When I was in the UK for my masters degree, some of my friends were looking for a part time job in order to make some money. Our student visa allowed us 20 hours of work weekly and some International students wanted to take advantage of that. I told my friends I was also looking for work, and to let me know what they see. They immediately asked me, why do you want to work?

You already paid for your accommodation for an entire year, your parents send you money monthly, we are working to pay bills and take care of our feeding, you are working for what? what do you need a job for? I did not bother explaining much to them, because I knew that for them to ask me those kind of questions, then they would not be able to really understand my reasons, so I continued my job hunt with them. However, because of my international student status, I couldn’t get any kind of “professional” job, so when I finally took up a stock counter job, they were puzzled at first.

We would go on these jobs that paid minimum wage, where we would spend hours counting items in big stores like Morrisons. We would be in the warehouses or store aisles counting boxes and pieces of items. Our fingers would go numb from counting hundreds of frozen items in the freezer and some times, we would have to stand in the cold room counting cold stock. We would have some minutes break and be back to sitting on the floor counting sweets, rice, bread and other groceries or counting clothes, towels and underwear if it were a clothing store. The work was intense as our productivity (counts/minute) was monitored through our scanners and there was a scoreboard at the end of every job, and your probability of being assigned a next job depended heavily on how productive you were in the prior one, so if you wanted to keep working, then you must continue to do good work.

On some days that I worked, I would end up dragging myself through the brutal Sheffield cold and get back to my apartment at 1 or 2 am, and still wake up to attend classes that day. At another time, I tried to get a factory job where sandwiches were being prepared but I did not get it, so I continued with my stock counter job till I finished my program.

The reality is there were times when I asked myself if I was “okay”, here I was, living in one of the best postcode area in Sheffield, yet dragging myself through crazy conditions to earn money I did not have to earn and which did not make any significant addition to what I had, but whenever that thought came up, I immediately reminded myself;

I AM IN TRAINING.

Paul says in Galatians that as long as a heir is a child, he is no different from a servant, even though he is lord of all. I firmly believe that if a heir is not properly trained, they would not be able to manage or truly value what they later come to own, and may end up like the prodigal son.

I could not explain to my friends because I did not know how to explain to them in a manner that they would really understand where I was going or what my aim was. The goal was to get and continue to keep myself at a point mentally, where it did not matter, what was available or not to me. To get to a point where I understood the value of whatever comes into my hand and to never be threatened by the work required to sustain whatever life gives me. To get to a point where if nobody I knew supported me, I would be confident in the fact that I and God were already majority, so that when I get to points in life, where I find myself looking left, right, center and I do not see anyone, I would not be moved or shaken.

So, I knew that I must be able to train myself properly and continuously such that the need to fall back on pleasure or “easy life” or mediocrity is never an option worth considering, no matter what.

I acknowledge the fact that life has given me privileges that I would not have been able to earn and I think the only thing to do with those privileges is to be worthy of them, by using them wisely and by not misusing, abusing or taking them for granted, else I forfeit them.

As I get older, I see the impact some of these decisions have had on me. I also realize that my ability to make these types of decisions is largely influenced by how my parents raised I and my siblings; to never allow what they provided define the way we approach life. They have trained us such that even if walking in purpose requires that we exchange a 10 room house for a 1 room house, we are equipped to make that switch and go through the process. Does a bigger house make life easier? Yes, but does it place any hold on me? No. They have taught us repeatedly that if pleasure is not managed properly, it can be the biggest threat to purpose.

Some days, I find myself in tight spots, at points where I have to walk hard roads, where I ask God to help me and He reminds me, you have been trained for this place, now use the skills you built, and so I find myself navigating the terrain without fear. Some days I sit and tell myself, Ayooluwa, it looked like you were crazy then, but those decisions and choices prepared you, and this harder terrain and tougher decisions is only making you stronger for what’s to come.

I want to encourage anyone who thinks life is so unrelenting in the hardships or challenges it brings their way, to first of all ask themselves if those challenges could be as a result of their mediocre efforts, and if they can answer no, to then change their perspective, and begin to consider the challenges as training. To understand that it is only through fire that gold is purified and only through pressure, diamonds are formed. Something beautiful happens when you change your perspective about what life throws your way. When you see it as a training; you begin to proactively interact and engage with that training. Instead of folding your hands and saying “woe is me”, you begin to look for ways to understand the training manual, to figure out solutions, you begin to ask yourself what other “course material” are out there that I can learn from, what other approaches can I use to tackle this question. It is when you think of every thing happening as a big question, that you ask the Holy Spirit for directions and answers.

What this approach does is to put you in a situation where you are actively involved in the process of becoming a stronger person, and so what was causing you to be “weak” gradually becomes the thing that strengthens you, and before you know it, you are in a position where you are stronger than the thing itself.

I also want to challenge people who have “everything going well” for them, who have all what they need, to find a way to keep putting themselves in a mindset of “training”. You do not have to work in a factory or something like that, but there are always ways to stay ready. It could be learning new skills, reading new books, volunteering your time; anything that would keep you out of complacency. This is because life happens in twists and turns, and while you may never encounter any situation where you want for material things, you can find yourself in situations where your mental fortitude is what will make you outlive them, or come out from them without losing your entire self. At that point, it is the training you have and continue to give yourself that God will use to empower and sustain you. The Bible says we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Our part here is to equip ourselves and keep “doing”, in fact it is through our doing, that we understand the immense strength Christ can give us.

That’s one of the biggest differences between people who “died” in the storm and people who rode out the storm. They have trained themselves to navigate whatever type of road appears before them, to grow from whatever outcome life brings their way, and so when the storm came, they put on courage and kept going in the strength of Christ. They understand that problems are processes and outcomes are lessons, irrespective of how positive or negative they may be and they keep building on them and growing through them.

Today, I have no gripes about being in the process because I understand the strength it would bring me, and I know I need that strength for where God is taking me to. I have no desire to short cut or fast track process because I truly want to be the world class product God has made me to be. I understand that process is God’s shaping tool to mold me exactly as He wants me to look, and I am also learning to always yield my desired “pot shape” to what He wants to mold me into. I know that whatever He decides that I am formed into can only be exceedingly abundantly above what I can decide to make myself into, so my only job is to continue to allow myself to be taken apart, put together, molded, marred and formed through the process of life’s continuous training and to never allow myself slip to a point where the things available to me begin to make me eat the bread of complacency.

It can be hard on some days, as you just want to slip into the warmth of comfort, but then I remember that purpose can never be found within your comfort zone, I remember my parents telling me; if pleasure is not managed properly, it can hinder purpose. So I keep asking God to strengthen me, because at the end of the day, God does not measure a successful life in terms of wealth amassed but in terms of lives impacted and purpose fulfilled.