Success is not always the child of struggles
Profit is not related to sweat; God sets it
Faith, time and chance work their parts
Preparedness and commitment, the rest.
Faith without work leaves the pocket dry
The plate empty, and belly rumbling.
Wishful thinking, dreaming, hollow claims
Cancerous regrets, all get us nowhere near.
God’s blessings rest on all the same but
Mark a heart thriving in faith, with hands
That fear no dirt, and feet that weary not:
It will grow and though it falls, it will stand
Rooted deep; multiplying, dominating.

Food For Thought: Experience is not one of my favorite teachers but the wisdom it imparts is unforgettable. My dad would say that a wise child doesn’t have to learn by experience but taps lessons from others and grows thereby. That means it is not always very wise to wait until experience has to re-teach us, lessons it has already made available through histories littered all around us. Lessons we can cheaply adopt for our own good and the good of those around us. Lessons we miss because we take too much for granted. To me, experience is one of the most expensive ways to learn. One of those lessons experience left me with is that success and sweat are not related. Wealth is not a product of sweat because those who sweat the most don’t earn the most. This is not to encourage laziness, God forbid! The times I labored the most in my life were the times I earned the least. I worked from dawn to dusk, no rest in between and at the end of the day when I put out my hand with my meager take home, I learned one of the most impactful lessons of my life – success is not dependent on labor. There are elements of knowledge, wisdom, timing, positioning, and all of these garnished by grace. Since then, I learned that we ought not just to work hard, we must also build on skills and work with open eyes and heart because opportunities don’t ring bells when they come.

Scripture: Also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2: 17.

Prayer: Dear Lord, may I pour all my trust in You and all my energy in that which You have committed to me, and when my part is done, help me trust and wait on Your enduring reward, amen.