O no, don’t weary the tester!
It is guilty of nothing but doing its job;
The tester didn’t pick you, it didn’t set the test,
It cannot choose you, the timing or the setting
It is all set by that power beyond.
O no, let the tester be
It didn’t choose the changes;
It didn’t choose the colors
All it did was reflect what’s inside:
What it showed was what you tendered.
Yes please, blame not the tester
It is guilty of nothing but doing its job;
The tester didn’t make you what you’re not
It cannot choose your grades: you did
It only interpreting what you submitted.
There is no accidental existence: every life has a purpose; a purpose that must be discovered, a path that must be endured, benefits that must be enjoyed, in order to be counted a success. We’d rather blame people and circumstances for our failures. If truth must be told, they didn’t make us fail. People and events are not responsible for our successes and failures. It’s just like saying the teacher or the test is to blame for our failure. Not at all, they didn’t fail us. And failure is not telling a lie against us either. Each of these have their roles to play but overall, what they do is reveal what is on the inside; that we are not who, what and where we assumed. We are not yet capable of beating what we just faced. We are not ready yet for that dream. We are not yet where we ought to be. That doesn’t mean we will never be capable or ready. No, it just says given where we are now, with what we have, just as we are: not ready.
Circumstances don’t make us what we are not. No they don’t fail us. They come to prove. The ultimate results lie with us – our performance determines our grades. The tester reveals the result but doesn’t determine it: we do. Because the majority are so busy blaming everyone and everything else, they continue to fail. Until we rise up and take responsibility for our failures, we are not ready to change the story. Those persons and things may influence our performance one way or the other but the ultimate performance which determines the result, lies with us. We have to acknowledge it, own it, endure the cost and enjoy the prize whichever the case may be.
When we understand what the goal for our life is, it is our responsibility to know the rules, to train and improve our skills, to play to win, and to not give up no matter how many times we may fail until we emerge winners. People live anyhow when there is no purpose. Without a goal, anything goes. To win, we must play according to rules and who abides by rules they don’t know? Knowledge is therefore inevitable for success. We cannot use or blame ignorance for our failures. If there is a purpose for our lives, if there are rules, and if we must win, the next question that begs our answers becomes, “How ought we then to live?”
Should we live like people whose lives start and end here on earth? Like people who are after all the earth can yield to and for them? Should we continue to live like life is all about what we can get so we strive like everybody else, to get what they have, do what they do, go where they go, however they get there, irrespective of what we consider our life’s purpose. Understanding purpose becomes the litmus paper with which to test everything and everyone that comes our way. It will save us from wastage, consumed chasing winds that are not headed our way. It will help conserve and focus our best for what truly matters and contributes to our life goals. It will help cut back losses as we find our business and mind it and let others be. It will help us live in truth and indeed, in line with our highest goals. It will help redefine our lifestyles and pursuits; determine which engagement to pour ourselves into and those to avoid; relationships to nurture and to discard; in everything we do as we press toward the goal.
Let us wave away the days of ignorance and resolve today to find out and line up with purpose; to discover what our life goal is and how to pursue our utmost priorities. Test everyone and everything that comes your way. Whatever passes through the sieves of that purpose, pursue with all your heart. Whatever is resisted by the sieve you must also resolve to resist and discard – they are not going your way. As for me, my life goal is to be like God: to resemble Him in everything, in every way and what this does is that it demands and delivers the best of me. God-likeness is my litmus paper. Whoever and whatever comes my way, no matter how interesting and exciting, if they will not help me become more like God, bring out the best in me, they are not considered worth my time. What is your own life goal? What is the litmus? You need to discover, define and determine to pursue those or else you are bound to miss it. The choice is yours.
Glory!