And life continues to be eventful even as it is exciting.
I am consistently fascinated by the richness and diversity of the people that I come into contact with day in, day out; and as I reflected on this feature this morning and I thought to myself: what a wonderful world.
I remain exuberantly expectant.
Exuberantly expectant of friendships yet to be made; the business networks yet to be built; and the concomitant great and wonderful experiences to be enjoyed in concert. The knowledge to be shared, the knowledge to be developed. I am grateful for these times.
Leadership, teamwork and excellence happen to be our organisational values. I put it to you that leadership and excellence is remote without teamwork, and I suppose even as I go on about this wonderful world what I am actually celebrating is the value of teamwork, the value of the coming together of people, the coming together of ideas, of experience – and then the makings of creativity, innovation and prosperity.
Moses couldn’t go it alone. His father-in-law advised him to nominate helpers. Jesus, with all His infinite wisdom and omniscience chose not to go it alone and nominated His own fishers of men. God Himself said that it is not good for man to be alone – that he needed a helpmate. He also said that two cannot walk together unless they agree.
No man is an island, and we need relationships to strengthen us, challenge us, celebrate us, and connect us into His purpose. I am learning not to judge on face value but rather to continually commit my days into The Lord’s miracle working hands so that each day brings with it its own discoveries, the makings of fresh friendships and of bright business relationships of His making, even as I nurture those that have been established through His making in times past. And I repeat again, it’s a wonderful world.
One of my favourite passages in the Christian Scriptures is Jeremiah 17:7 which reads: blessed is the man who trusts in The Lord – whose hope The Lord is.
For me these words stem goose-pimpling excitement. I am anticipating exhilarating times ahead. Strangely enough, I am also expecting that these times ahead might be demanding times – demanding of my intellect, my prayer life, my faith, my relationships.
But it’s all good, for that is the rhythm of life. I have learnt that all things work together for the good of them that love The Lord, for them who are called according to His purpose. Since all things will work together for our good, the hard drive of my mind is formatted to be convinced that it IS a wonderful world.
Saturday 23 August 2008
Saturday 2 August 2008
Exercising my Christian Faith
Surrounded by the huge rocks and mountains which distinct the Abuja landscape as we travelled to Kaduna by road from Federal Capital Territory a few days ago, I remembered the Aburi mountains in Ghana. I remembered my early morning running expeditions to the Aburi mountains and for a moment and so very concurrently I missed Ghana and desired to reside in Abuja forever. The clean air; the calming and fascinating landscape; even the excitement of running to the peak of any one of these rocks and mountain.....
And I thought that the God who created me out of mud must Himself be a runner.
There is something absolutely and definitively exhilarating about running, or should I say, exercising per se. Physical exercise uplifts your mood, keeps you fit, makes you stronger physically, promotes mental agility, lowers your stress levels, and, quite frankly, makes you feel so, so, so very goooooooood. And then for a moment all I wanted to do was run.
Reducing stress levels with running focused retail therapy
And that is exactly what I did when I returned to base.
With my stress level threatening to reach boiling point as we worked on spreadsheets all day without our figures correlating , I out went in the late afternoon for a bit of retail therapy at the nearby Nike retail store.
Running shoes, running wear, even a mobile phone holder for my running gear so I could take those all important telephone calls even as I run to reach the peak of Abuja’s exhilarating mountain heights. Without so much as any form of food having passed through my mouth the whole day in the midst of work demands, when I returned to the office from my retail adventure, we somehow managed to reconcile our figures. I think it was the anticipation of the run that did it. I was ready for my run.
One of my colleagues suggested that we should get something to eat since we had not eaten all day. Not me, I said. I need my exercise elixir.
So go running I did. Did I sleep well that night or did I sleep well that night. And it did not stop there. I woke up the next morning all so very upbeat. Throughout the day Ms ArtofLiving was on high alert at the client site. The MBA assignment that I could not even bear to look at let alone attempt to start over the past few weeks began to see the light of day of my thought and consideration.
Oh, the joys of exercise
And then I thought, this thing must be genetic. When I was a child my mother often took me along with her for her sundown walks. One of my sisters, yes, the one I often write about, Ms Christian Writer UK, is a running freak….even worse than me, I think – she buys athlete magazines…!.
Well, genetic or not, I resolved that exercising my Christian faith requires me to exercise my physical body, my intellectual mind and my spiritual soul. Then I went to my road map, the Christian Scriptures, for answers.
Well, I did not find that the Holy Bible preaches directly that we exercise, but it definitely advises us that we stay healthy, and exercise is mentioned as one of those avenues for staying healthy. Try this:
Take good care of our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Ephesians 5:29 tells us, "After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it..."
And the first part of 1 Timothy 4:8 informs us, “For physical training is of some value…”
Even as I write, someone very close to me lies on a hospital bed suffering from a mild stroke, the outcome of diabetes, a sedentary lifestyle and inappropriate eating habits.
So I thought to myself: the Art of Living the Christian lifestyle– exercise your soul in worship of Christ our Saviour, exercise your mind through intellectual engagement [read, read and then after that read some more], and exercise your physical body even so that you can enjoy the fruit of the exercise of your soul and the exercise of your mind.
And I thought that the God who created me out of mud must Himself be a runner.
There is something absolutely and definitively exhilarating about running, or should I say, exercising per se. Physical exercise uplifts your mood, keeps you fit, makes you stronger physically, promotes mental agility, lowers your stress levels, and, quite frankly, makes you feel so, so, so very goooooooood. And then for a moment all I wanted to do was run.
Reducing stress levels with running focused retail therapy
And that is exactly what I did when I returned to base.
With my stress level threatening to reach boiling point as we worked on spreadsheets all day without our figures correlating , I out went in the late afternoon for a bit of retail therapy at the nearby Nike retail store.
Running shoes, running wear, even a mobile phone holder for my running gear so I could take those all important telephone calls even as I run to reach the peak of Abuja’s exhilarating mountain heights. Without so much as any form of food having passed through my mouth the whole day in the midst of work demands, when I returned to the office from my retail adventure, we somehow managed to reconcile our figures. I think it was the anticipation of the run that did it. I was ready for my run.
One of my colleagues suggested that we should get something to eat since we had not eaten all day. Not me, I said. I need my exercise elixir.
So go running I did. Did I sleep well that night or did I sleep well that night. And it did not stop there. I woke up the next morning all so very upbeat. Throughout the day Ms ArtofLiving was on high alert at the client site. The MBA assignment that I could not even bear to look at let alone attempt to start over the past few weeks began to see the light of day of my thought and consideration.
Oh, the joys of exercise
And then I thought, this thing must be genetic. When I was a child my mother often took me along with her for her sundown walks. One of my sisters, yes, the one I often write about, Ms Christian Writer UK, is a running freak….even worse than me, I think – she buys athlete magazines…!.
Well, genetic or not, I resolved that exercising my Christian faith requires me to exercise my physical body, my intellectual mind and my spiritual soul. Then I went to my road map, the Christian Scriptures, for answers.
Well, I did not find that the Holy Bible preaches directly that we exercise, but it definitely advises us that we stay healthy, and exercise is mentioned as one of those avenues for staying healthy. Try this:
Take good care of our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Ephesians 5:29 tells us, "After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it..."
And the first part of 1 Timothy 4:8 informs us, “For physical training is of some value…”
Even as I write, someone very close to me lies on a hospital bed suffering from a mild stroke, the outcome of diabetes, a sedentary lifestyle and inappropriate eating habits.
So I thought to myself: the Art of Living the Christian lifestyle– exercise your soul in worship of Christ our Saviour, exercise your mind through intellectual engagement [read, read and then after that read some more], and exercise your physical body even so that you can enjoy the fruit of the exercise of your soul and the exercise of your mind.
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