What’s Your Excuse

Friends, greetings in Jesus Name. Today I will be sharing with you on what I title, “What’s Your Excuse”. Please, let me warn ahead of time because this message is provocative. It’s for those who really desire change and want to move forward without getting offended. Yes, the content should get you angry, not against anyone, but against yourself, to challenge you to leave your comfort zone. You see, we live in a world full of excuses. Very few people want to be accountable. Like Adam in the Garden of Eden, it’s so easy to point fingers at others as to the reason for our predicaments (Genesis 3:9-14). You know, we Africans live a communal life. We bond well, value relationships, and in most cases an injury to one is an injury to all. That is why you can see the ongoing “Black Life Matters” protests in the US. We fight and defend each other to a great extent, irrespective of our differences or shortcomings. Yes, it’s easier for an African man to go to his fellow brother and ask for food, money, and a place to lay his head if he found himself homeless or in trouble.

This communal and family bond has helped us, but it’s also to our disadvantage. Unfortunately, many Africans see this communal lifestyle as an avenue to become useless instead of being useful to their lives. Really, we have too many people depending on others for their livelihood. If a member of a family becomes wealthy, every other member in the family builds their nest around him. These other relatives feed on the rich fellow like a parasite. They surrender their gifts and God-given talents at the altar of complacency because there is a constant flow or avenue for their livelihood (Jeremiah 17:5-9). In fact, it is in Africa you see people who are healthy and strong, but turned professional beggars. And being helped by others – especially their relatives – becomes their right, otherwise there will be a civil war in the family. I have seen countless people who blamed their sufferings on their rich brother or uncle who refused to help them. Thus, they remain poor all their life feeling bitter, full of anger, hatred, and unforgiveness towards their rich uncle or brother. Listen, nobody but you are responsible to what you become or don’t become in life. Family and well-wishers can only assist but not responsible for your fortune or misfortune in life. The choice is yours.

On the flipside, it’s not so in the western world. I was in the United States some years back, and I got talking with a family friend based in Atlanta, and into Real Estate. He told me of a client, a young white lady of about 20 years old, who was sent parking out of her parents’ house because she was unable to pay up her monthly rent. But here in Nigeria, you still find a 40-year old man who is entrenched in his parents’ house, and still complaining of not having enough meat in his food, and the parents are begging him. What an irony. Look, I am not endorsing that we should be mean or wicked to our loved ones. Things may not go as planned in life, and you find yourself in a deep mess, like many are today due to Covid-19. At this critical period, I advocate family and friends to be of great assistance. But when someone constitutes a nuisance to those around them, like we see daily from unmindful brethren, then we must not endorse it. As individuals, we must be challenged to become great in life. This is the difference between us and the white, because many of them are independent minded. They want to achieve great things without being a burden to anybody.

Check all the technological inventions and advancements we have in the world today. It’s mostly the white that invented them. Do they have a different brain? Of course not. We only differ in our core value systems. Recently, I was reading Barack Obama’s book titled, The Audacity of Hope”. I was so amazed the kind of decisions a young Obama was already taking at age 16. Not surprising, he went ahead to become the first black President of the United States of America. Obama, like many black people, went through tough and difficult times in his life, but never allow it to deter his dreams. But rather, it toughened him to become great in life. Today, his story has made it clear that anything is possible for a black man with the right attitude and mindset. Indeed, giving a level playing field with the white, the blacks are unbeatable. As a believer, remember that “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Don’t die a mediocre without discovering and fulfilling your purpose and dreams. We will look at the concluding part of this message by next week. Till then, have a fantastic week. With love, Elvis!