LAME EXCUSE FOR GENERATIONAL FAILURE DISALLOWED!

LAME EXCUSE FOR  GENERATIONAL FAILURE DISALLOWED! By FELIX N.JARIKRE

 SCRIPTURAL ANCHOR: GEN.21: 10-21.

Welcome to today’s letter in which we encounter one disturbing and challenging episode in Abraham’s life. Without mincing words, Sarah had said that  Ishmael should be exiled, a persona non grata, and disinherited because he mocked her. To ignore her injunction was detrimental to the husband. The Bible is very clear the very idea coming from Sarah’s mouth, talk less of carrying it out grieved Abraham. Yielding to God’s intervention, Abraham ‘took bread and a bottle of water, gave it unto Hagar’ and sent mother and son into a strange wilderness.

Now here’s a part of scripture that distressed me the first time I came across it.   For real? Bread and bottled water? Only? From a man as wealthy as Abraham?  How mean, cruel, stingy and callous could he be?  Sending your son  defenceless – due to grossly inadequate provision - to a ‘ certain death’ in a

hostile wilderness? Oh God, spare me! Abraham did not give Ishmael anything that remotely suggested financial security or independence. A safety net that would prevent the son from slipping through the cracks into destitution was definitely not in sight. Ishmael’s future looked bleak, precarious and forbidding. Having rescued him miraculously from death, God said of Ishmael: ‘ I will make him a great nation.’  Recently, a debate was sparked in the mainstream media, internet and the blogosphere when Sting, (of Police fame) 62, with a $300 million fortune, who had taught his children how to have a strong work ethic, said: ‘ I am determined that my children should have no financial security. It ruins people not having to earn money. I certainly don’t want to leave them trust funds that are albatrosses round their necks.’  You might agree with Sting (the Stingy?) or not, but what is undeniable is that many accomplished people started with nothing, like Ishmael, and went through  adversity  to achieve considerable success. Bill Gates said: ‘ If you are born poor, it’s not your mistake. But if you die poor, it’s your mistake.’ Many have attempted to explain away their laziness and idleness using the lame excuse of lack of capital. Some say they were born poor, had little formal education. They say lack of access to connections and opportunities has held them back from achieving. They move from there to conclude that the stagnant economy has no job waiting for them. They fail to realize they can move away from zero experience to acquire practical skills, and become indispensable solution-providers. No matter your background, God can still make you a ‘great nation.’ If you have discipline and perseverance,  success is within your reach. Truly, entrepreneurial success has less to do with money, but more with how creative and resilient you are. So don’t settle for less! Lame excuse for generational failure is disallowed!