Faith & Life Lessons - 9 May, 2021
Welcome to the May 9th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
When Doing the Right Thing Takes Much Thought ...The Story of My Week
I had one of those difficult decision-making weeks at work.
One of the projects was up for government approval. All our documents were in place and we were up to date on fees.
The only problem was the government team that needed to come and inspect the project ahead of final approval said they could not bring their equipment to the site.
According to them, they would need our help to bring their team and equipment to the site. The help would be pecuniary.
I spent the whole of Wednesday night and Thursday morning wrestling with this.
Was this a bribe? Would I be perpetuating corruption? I was committed to not pay any bribe. But I needed to know if this was one.
By the way, this was not in Nigeria. It was another African country.
After meditating on scriptures and asking all the necessary questions, I came to a decision. A decision I could face God for, knowing I was doing the right thing.
But one thing was clear, I need to have a base of wise people who can come in to advise me in the future when I face such similar decisions.
People who have the view that Christians should shine as light in the marketplace.
This was on my to-do list.
Now I’m moving it to the priority list.
Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Proverbs 11:14
Things I Learnt
1-Why You do it vs What they think: I was listening to Guy Raz's interview with the two founders of the clubhouse app on his NPR podcast “How I Built This”.
During the interview, Guy remarked that in the early days of the app launch, a friend had called it an exclusive app where you could connect to select people.
He asked the creators if this is what they set out to do.
The app creators, Paul Davison & Rohan Seth, had had previous experience of launching apps, with failures and successes.
When they were creating Clubhouse, the important thing for them was to get the features and user experience of the app right.
The “join-by-invite” approach was their way of managing the number of people getting on the app in order not to overwhelm them. They were only working with a two-man team - themselves.
It’s interesting how the outside viewed this.
Even now, there are still complaints because it is only on the Apple store and there is no exact date for the android version.
Someone explained that it was their way of leveraging on consistent hardware without having to create any tweaks.
The hardware in question is the phone microphones. iPhones are manufactured by only one company - Apple. The mic quality is consistent across all iPhones.
But you have various companies making Android phones with varying mic quality. No need to start going into that ecosystem for an app that launched in April 2020 with a very lean staff.
That same exclusivity argument was made about this but the creators were just taking little steps on the way to making a great product.
It takes courage to remain consistent when you continue to be misunderstood.
I learned that from them.
2-Your Simple Acts Creating Big Ripples: A husband of a friend of my wife was thanking her for her friendship with his wife. According to him, my wife had been an air of positivity to his wife.
The friendship was one of the good tonics helping his wife through challenging times.
This surprised my wife. Over the past couple of weeks, she has had a lot on her plate - post-surgery recovery, nursing baby and an occasional traveling husband.
All she did was meet with the friend when they could. Have her over to the house when time afforded both of them.
And these little acts seemed to be going farther than she knew.
It reminded me why I should not be overawed by the folks doing the big stuff on giant stages.
The little stuff I can do in small ways in everyday relationships might help life in ways I may never know.
I won't be waiting till I can do the big stuff.
I will keep doing the small stuff I find the opportunity to do.
I'll try to be faithful to the small stuff.
Keep at it - even if that is all Christ is going to find me doing.
When He comes back again.
And if I get to stay longer.
I'll keep rocking my life that way
Until it's my time to roll.
Postscript
May you be reminded that when Jesus said "let your light shine before men so that they may praise your Father in heaven", it also included the small stuff in life. May you not forget to do the small stuff like giving a kind word, being friendly to someone, being a listening ear, show patience, and the likes all for Christ Sake. Amen
Tata,
Tola - The Everyday Disciple
I help Christians like you who want to live intentional lives incorporate their faith into everyday life so they can make Christ focused decisions in all areas of life and truly live to make an impact and make God happy.
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