BY UDEME ARCHIBONG

A father on his deathbed called his wife and son to bid them farewell. Amidst the tears, the son drew close to his father to hear his final words to him. His father whispered into his ear: “Son, don’t do life like I did. I didn’t do right by you or by your mother and never really made a difference.

Son, promise me you won’t do life like I did.” His father passed away shortly thereafter but those words he left with his son were a gem of inestimable value. The son dried his tears and became determined to face life with a passion to make a difference in every area of his life.

In every nook and cranny of our society are found people that are deeply pained; it may not be a physical pain as it were. It is the pain that originates from a feeling of emptiness within; a life void of meaning. Deep within the fabric of our being, we all want our lives to matter in a significant way.

This explains why religious and ethnic groups exalt themselves against one another; egos are lifted to undermine the value of others; personality evolvement is pursued over character development and materialism is glorified above humanitarianism.

If you had only six months to live, how will you live your life? Will the things that were important to you before still be important to you now? How will you spend every minute of the time you have? Who will you spend your time with? What will you do with your life? The questions posed above suggest that we may need to take an introspective view and change our perception about life.

You can never make a difference until you discover your purpose on earth. In the place of purpose, significance is birthed and life finds its meaning.

Purpose is becoming who you were born to be; doing what you were created to do, having what you were created to have within a specific time frame that if well understood and harnessed, could influence your generation and the generations yet unborn, thereby leaving your thumbprint on the document of destiny. Purpose is discovering the specific problem that you were created to solve on earth.

Purpose is maximizing your time, energy, finances and attention to impact positively on the lives of people. You must realize that somebody desperately needs you.

Your gifts and talents is a pointer to what you were designed to do. What you love doing is what you’ve been graced with wisdom to create a niche for yourself.

What triggers your compassion? Is it abused children or battered wives? What makes you weep is what you were created to heal.

When Nelson Mandela said, “I am the freedom, and the freedom is me,” that irrevocable declaration set the course that set ablaze the pangs of apartheid. What makes you angry is what you were created to change.
Do we treat other people as they deserve?

Or Do we treat them with love when they least deserve it? Does our attitude and behaviour towards others spell consideration and respect for other people’s thoughts and feelings? Or do we adopt attitudes and behaviour toward others that are non challant about how they feel? In dealing with people do we use our hearts or do we use our heads?

Do we see and treat our spouse and children as a king or queen or do we see and treat them less than good? Do we respond with love and humility to the needs of others? Or do we close our heart to their needs and react with pride? Do we make our home a place of solace and heaven on earth? Or do we make our home a place of conflict, criticism, competitive arena; a hell let loose? Do we look down at people?

Or do we give them something to live up to? Are our hands an extension of God’s hands to touch the lives of people? Or are our hands an extension of greed to mar the lives of people? Are we constantly competing with people? Or do we compliment them? Do we see people’s successes as a threat to ours? Or do we see that the sky is wide enough for everybody to fly?

Do we sabotage our emotional lives and destinies on how people treat us? Or do we soar our emotional lives above the opinions and treatment of others? Are we channels of blessings? Or are we reservoir of selfishness? Are we centred on living making or life making? Can God count on us to make a difference in human lives? Or can the devil count on us to wreck the “difference” in human lives?

Remember, you were born to make a difference.