MISSING SCREW

In one of my speeches at the United Nations headquarters general Assembly hall in New York, I shared with over two thousand people from a hundred and twenty five countries in the world a story, in the quest to try to motivate and inspire them to discover their purpose and potential in life and be the best they can be for the growth, progress and development of our world and generation.

It was a great platform for me to challenge the status quo and to motivate my generation to bring about the desired change we hope for but as I reflect and think about that now, a lot goes through my mind, I see now how that very story relate and reflect my life and the purpose which I was created for.

I will like to share this story with you today and how I myself have come to see and react to this very story. It is a story of a missing screw, a story of purpose, a story of a man who went to a sports store and bought himself a gym equipment for exercise and training, on reaching home, he decided to assemble his new equipment without using the user manual, he happily assembled his machine part by part, haven been conversant to the equipment over a long time of using such, at the end of his efforts, he was able to assemble his machine but was left with one screw that has nowhere to fit in or to tie it to. He wasn’t bothered or worried about it as the machine was functioning, so he thought to himself and said probably the manufacturers added an extra screw just in case there is a problem with any of the screws or if any did not fit, he could replace it with the extra. That made a lot of sense, he figured. But as he began to use his new gym equipment, it began to malfunction and it got him worried that this new machine was not serving the purpose for which he bought it, after doing all he could to salvage and fix his machine without success, he went back to this sports store and complained to the customer care and management, so they sent in their technicians along with him to see what and where the problem was, and to see if it is a fixable problem or one that will require them to replace the matching for him with a new one.

After all their efforts and skills, they couldn’t trace or locate where the problem was coming from, so they decided to dismantle this already assembled machine as a last option to try to fix it, after losing the machine, they began to reassemble it part by part, while they are doing that, they discovered that a screw was missing, a very important screw, a point on the machine was left empty and because of that, the machine could not function the way it was designed to function. they asked if the man has seen any missing screw, yes, there was one the man answered, I couldn’t located where it was meant for so I assumed it was an extra screw that was provided. They explained to him the importance and work of that particular screw as they fixed it to it right place. This machine functioned properly afterwards and the man enjoyed his gym equipment for as long as he could. What am I trying to say? This story can be applied in our lives on earth, the machine represents the world we live in and how we as individuals are the screws needed to make this machine to function appropriately. Each of us came into this world with a purpose that the manufacturer which is God has in mind and has assigned for us, without discovering this purpose or plan for our life, we make the machine to malfunction because there will be a lacuna or a vacuum that needs to be filled for the machine to function as designed, therefore if we are not living to our full potential on earth, we serve as a hindrance for others to also live to the fullness of their potential as well, it means that we all have a role to play and we need to discover that in order to move our world forward. At a point in my life, I believed that I have found my place on this machine and have been contributing my quota to move and make the machine effective and have been putting in effort to see that I help and encourage others to find their place on this machine for the world and my generation to function properly.

Recently, in my life, the manufacturer was conducting a maintenance and repairs on His machine and I discovered that in as much as I feel that I have found my true purpose and place in this world but in the eyes of the maker, I was a missing screw, a lost screw and I was not rightly placed, in fact I found myself in a different product, a different machine and not that which the maker has designed me for, because I neglected the manual and was depending on my ability and knowledge of the product. Even though in the eyes of men, many might consider me to be someone who has figured it out, or has found my passion, my aim and expertise. At a point in my life, I thought so too and have been busy building and working in that light or so I believed. But because I was not walking in the purpose of the creator my impact was not concrete or viable as I was created to be.

As a motivational speaker, a development worker, a trainer and in all the self help books I have read over time, all tend to offer same predictable steps to finding life’s purpose; consider your dreams, clarify your values, set goals, figure out what you are good at, aim high, be disciplined, believe it, involve others, go for it and never give up. All this recommendations often leads to success, you can usually succeed in reaching your goals if you put your mind to it, but being successful and fulfilling your life’s purpose are not at all the same, you could reach your personal goals and become a raving success by the world’s standard and still miss the purpose for which the maker created you. God is the manufacturer, we are made by his purpose and for his purpose and the reason why we miss out of that which we are created to be or do is because we ask self centered questions like what do I want to be? What should I do with my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, and my dreams for my future? But focusing on our selves will never reveal our life purpose. Contrary to what the world portrays in books, movies, and seminars, you cannot discover the meaning of life by looking within yourself, which was what I have been doing and you probably have done that too or still do.

The created cannot decide what they are created for; it is only in God that we can discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead-end. You were made by God and for God and until you understand that, Life will never make sense.

Discovering this truth, I began a journey to understand the true purpose of my existence by seeking the creator and reading the manual. The easiest way to discover the purpose of an invention is to ask the creator of it, the same is true about discovering our life’s purpose; ask God! God has not left us in the dark to wonder and guess, He has clearly revealed His purpose for our lives through the bible which is our owner’s manual telling us why we are created, how we are to live, how life works, what to avoid and what to expect in the future. God is not just a starting point of our life, He is the source of it, so to discover our purpose in life, we must turn to God’s word not the world’s wisdom, and we must build our life on an eternal truth not psychology of the world