Moment and Journey

Six years ago, I stood before a crowd of young men, youths with a world of plain uncertainties before them...before us all.

It was my last week at the University, and somehow I was selected to share my experience about my four years in school, and give a Valedictory speech stemmed on encouraging those remaining in school to live up to their potentials... I spoke a few words in 15minutes... All I knew I said, and all I wasn't sure of, I stated.

A few months ago, I was blogging when I got a mail from some guy who had found me on facebook, thanking me for the speech I made then, it had helped him have a good idea what he should do with his life, he changed his course, graduated, and now he works at a multinational company.

It was the first and last time he has heard me speak at any meeting... One moment, changed his entire journey. Now makes me really think about how important our journeys in life are, compared with the tiniest, insignificant moments of our entire lives.

If you live in Lagos, Nigeria or have been there before, you'd understand this example. Let's say you live in lagos, and you're driving, usually they say you should assume all drivers are mad, except you. So you get on the road, some driver overtakes you, you honk at him and shout the F-word, you move a little more, and another car almost hit yours, you give him a piece of your mind, giving him the middle finger at will. And just when you thought the traffic was lighter, another car hits you behind, possibly scratched your rear 'bumper'...you hit the brakes, get out of your car and hurl the driver out of his car, and rain a couple of abusive words on him, when he tried to trade words, you slap him to keep him quiet.

Now you must feel justified, cos you're in the right, how could he dare to trade words with you, afterall he's wrong, besides he hit your Toyota Venza with his stupid Datsun car, clearly no match.

If you think critically about this, you'd notice that, you never got angry because he scratched your bumper, but you built the anger over time... And those pent up moments made up your journey... The slap.

Critically, we can look at our lives as an accumulation of moments; family backgrounds, schools we went to, friends we kept, places we worked, decisions we made... Moments. We all know that we don't arrive at destinations once we start the car, the destination is a cumulative of every meter, kilometer travelled...

In life, the quality of our destinations are just as important as the way we use our moments; the words we speak, things we do, think or purpose to achieve; the way we treat those we meet along our paths, the impact we make on others.

Jesus, in His description of the judgment day, explained how some had neglected the helpless; "when I was hungry, you did not feed me, when I was naked, you did not clothe me, when I was in prison,