Last week Saturday, i attended the Refined Conference, an initiative of Pst. Funmi Ovie-Daniels, founder of the Unveiled Woman Network. It was a great meeting! I was greatly blessed. I must not forget to add that i was late though. Lateness is still one of my weaknesses that i’m not even trying to overcome yet. But don’t look at me like that, i’m not that bad. Reason why i won’t tell you the time the meeting started and the time i arrived.
It was my second time attending the Conference this year. Yes, i was late too. But early enough to not miss the Table Talk. This segment of the program entails special guests sharing a bit of their lives with us.
Earlier this year, i remember crying at Anita Okanigbe’s story and wowed at the Timilehin Edwin’s story. I was sure to share it with my friends and family. I thought to myself, ‘thank God they don’t look like what they’ve been through.’
I would say that I was especially blessed by those stories in the last edition because well... I love stories; i never forget stories, i connect better with stories plus i teach children who loves stories.
And in this recent edition, i was blessed again by the wonderful stories of the women of God that spoke.
Don’t ask me what they shared. Cause i’m not going to tell you. Maybe in future posts. Why did you miss it anyway? I can excuse the guys. But you, girl. You missed it? Is it good?
No, right? No problem.
Let me continue. For the Table Talk, we had Mrs. Princess Olufemi-Kayode and Chizobam Ofoegbu tell us something you would never had guessed about their lives. I was seated at the back back back... Listening very attentively to their awe-inspiring stories when my thought flashed back to the last meeting i attended and how it was different women seating on the chair, addressing us.
My mind settled on the word DIFFERENT for a while. Different people. Different experience. Different Story. Different impact.
You know, you are different from me and we have a different story to tell.
I have a story, you have a story, they have a story, we have a story... A story to tell.
It’s a beautiful art.
Pst. Rick Warren in his Purpose Driven Life book said we all have a SHAPE. An acronym for Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality and Experience. I believe these five things sums up our story really. They are the essential ingredients that blends so perfectly to give us our own unique story.
I have an interesting question for you. Where are you right now in your story?
Some of us haven’t grown to discover and fully leverage the potentials deposited in us by God.
Many of us are still setting our hearts on things that does not add any spice other than to make sour our story.
Some of us are still fighting who we are... We haven’t come to accept ourselves the way we truly are. We’re still trying to be someone else. Some of us are trying to fight one weakness or the other.
Some of us are still trying to succeed at our dreams and it’s becoming really frustrating. In fact, we’ve given up.
Some of us are trying to survive. Many of us are ashamed of what we’ve done and been through, we haven’t forgiven our mistakes. While some of us are just scared of the unknown.
We haven’t figured our lives out yet.
And really, it’s okay. If you identify with one or two, it’s okay. It’s okay if that’s the point you are right now with life. It’s okay that you haven’t gotten all of your acts together yet. It’s okay that you’re probably such a mess right now.
IT. IS. OKAY.
It’s all just a part of the story. Let’s call it the boring part of the story; the part filled with so much ignorance, bitterness, anxiety, fear, rejection and disappointments and its likes. It’s just a part. But your story doesn’t end here. Let’s get it to the climax... To the part where Jesus gives you life and life more abundantly. To the part where He gives rest to your soul, the part where in Him, you live and move and have your being. That part where His grace is so sufficient for you, His love so unfathomable, and his mercies forever new.
Dear friend, this part of the story is called GLORY.
I hope you get here soon. Receive Jesus.
