My uncle gave me two smooth stones of equal size. He told me to hold unto them for 24 hours and not let them them go, and in exchange he’ll give me 2 wraps of my favorite sweet.
As a young boy of 7, this was quite exciting for me. My commitment not to let go of those rocks was directly proportional to my desire for the sweet. It wasn’t a burden at all, I wanted the sweets so I was committed. Nothing took the stones out of my site, my friends saw stones, but I could already taste the sweets. For the joy set before me, I endured the rocks.
My father saw me clutching the rocks, and curiously asked me what was going on. With childish excitement, I explain to him that those stones were 12 hours from maturing into real sweets. My father was impressed, “you have held on to these stones for 12hrs without losing them? Bravo!” My father smiled and rather than let me be, he made me an interesting offer.
My father told me that he wanted to give me 12 wraps of the same sweet, on the condition that I handed over the two stones to him. I thought long and hard about what to do, but my young mind could not process beyond the fact that I trusted my father more, and 12 wraps of sweet, was way more than 2. With my 7 year old mind, I somehow figured it out. Did you figure it out?
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose – Jim Elliot in response to Luke 16:9.
How many of us claim too busy to read the Bible? Oh our lives are full of the things that have no eternal value we have no time for eternity. How often do we have our hands engaged and steadily waiting for that which does not satisfy, when we should keep our hands open to our father for that which only Him can give?
Do we get it at all? That God is the creator of all things, and that what you are holding on to, to make your 90 years on earth decent was made by God, and less priority to Him than the gift of His son and the coming to fullness of the same in your heart and life? Do you trust your Father enough to know that His promises are sure? Do you know that God’s reputation is 24 Carat Gold with a lifetime guarantee and His decisions accurate down to the nth degree?
Why then do we struggle? Why do we find it hard to truly seek first His kingdom, and watch all other things fall in place according to His will. If we truly seek Him, He will alter our desires, alter our appetites, reformat our entire existing operating system, install in us afresh and He’ll determine what else can work in Him. Stop holding passionately to what will not last, find new freedom is surrendering, truly surrendering to Christ and living for Him.
I hope you understand.
Kind Regards
Adeolu Akinyemi
