By what standard?

 By what standard?

I remember quite vividly when I got admission into the University. Now I’m in my 4th year in medical school but then I discovered that all courses were not given equal attention. This was surprising to me because I came from a secondary school where we were advised to treat all courses with the same importance. Meanwhile here in the university, courses were graded according to units. The highest unit course then was GST 101 which had 4 units,a course I considered as irrelevant while Physics had just 2units. I discovered that there were courses you could afford to get a C in and your CGPA will barely be affected and there are others like GST 101 that can make or mar your CGPA. People outside the system didn’t understand this and they’d cheer you for passing a 2unit course. I had a friend in Architecture, Prince who told me then that the highest unit in his department was attached to their JURY(I think He said 6 units). This was even more surprising. We were in the same University but our successes were graded by different Standards. 

Most times we tend to measure our success by how Society describes us. So they get to determine if we’re successful or not. But we fail to realize that eventually, what matters is God’s grading system and in His system, there are core courses as well as those courses that are not so relevant. It is possible for you to succeed in the things consider as ‘big deals’ but fail in those ‘minor things’ that make the difference. So the important question here isn’t if you’re successful or not but By what standard? Peter understood this clearly, that’s why he said. ‘Is it not better to obey God and disobey man?’. You have to understand that in the end when all the praising and cheering is gone, you’ll eventually have to face the Ultimate Judge and He’s the one that’ll get to determine if you’re successful and by how much?

You also have to realize that we all have a specified, personalized walk with God which is different for all of us. Yes, there are points where we all agree like GST but ultimately our grading systems are different just like mine was different from that of my friend in Architecture. Imagine my friend had copied me by taking his GST as the most important course because I did so, we’d probably have been performing CPR on his CGPA by now. So your spiritual mentor after school, abandoned his career to become a Pastor based on what God asked Him to do. You, a clueless human being did the same, not knowing that by continuing in your career, there were specific people God needed to save through you. You have to understand that there’s a specified blueprint for our lives, known to the Architect of our lives. So knowing Him and forming a relationship with Him isn’t just a condition, our lives depend on it. 

So when you describe yourself as a success, make sure you listen to the still small voice whispering, By what standard?

Edeh Ebenezer