one of their daily mantras was, “What is good is good” and “what is bad is bad.” No room for relativism. A good child shared what he or she had with other children. A bad child keeps everything to self. A good child felt the pains, hardship and sufferings of other children. A bad child had no feeling for other children.

Why can’t we all return to the basics. Why can’t we start to teach our children those simple messages as preached by religions scholars of old – the essence of God in our lives. We should be preaching messages of love instead of hatred, of unity instead of division, of peace instead of war, of forgiveness instead of revenge. Yes, as individuals, we are uniquely different but we are the same, sharing common humanity all in search of happiness and striving to avoid pain and suffering. We are all the same.  Love keeps us together. Hatred keeps us divided.

Free Will vs Determinism

Free Will is human's freedom to make CHOICES. Determinism is God telling humans to exercise their freedom RESPONSIBLY. The two are compatible. When we have freely decided and are innately determined to be successful in any area of life, I belief Determinism is God's voice affirming to us that, "It is written."      ~ MAM

Meditating with Psalm 23

I spent much of my childhood life in the rural middle belt of Nigeria, supporting my father to look after his over 200 heads of cattle. Before I started my primary education at the age of 12, I had spent five years of my life working with the Fulani cattle-raising family that my father had employed for his cow farming business. For this reason, I can say that I know a few things about the duties and responsibilities of a good shepherd.

Fundamentally, my job was to support the Fulani in providing an enabling environment for my father's cows to exist, flourish and be protected from all types of predators and diseases.

As a shepherd boy, with my strong and handy staff at my disposal, I was ready to do just about anything to protect each cow from the youngest to the oldest. I knew each cow by name and they all recognised me. They never felt threatened by my presence. They knew when I felt upset by their bad behaviour. I knew those that were stubborn and aggressive such as Angolo; or the ones that were of tenderly behaviour like Ogelese. I knew how to build relationship with each of them. I knew when it was time to lead them out for grazing. I knew the best places to lead them to for fresh running water. I also knew when to lead them back to the camp and tether them to their posts. The welfare of each cow was my priority. 

Each cow had its own unique distinguishing characteristics and I could spot any behavioural change in any of them. I could quickly tell whenever a cow showed any sign of distress. I had a tender relationship with the young ones because of their fragility. They could easily stray away from their mothers while grazing in the field. I kept close watch on each ensuring that none strayed away from the group. 

From the early morning, until evening, I guided the herd through the forest, across rivers and over hill tops. 

The irony of all these was that the cows under my care did not have to do anything. They simply knew that I would always be there for them, cleaning their sheds, protecting them and keeping them away from harm’s way, providing for them, and showing tenderness, understanding, tolerance, and warmth. The burden of looking after their welfare rested on me. They went wherever I led them to. They did whatever I wanted them to do. They obeyed me largely. I had a way of making them to comply with my instruction. That was why I always had my staff stick with me. That was my staff of authority over them. They knew the purpose. They knew I could be caring. They also knew that I could be tough on them if it became necessary. They just knew that I could never lead them to dangerous places. They trusted me to do whatever was right to keep them safe. I did not however take them for granted. I would never make them do what was not consistent with their nature. That was a great personal relationship built over many years of leading the cows to and from green pastures. 

They did not need to ask me for anything. They just got it. They did not need to work before they ate. They did not need to cry before I knew they were in distress. I just knew from the way I related to each of them individually. I cared less about my own safety as I felt secured in their midst. I could walk miles in the forest with my cattle. I was not worried about anything except their welfare. Nothing bordered me. I thought about nothing other than seeing that all of them were taken out every morning, were properly fed, led to clean water to drink, and returned them to their sheds unharmed every evening. 

Every evening, I would render the day's account to my father. I would give him details of what happened. As well as draw his attention to anything that I thought would require his urgent attention especially when it affected the wellbeing of any cow. My father would thank me for the day’s job and would make me feel that I had done a great job for him and the family.

What did my experience as a shepherd boy teach me about the nature of God as a good shepherd? The level of care and attention that I paid to the safety and welfare of my cows was infinitesimal compared to that which God pays to humankind. The key lesson for me in this type of relationship is that through my own biological father’s guidance, I chose to look after the cows. They did not choose me. They had no say in my decision to become their shepherd. I passionately loved them and I demonstrated my love for them through the way I responded to their day-to-day needs. 

In the same way, we did not choose God to be our Shepherd. He first chose us. He created humankind for His own purpose to be shepherds for one another. The relationship between the shepherd and the sheep must be rooted in love, an unconditional love that we can manifest through our individual selfless services to one another. That is the way to live a life with meaning. That is what God intended for us. That is how to live a purposeful existence. If a shepherd cannot do that, he or she is not a good shepherd. What kind of a shepherd are you?

Matthew A Medupin 

The Power of Love

Your greatest defence against your enemies, real or imagined, is love. Nothing  destabilises them more than responding to their evil thoughts and actions against you with consistent acts of kindness and compassion.