Are these quotes about frienship the reality

“Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are”
“Birds of the same feather flock together”
I have heard these quotes many times. I don’t know their author and have not bothered to find out. But I had always questioned their authenticity until around 4am on 25th April, 2010. I had been awaken by multiple mosquitoes bites, there is this invasion of mosquitoes in my area. A battle I have been fighting with different kind of insecticides and there is no hope of victory. This particular morning the mosquitoes won again they successfully woke me up. No thanks to the various adverts on TV by various insecticides making companies about how effective their products are. I have strategies with which I intend to deal with them.

Back to my topic, until this particular morning I had never bothered to question the real meaning of friendship. But some events happened in succession in about a space of two weeks. Cumulatively they all forced me to actually asked a personal question whether I do really have friends. On checking through my friend list I discovered that I do not have any if I had to look at my friends in comparison to the quotes above.

Most of my present friends are people I either met in primary school, secondary school, or in the university. Some of them because we were course mates, some we were room mates, some were my parents friends children, some we met in church, some in beer parlours and some others in clubs. There are even some I met in work environments, some others through another friend.

My concerns is that is there any of these people that are called my friends that I became close to because we share the same values, or share the same belief or because they possess characters that I greatly cherish, no. Please, I am not saying my friends do not have good characters. Some of them will be reading this; you don’t have to be offended. I am only posing a question, which I think will help anyone that share my worries. My question is, did I choose to be close to them because of their good characters. My contention is that friendship is what we should seek out for based on value, beliefs, and dreams. If not, nobody will be able to know us by our friends. Most of our friendly engagements are what I call marriage of convenience.

I think friendship is like trying to woo a lady. You must have seen something of the good value she possesses that you like before making proposals. I think that is how we can truly have friends that we can flock with.

Though overtime there is a life sieve that helps us sort out the different relationships in our lives. Most of these great guys I met in primary school, some we have not seen in years. Some we still talk to each other regularly. Some of them I will really love to meet them again but don't know how to connect with them. The question I want us to genuinely ask ourselves is this. Is the relationship symbiotic or parasitic?
Some of this great folks you will not realize how good or bad they are until you had to do business together. Some until you lose your source of income, or until something affect your health in the adverse. Check your friends list, don’t wait for the natural sieve. If you need a friend go out and make one, sometimes they are more than a brother.  You can not choose a brother, but you can choose your friend..       
 
 

FIGHTING FOR GOD

I have read the words of the bible “that there is nothing new under the sun” a few times; likewise heard it from people of diverse backgrounds. The perennial events in my country and the world seem to confirm these words. Analyzing, Jos crisis added to the lines Al Qeada use in justifying their selfish acts.

Studying, my bible a few days a go as I habitually do. I am not trying to throw up my religiousity. I do study my bible because I want to be prosperous and have good success. And my bible teaches that if I study its word day and night that I would achieve my aim. For this reason I daily spend between thirty minutes to an hour to engage in this study.

The essence of this write up is not to preach the bible, I would be doing that when I become as wealthy as I want, thereby share my discoveries. The reason for this article is that I came across a story that I think can shed light on the crisis that has engulfed Jos and the entire northern part of Nigeria. Oh I wish Osama Bin ladden would read this, so share this on your face book. Peradventure he may have a facebook account. How I wish the people that started the killings in Jos would learn from this, this might bring out the real motives behind the killings.

Judges 6:30-32 “Then the men of the city commanded Joash, bring out your son that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah besides it. But Joash said to all who stood against him. Will you contend for Baal, let him be put to death while it is still morning. If Baal is a god, let him contend for himself because one has pulled his altar.”

The story that ended with these scenes, I think is similar to what is happening in our world today. Started when a young Israelite was spoken to by Jehovah. According to history the founder of Israel, Abraham entered into a covenant with El shaddai that as long as he served Him, he would protect him. So He became their God and they became His people. He did mighty things in their midst, but generations after forgot about this God and followed other gods. But a young man, Gideon had a revelation of El shaddai like Moses did. Then he destroyed the altar of Baal another god worshiped by Israel. This he did in the secret of the night because he was afraid of the people’s reaction. He did not just destroy this altar, the issue was that Israel was under oppression of another nation and Baal would not stop the onslaught from their enemy. So Gideon was disturbed, then the insight that their trouble was a result of a broken covenant with El shaddai.

Lesson, I thought Gideon should be more fearful of a Baal, a god rather than her worshippers. So, when the people discovered that the altar of Baal had been destroyed they wanted to fight for Baal and kill Gideon. Gideon father confronted them with these all times valid truth he told them to allow Baal to defend itself. Let the gods fight for themselves, why the reverse I thought gods should be able to destroy or create humans?

My message to all the people fighting on god’s behalf, killing another human for the sake of a god. Which kind of god are you serving, is she an image or he is the object, the real thing and you are his image. If your God is truly alive, let him defend himself and stop killing on his behalf.


An altar is place of worship examples are churches, mosques.
If actually our altars are owned by gods and someone got it burnt down, I think we should allow that god to defend his altar. And if a owner of the place of worship will not stop another from burning down his building, he is probably not the owner. Most of these altars belong to men, men profit from them that is why they are willing to kill another for them.

Tell others your real intention you are not fighting for any god but your pockets, your self esteem, you are protecting your territory. Let the truth be known Bin Laden is not fighting for any god he is just hiding behind god to perpetrate evil. Israelites are not fighting for god they are just using god’s name as cover to kill another. All the Muslims, Christians in Jos are not fighting for God they are protecting their territories, the gods should be able defend themselves. I would rather worship a god that can defend itself, if not why pay respect and honour to what depend on me for existence. It should be other way round. I thought he that pay the piper dictates the tune.

WORK

I think strongly that the reason a lot of people have not become financially empowered as they will want to be is lack of the true or deep understanding of the word “work”. In as much as I believe that some of our acts as human are wrongly named. For example I wonder why trade is called business, looking at the etymology (study of history of words) of business it is traced to the state of being busy. From that account it implies that activity is celebrated over profit. I think this is totally incorrect; profit should rank higher than being ‘busy’, because without profit any and all businesses die. That is why I want to promote a change of name.
We can decide to rename this single most important act of man either as profitness, gainess,or wealthiness etc. I will subscribe to any name that promotes productivity, profit rather than the activity.

So I will be using this article to correct one of these many wrong interpretations or poorly organized naming ceremonies, like allowing Lord Lugard mistress the honour to give Nigeria her name, and no protest from our founding fathers.

I will like to approach this definition from science point of view. In science work is the product of force and distance, it is the amount of energy transferred by a force acting through a distance. The force must be applied in a specific direction.
In science there is something like zero work; this is when the force applied does not move a body or its position is not altered, no work is done. For example a book on a table, though a gravitational force is acting on it, in as much the position remain unchanged no work is done.

We must realise...
Work is not activity, which is where a lot of folks are confused. It is not the amount of energy dissipated, nor is it about the amount of effort invested. It is rather Returning on Investment (RoI). So before we start expending energy, we must be able define the distance we want to cover. We must know what we want to accomplish before embarking on the activity. That is what goal setting is all about
Work must be done with the outcome in view. We must clearly define what we intend to achieve. You must be able to answer the question. What am I trying to achieve by taking up this job? When such objectives are not clearly spelt out frustration is inevitable. This singular knowledge turns you into an entrepreneur even while an employee in another person’s office. It teaches you flexibility. Once you realize you are not about achieving your goal, you quickly change jobs, it teaches you professionalism. This lesson is simple, no work is done until you achieve your goal. Understand I am not trying to say that achieving goals is just about taking one giant stride, what I am teaching is that each of your baby steps must be taken with the goal post in view. Don't try to entertain, no drama. It is all about scoring goals, it makes the difference. You don’t get good grades by just writing some things down, you get it by answering the question correctly.

We must realise that air planes, vehicles, sky scrappers, jets, paper were created from the same brains that all of us carry around with our bodies. They are product of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs well used brains. Do you want a car, a house, a beautiful family. Sit down, think, meditate, study, read, pray, be flexible, be dogged. Don’t take no for an answer, anything is possible to him that believes.