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Food for Living: Celebrating Another Wonderful Milestone
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
It is with great pleasure I wish to share with you the goodness of the Lord in my life. You may be wondering what this goodness of God in my life is. Yes, the goodness of God in my life is the celebration of my entire being on earth. You may also be wondering what the special thing about my life is. Yes, I will tell you; it’s my birthday! I can’t thank God enough for the great things he has done for me, especially the life and blessings he has bestowed on me. It is not because I am the most righteous, handsome, hardworking, strongest etc., that I am alive. It’s just because of the grace of God upon me and His awesome faithfulness.
That explains why I chose CeCe Winans track “The Goodness of God” as a favorite line to buttress how grateful I am to him and the universe. Today calls for a sober reflection, but most importantly, it calls for gratitude to God for making me come this far. I’m quite aware of the fact that many people who arrived on planet earth on the same day with me are no longer on the surface of the planet. Some are married with kids, have accomplished careers, and are celebrated globally, while some are still confused and still trying to find their path to life.
And so, in whatever position you find yourself, I just want you to take a moment to reflect about your life and you will see that you will find something to be grateful for, and if you don’t see any reason you should be grateful, be happy you are alive. As you may rightly know, when there’s life, there’s hope. The problem many people have is that they don’t practice gratitude and appreciation.
Birthdays are for celebration. There’s always something to celebrate about life. Personally, when I look at the trajectory of my life, I can say for a fact, I’m not the smartest person, but favour and grace found me. I say this because if anyone truly knows my background, they will hardly believe there’ll be light in my family. The turning point was education.
My late parents didn’t have the opportunity of going to school, but they knew the value of education and ensured my siblings and I had a decent education. Why am I saying this? If anyone had told me I will ever be a globally celebrated author, I might not have believed it; If anyone had told me I will be a prolific and creative writer the world will read on a daily and weekly basis, I might not have believe it. If anyone had ever told me I will ever be interviewed by the New York Times, I might not have believed it. If anyone had told me I would be a favourite television guest, I might not have believe it. Being interviewed by News12 about my book, I will say, it’s one of the biggest achievements I have attained in recent times.
You may be wondering why I am saying all this, well, the reason is quite simple, it’s a huge milestone for me judging from where I started. This is a man who worked as a security officer for many years in New York City despite being a graduate of New York Law School. I was given little or no chance of surviving in the United States of America, especially New York City because of my horrible writing skills and how the system operates. I never gave up hope. I still persevered.
Birthdays to me call for gratitude and reflection. To say, I am not grateful is the highest act of disservice to God and humanity. I am particularly grateful to God, my late parents who instilled in me the right virtues and training, my family, friends and the universe who have conspired to make me who I am today.
As I look back from where I started to where I am today, I’m glad I’m not where I used to be. The best way to express my profound gratitude and appreciation is by taking some wonderful lines from the amazing Goodness of God” lyrics from CeCe Winans where she stated “your mercy never fails me; I will sing the goodness of God; All my life you have been faithful and so good; I will sing of the goodness of God. You have led me through the fire. I have known you as a father and friend.”
How do I begin to explain the mercy of God upon my life? How He saved and provided for me in the presence of my enemies. His grace is utterly sufficient for me. As mentioned earlier, there are certain things that happened to me which made me realize that it’s not by my power, might or ability, but just the mercy of God upon me. That’s why I am not ashamed of talking about the goodness of God in my life. It is pertinent to note on this birthday of mine, I have decided to dedicate my life to God and work according to his purpose for me. This is particularly because I have been through the trenches, but God saw me through even when men were trying to humiliate me. In recent times, the relationship I have with God is that of a father and friend. This singular act has made me so vulnerable to God.
In conclusion, as I look forward to more prosperous years, I toast and pray for more wisdom, understanding, grace, favour, direction, protection, provision, blessings, and more especially good health and prosperity. Amen.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He’s a Human Capacity & mindset coach. He’s also a public speaker, youth advocate and creative writer. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success and President of gloemi.com. He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
The importance of timing cannot be overemphasized. Timing is everything in life. It is critical to one’s success. You can lose your money and get it back in many folds. You can even lose your health and get it back all things being equal, but when you lose time, you can hardly get it back again.
The importance of timing can be seen in crops. Every crop has a season, a good farmer won’t plant maize when it’s time for oranges, nor will he plant pears when it’s the season for mangoes.
Time is very instrumental to the success and failure of anyone. Imagine having a meeting or interview at 9:00am and you arrive at 10:10am, it will take the grace of God to be interviewed. As an employee, apart from one not being able to diligently do his job, one of the fastest ways for an employee to lose his job is by being late to work.
When I was in New York Law School studying Taxation law, I did a course titled, the Problem of Timing. During the semester, I learnt about cash and accrued income. Let me do some academic exercise here. In cash income, just like the name entails, one is paid in cash as soon as the work is completed. It’s just like going to the market to make a purchase. One can either pay directly with cash or with debit or credit card. But Accrued income refers to revenue a company has earned by providing goods or services, but for which payment has not yet been received, one will have to do the work first before getting paid. This is applicable when one works in either a public or private organization where one is paid either weekly, bi-weekly or at the end of the month depending on the stipulated mode of payment.
It’s important to note that before the money is paid either in cash or accrued, one would have earned it. It’s just like one learning g before earning, and one will have to update to upgrade. These are just the practical principles that will work with life.
In the same way, in life there’s a seed time and harvest time. It’s a universal principle of life. Whether as a parent, entrepreneur, student or employee. As a parent, if you don’t train your kids very well, they will grow up to reflect the opposite of what you desire. As an entrepreneur when you invest in your business, you will get the reward in due time. As a student, if you take your studies seriously, your grades will improve, and as an employee, you stand to get promotions and opportunities when you add value to your work. In summary, one will have to put in the work before recognition comes on.
To understand how seedtime and harvest work, imagine where parents tend to like one child more than others just because they see potential in him, or he’s smart, hardworking or even creative. They fail to understand that every child is different and as such their timing can be different. Some kinds take time to develop.
I personally believe there’s something so unique about each individual which God has deposited in everyone of us. It’s just a matter of time for it to manifest. Your timing of manifestation is different from your siblings and colleagues.
Personally, I didn’t mature fast with my contemporaries. Overtime, I have seen much improvement in my personal and professional life. Maybe because I have added value to my work with the assistance of mentors and good friends, or God had to humble my colleagues and mentors . Why do I say this? During my formative years, I had little or nothing to show for it. I was looking at my contemporaries as mentor and seeing my mentors as small gods whose feat is unattainable, but now, the reverse seems to be case as I have developed capacity some of my colleagues are yet to attain, while I have even surpassed the achievement of my some of my mentors in some quarters.
In all these, they are all surprised how it happened. Some are yet to comprehend or articulate the feat. It’s just like watching a film where everyone slept and woke up to see the game and tides have changed. The secret behind it is the seed time and harvest time. I was probably learning the trade while in the wilderness, and when the training season matured and ripe enough to be harvested, I became attractive to almost everyone who loved the seed I was producing.
There are litany of examples of people, who have been in the wilderness during the seed planting season. Let’s take a case study of Joseph in the Bible, his journey to stardom took a little twist. Despite the travails he experienced in the hands of his siblings who sold him, his experience while in the jail, and with Portiphar’s wife, who tried to seduce him; they were all set ups for success. The moral here is Joseph seed time and harvest time was quite different, it wasn’t a smooth journey. Ordinarily, one would have cursed his siblings or his friends who were with him in prison and forgot him after they were released. But at the end of time, everything worked out for his favor. Joseph’s seed days were his dark days while in the wilderness.
Another inspiring story of note was that of Pastor Ibukun Awosika, the former board Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria. She once shared a pathetic story during her formative years of being in business. According to her, she sojourned for about 15 years. She cried because lines were not adding up for her and she wouldn’t do what her contemporaries were doing to get opportunities. At a point in her business, it appeared like she was in a race of own life because everything seemed to be against her, but at the appropriate time, lines began to fall in place for her. Appointments, business opportunities, favours and goodwill began to fall in place for her. Again, she had a fair share of seed time.
An interesting question I would like to ask you is, what’s your seed time? Have you ever been in the wilderness when you appeared to be fixed? It’s unfortunate many people are not willing to pass through the storms or experience seeds and harvest time. Amidst all these, one must do some work before they get opportunities. However, before such opportunities will come up, one will have to plant the seed.
In conclusion, seed time and harvest time is critical in the journey of life. Take a seat and determine what seed you would like to sow and what you’ll like to harvest.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
By Eric Elezuo
The Senate has suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghen for six months over her sexual harassment accusation and other disputes against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
The Senate also withdrew her salaries for the period of the suspension, as well as her security details.
The chamber however, soft-pedaled on the salaries and allowances of her aides, who it was argued would not have any source of livelihood within the period.
Globacom is welcoming new customers on its network with the introduction of the e-SIM. The e-SIM activated in any Gloworld shop or Dealer outlet comes with an introductory free 5GB data when the customer buys a data plan of N1,500 or more.
Customers already on other networks can now join the Glo network with e-SIM as an additional SIM. Existing Glo customers can also enjoy this “SIM-less” freedom.
With the e-SIM, customers no longer have to worry about space for a physical SIM on their phones. The e-SIM is a software-based digital chip built directly into smartphones or wearable devices, thus eliminating the need for a physical SIM card for customers.
The use of e-SIM enables customers to have seamless switching between phone numbers without a physical SIM. It is ideal for upwardly mobile people who travel frequently. The e-SIM also guarantees security, as unlike physical SIM, it is harder to remove from devices. It is also eco-friendly and reduces plastic waste.
Globacom’s launch of the e-SIM enables enables it to cater to high-net-worth individuals and enterprise customers, and it also reinforces the company’s commitment to providing seamless and future-ready services to its customers.
A customer seeking to activate the Glo e-SIM needs to check the compatibility of the mobile handset by dialling *#06# on his or her phone. If an EID number reflects on the mobile screen, the device is e-SIM compatible.
“The customer can then proceed to the nearest Gloworld shop or Glo Dealer outlet to migrate to e-SIM. The process takes only a few minutes and the customer can thereafter begin to enjoy the use of an e-SIM”, the Marketing Department disclosed.
