STRAIGHT FROM THE PODIUM

Pastor Kola Oladunmoye

 Before I begin this plenty-but-short story *wink*, I must say the aim is to add value.

Anyways, the day started well and I was hoping to have a studio shoot for one of my TV programmes but unfortunately, that wasn’t meant to be. So here I was, sad. I couldn’t go to the salon but was ready to move on to something else. What would that be? Stay with me…

Rewind to a few hours before… A colleague told me that the House on the Rock (H.O.T.R) annual event-The Experience 2011 has been moved to The Expo Centre of Eko Hotel, Victoria Island. Trust me, I flipped like what? Why on Earth would they do that? The Tafawa Balewa Square seem just the  most appropriate place for the large crowd…Anyway, to cut a long story short, she said we had to register online and the registration would start at 12noon which was a few hours from that time. So we waited but just before 12, the office Internet decided to take a break- so annoying. Well, I tried on my blackberry phone but no luck so we had to wait till 7am the following day.

I figured something might go wrong so I didn’t want to take a chance with the internet therefore I decided to toss the registration to a trusted hand - another colleague.

Back to the same day… I woke up to check the site, then, I saw a BBM from my colleague asking for my details which I gave him. Few minutes later I got an alert that I had been confirmed for the event but I had to exchange the code for a free ticket. I had the option of three places and the nearest and most favourable was Muson Centre where H.O.T.R holds services.

So... no Salon, no studio shoot… "something has to be done today" I muttered to myself. I left the office hoping to get to Muson Centre to redeem my ticket but undecided about staying for H.O.T.R Midweek Service. Anyways, I got there and the attendant said I had to wait till the end of service. So I walked happily towards the entrance but asking myself " what if I was not a member of your church" ? Arrrhg!- whatever!

Getting into the Hall, it was packed full and thank goodness I didn’t have to walk all the way to the imaginary empty spaces in front before I was ushered into a seat almost at the back-don’t blame me. I just couldn’t imagine sashaying all the way-a major distraction would prolly occur. Yeah!!

Speaking was one of the Pastors; Pastor Kola Oladunmoye… The sermon was sorta in the middle and I could tell people were enjoying themselves. The first thing I heard was ...."there are different types of doors"..... He went on and on and on to describe the doors and after doing justice to that everyone laughed while jotting down.

Now, here are a few things I noted:

1.There is a difference between a door and a room. The door leads you into a room.

2. The billboard is an ad that leads somewhere it is not ‘the’ destination. Don’t be comfortable with small achievements, there’s always room for bigger things

3. You cannot get an original for the price of fake.

4. Proximity gives access but not all the time.

5. Continuing to knock on the door, does not change the occupant.

6. You knock on the door (of opportunity) with what you do.

7. When you man your gifts well, you are knocking on a door.

8. You must understand the seasons of your life.

9. Don’t be too spiritual that you become earthly useless.

What really got me was NUMBER 6 - You knock on the door (of opportunity) with what you do. Basically, this means whatever you are involved in serves as an opportunity to reach out to people and also put food on your table. The most important thing is packaging ‘VERY’ well and being diligent because such doors lead you to great places and sets you apart for good.

So if you are a talkative ‘so to speak’, you might want to work on yourself so you end up being a motivational speaker or try to put the energy into writing short stories, being a blogger, etc; If you dress well, you might want to consider designing or being a fashion analyst etc.

The possibilities are endless but the most important thing is putting your gift to good use. FIN

A big a shout out to Pastor Kola Oladunmoye for the message, also Liz Okeugo and Joel Alobo my wonderful colleagues.