LESSONS

The last few days have been rather eventful. This blog is a mixture of everything so bear with me. I’m sitting here thinking about life and the lessons we encounter. If I had to summarize the past week, these would be the lessons I took out of it.

1. Life isn't all bad

A few days ago I read a post by Pastor Jay Mokhethi, a man I have come to respect because of the manner in which He portrays himself and how his posts always seem to be relevant and exactly what I need to hear. On the referred to post, he posted a picture of himself playing the piano and went on to explain how both the black and white buttons need to be played together to create a melody. One cannot exist without the other. He further explained that the black buttons represented the dark times in our lives and the white the good times we have. So just like you need both the black and white buttons to make music, you need the good and bad times in your life. 

I read this post and I thought how profound. Then it took me back to the amazing weekend I just had in Durban and how I came back a day later to be in tears because of things that were happening at school. In the moment when I read the post, I remembered that life is not all bad. We have to learn to enjoy the good times and also have the assurance during bad times that it won't last forever. We have to be willing to take the good with the bad because ultimately they all work out for our good and make life what it should be. 

Just like the seasons change, we have to keep hope alive during the dark times because they serve a purpose and allow us to enjoy and appreciate the good times. Whatever dark place we may be in now, we must know that it will pass because life isn't all bad. 

2. You have to fight for what you believe in. 

Things aren't handed over to us even the ones we surrender to God, we often have to do our bit and trust Him to do the rest. This particular lesson I took from my fight with the University. While I am busy working towards my third degree, I was expected to repeat modules that I had already done in my first degree. Not one to just accept things blindly, I have been going from this Department to the other trying to get answers. This went on for a month till frustration got the better of me and I sent an email to the University Management and my issue was resolved within hours. Had I not fought this, I would have spent an extra year on my studies trying to do what I had already done. Had I not fought about what I believe in, I would have wasted time that I don't have at my disposal. 

We always have a choice in life, we can lay dead and complain about the cards we have been dealt or we can wipe the tears off our faces and fight to be heard. A win is not always guaranteed but even when you lose, you can walk away feeling that you did your best and that you fought for what you believe in. 

3. God always comes through

It’s so easy to be filled with doubts when dark times hit you and you forget about all the times that God has come through for you. 

When I woke up this morning, I received a message that left me shaken and feeling cornered. I had no plan up my sleeve; I didn't know how I was going to get out of this one. I felt like it's just one battle after the other and as always when you try to work in isolation to God's intervention, you feel defeated and don't have the answers that you seek. I left home with a troubled heart but the day had to go on and commitments had to be attended to. 

When I got to the school we work with to see my client, I overheard some of my classmates talking about what was the perfect solution to my predicament. My heart jumped with joy but I also wanted to kick myself for having doubted the power of God in the morning. 

He came through for me, in the exact moment when I was feeling overwhelmed. It wasn't a coincidence that I would be sitting next to people who happened to be discussing what was troubling me, it was God. I know all too well about the times when it feels like we can't hear His voice, my whole life has been made up of such moments but every time they crept up, they were overshadowed by how God came through for me.

Life will always have those moments but our faith need to be so strong that we are not shaken because in His perfect timing, when the work has been completed, He will give you the answers that you seek because God always comes through.