Courage to Shine.

Courage to Shine

“You are here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world…Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand – shine!” (Matthew 5: 14-16, MSG)

As I write this message, my mind is filled with adrenaline for the next level of my journey in entrepreneurship. Just six years ago, at the age of 20, I enlisted in God’s army of light in the business world or the marketplace. Before that, I almost lost my life trying to run away from the call of God to go into business because I lacked courage to execute the vision I was given as a sophomore year student in the University. I am grateful that God in his infinite mercies took me out of the belly of the fish and brought me back to my Nineveh (a story for another day).?

It took a course correction to accept the call to create, serve, build and lead. That required tremendous courage and I had lots of it since I escaped death (both physical and spiritual). It’s now 2023 and looking back I have grown in many ways, I have fought the worst parts of my idiosyncrasies and triumphed over my weaknesses. I have built resilience, patience and faith. I have faced tremendous failures, disappointments, heartbreaks, painful and somewhat irreplaceable losses, self-doubts, delays, frustrations, confusion, overwhelm and sometimes compared my journey with peers. I have experienced many beautiful moments, met amazing people, traveled the world and went to bed hungry some nights.

The highs and lows, the ebbs and flows..up and down..yet rise and shine! - Chibunna Ogbonna

This next phase is a call to come up higher. I have learned many lessons and built some muscle yet there’s still so much to learn and become. This next level requires even more courage to be a beginner, to experiment, to accept temporary failure as a pointer to what works and to take risks whether calculated or miscalculated. For me, I feel a bit scared but I am not afraid. I can see what it will demand of me and a part of me doesn’t want that part. Yet, I know that without doing these drills and taking these steps of faith, I cannot ascend to the glorious elevation predestined for me. You see, our lives are predestined but not without our participation. Predestination is not without your permission. God cannot become you for you. He already made you and assigned you for a great work but you have to find it, accept it, work it and become it. You’ve got to shine!

There may be hundreds of players in the same industry where you are called to serve. You may feel ill-equipped, too young or too old to take your position - yet, what you feel is not a priority here. You have been called, you have been equipped and that’s on period! - Go and Shine! Go and serve! Go now! Shine!

“I‘ve picked you. I haven’t dropped you. Don’t panic. I’m with you. There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.”

(Isaiah 41:9b-10, MSG)

Do you desire to know why you are here? Are you confused about what your calling is? I invite you to experience Jesus, our friend and King who died on the cross to save you and the whole of humanity, even those unborn from the shackles of sin, darkness and blindness to the light of God’s purpose and will.?

“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone”

(Ephesians 1:11-12, MSG)

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