Older Than His Age.

    Ikemefula, was the only surviving son of his family. His parents were wondering what the future holds for him. So they took the young lad to their village soothsayer to inquire about his future. Right before his eyes, the soothsayer drew two circles: One in white and the other in black. He then put a millipede in-between the circles, saying "if the millipede crawls into the white circle, your future will be great, but if it crawls into the black circle, then you are doomed! Your future is bleak!” As soon as the insect was dropped in-between the circles, it began crawling towards the white circle. This chap was super-excited. But suddenly, as it got to the edge of the circle, it turned back and began crawling away from the white circle towards the black one. The boy watched as the insect progressively moved farther away from his desire to his doom. Then, just when the insect got to the edge of the black circle, this boy picked it up and quickly but carefully dropped it in the white circle. The soothsayer, watching all the while, asked the boy what he did and why he did what he did. The boy simply replied by saying "I cannot sit and watch my destiny doomed while I can still do something about it and to change its course. My destiny is in my hands." He got up and left.

    Africans have a proverb that says "Whoever is not present when the yams are being roasted will have his yams put by the side of the fire." The young boy in the narration acted promptly because he was at hand and knew what he wanted and expected from life. He didn't want anybody, tradition or structure to determine or blur his vision about his life. When it comes to making it to heaven, becoming wealthy, great, successful or happy in life, the question isn't who is going to let me, rather it is who will dare stop me. Eighty percent of why people fail in life is traceable to them, not the enemy. You cannot fail unless you cooperate with the devil to fail. We cooperate with the enemy to limit us by giving unnecessary excuses, by being lazy, not channelling our resources properly, not making the right preparation in life and not making reasonable choices and decisions in our lives. Your cooperation with the devil offers him a legal access into your life and destroy your progress. For instance Samson in the bible aborted his ministerial destiny by cooperating with the devil. He disobeyed his parent's advice not to marry a Philistine woman. He ate honey from the carcass of a dead lion. He was blindfolded by Delilah's pseudo love and allow his consecrated hair to be shaved. These choices, decisions and actions of his ruined his life. Thus our destiny is in our hands. An idiom has it "As you make your bed, so you must lie on it."