"HOW MANY LOAVES DO YOU HAVE?"

There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but in today's marketing, there is always 'added value.' "Buy two, get one free, register with half a million and stand a chance of winning twenty thousand...." and so on. Two subjects in today's post. Actually three major subjects. First off, the basics. Men and food. Secondly, the fundamental: Questions are answers. Thirdly, the whole point of where we want to go is 'what we have' to start the journey. 

Let us start with the third point. The question above is an excerpt from the Bible. I have been studying the subject of miracles for quite a while. I have noticed that the miracles and the miracle workers almost always required something of those anticipating the miraculous. For some, it was faith. For others it was whatever substance they had. You might think that a soul in adversity has nothing to offer...and you would be totally wrong. A soul in adversity has all that is left for a miracle! You can not count yourself out. You see, miracles are a partnership. Have you ever seen a miracle happen out of the blue...with no participation of a human being in terms of desire, faith, prayer, giving? Have you ever seen a field of corn rise up all by itself? Have you ever seen a seed die and come to life while in the granary?

In a visionary's life, there sometimes is a tendency to depend on a miracle coming from some place else. In that vein, there is also a tendency to neglect 'how many loves you have.' Jesus Christ asked his mentees that question before he could perform a miracle of feeding four thousand MEN. Now, am not into the details. Skeptics might dispel the whole story as a legend...but even then, the HOW is not really for the people in need to figure out. It is for the miracle worker. This kind of mindset will help us accomplish so much. 

Think of any vision that you have right now. Why is it called a vision in the first place? Well, probably it is because you have no clue on HOW it will materialize. All you know for now is that you are thoroughly desirous that it indeed manifests. 

Ladies and gentlemen, it is extremely important for any Life Signatures visionary to ask themselves that all important question, in light of where we are going. What do I have right now? I am not talking about the accounting type of questioning...that is important. Yet I am talking about the insightful deep kind of introspection. "With what I want to accomplish, what do I have right now that I can immediately put into action in relation to where I am going?" 

For some, it is a laptop. For others, a parked vehicle. Others still, a blog. Others, a willing (yet unasked friend). Someone else might be having an Idea undeveloped. Still, someone else might be having a song...or shoes they do not need, or clothes extra, or facebook friends, or twitter followers. "How many loaves do you have?" The answer to this question is an open door to the miraculous, even a liberation from depression and self doubt. You will be surprised with the number when you start counting...since as we have said, questions are answers. Probably people do not have a count of the 'loaves' they have because they have never really deeply asked.

Of course, there is that small bit of putting your 'loaves' on the line. I perceive that the reason most people do not want to take stock of their 'loaves' is that that will expose the 'loaves' from getting out of their lives. Well, if there has got to be multiplication, there has got to be something to multiply with. 'Settling" is such a bad thing. I settle with a parked car ostensibly to maintain my status as a 'car owner'...at the expense of a vision...or worse still, I 'look down' on my 'loaves' saying, "Ah! They are just five loaves anyway. What can they do to server this massive vision?" Oh, that is a biggy, I tell you! The paradox of the miraculous is the use of our 'only' to achieve what we really need, hope, and desire!

Finally, men and food. Well, unfortunately, there isn't a Life Signatures message from those two...just that food is basic. There are basic needs and there are vision needs. At the end of the day, the life of a visionary should be spent for the most part pursuing Life signatures, than the mundane activities of putting food on the table and clothes on the back. That would be killing our potential. A world changer rises above the basics to the important ~being relevant and prominent in changing the stories of the lives of OTHERS.

Have a loaves-filled day, wont you?

THE UNFORTUNATE GAP

Someone has said that success leaves clues. I say that is true. Someone else has said that if you think you are a leader and nobody is following you, you are like one taking a walk in the park. True. Greatness has a way of going beyond the vision bearer. In other words, if you think you are great, then you die and that's all there is about you-your greatness and success go together with you to the grave, I submit that you are not that great. You see, greatness ought to be about others and not about ourselves.

That being said, there is one very unfortunate thing that happens to young people year in and out. For some reason, most parents and guardians have abdicated that crucial responsibility of shaping Life Signatures to the school system. This is completely unfortunate. If I asked, I know I will get responses in droves where young people have come to the cross-roads of their lives and there is no adult 'in authority' to show them the ropes. I watched a movie the other day (based on a true story) called 'We bought a zoo'. I really laughed out when a teenager tells the dad that he has never taught him how to shave. The dad in turn tells the kid (who has now gone into his room and locked the door behind him), "let's shave son, lets shave!" Needless to say, that statement made my day.

Let me say this: If you are expecting a primary school teacher to train up the young generation on Greatness, Success, Significance and Wealth, you are thoroughly myopic. If you are expecting the school system to be present at the crucial moments of a young person's transition, you are mistaken. With all due respect, the School system must be lauded. Yet at the end of it all, I need to ask myself that one important question: What are the objectives of the school system? To educate people so that they can get jobs. That is OK. Now, have you heard of late of any vast vacancies out there? Any jobs waiting to be filled up? Yet, do you know how many young people are churned out of the school system yearly? Droves! Thousands!

I recently heard Loral Langemeier, a money expert, recount of how she was being interviewed on major media some time back. She was waxing eloquent about how to make money and all...when the interviewing journalist askend her, "Loral, what's your take on un-employement"? She immediately said, "I am contributing to it!" That sounded funny, yet the great point to take here is that life after school ought not to be an automatic job search. I have been championing for all of us who have been there at cross-roads, to be as kind as to look back and proverbially 'pass on the baton' to most of these kids standing at the cross-roads. A good population does not know basics in life like money, tithing, saving, planning, goal setting and all. Yet these are the nuts and bolts that we use out here in life to make a difference.


The unfortunate gap ladies and gentlemen, is when a young person stands at major points of transition in their lives and there is no adult to guide them through. I have been there severally. I am sure it would have been different had there been someone to fill that gap. It is my challenge today that anybody who is a visionary out there to consciously take note of the youths in your circle of influence and endeavor to 'show them the ropes'. Believe me, they are hungry for it. I have been there and I know it full well. As we do, we are offering them 'Permission for Greatness!

Have a gap-filled day, wont you?