Luke 6:17 Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said: ‘How happy are you who are poor: yours is the kingdom of God. Happy you who are hungry now: you shall be satisfied. Happy you who weep now: you shall laugh. Happy are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, for then your reward will be great in heaven.”
Are you too good to be great? Are you too comfortable in your present life to stretch out and reach greatness? The enemy of excellence is being comfortable with less. In Luke 6:17 we read: “Happy are those who are poor, yours is the kingdom of God.” If you don’t acknowledge that you are poor or there is something missing in your life, you will never get up to work hard towards that you are missing.
The first step to getting the best treatment is quality diagnosis. To get treatment, you must first accept that you are not fine. You must admit that you are poor health-wise. That realization will force you to visit a medical doctor so that you may be examined and diagnosed. Thereafter, you can get treatment and with prayers, get well soon. You will not get treatment if you decide to ignore and stay at home. It takes wisdom to admit that you are lacking, and you need help.
To get ahead, you must first acknowledge that you are poor. Unless you realize the problem that is eating you up, you will never become great. To improve spiritually, you must first accept that you are weak. You cannot improve your knowledge of the understanding the Bible unless you accept that you don’t know it well. Then you can plan to read it page by page until you gain good understanding.
When I joined my first job as an Intern at the then Nile Bank Ltd (which was subsequently taken over by Barclays Bank), I was assigned to a team that was responsible for converting the bank’s records from manual paper files into digital ones. The process was slow, tiresome and too manual. In the basement of the bank, was thousands of various customer files and photos in a manual format. The team of over 10 people was tasked to scan all the records in every file into a digital format to facilitate the bank’s automation project to enable fast banking services. I had just completed level 2 of Association of Certified Chartered Accountant (ACCA) exams set in the United Kingdom. I found the task of scanning the forms tiresome and mundane. The work was worsened by very slow scanners. It would last about 2 minutes that is a about 120 seconds to scan one form! It was too slow! Looking at the mountain heap of the files in that Spear House basement building, I was so scared! Will these files ever get complete so that I may be promoted, I wondered. However, I did not throw in the towel. I accepted that I needed to learn. I saw it as a challenge.
I decided to interact with the team I had found and admitted my ignorance about the whole scanning exercise. After interaction with over six staff I realized that they too did not know. However, they did not know that they don’t know how to use the scanners for optimal performance. After interacting with the unit manager, I confirmed my findings. I asked her for copies of the Scanner’s user manuals so that I could read understand. It took me two days to trace the user manuals which I found in the IT room gathering dust on the floor. I was excited. I took them home and that night I read each word in the Scanner manual from page to page. Somewhere inside hidden in the pages I discovered the secret. How to customize the scanner speed from the default setting of 2mintes to 10 seconds; including how to scan in bundles instead of one file at a time.
If you were with me that night at about 1:00am; you would have seen the excitement on my face upon my discovery. The following morning, I moved to each staff and changed the settings for all staff. I went on my desk and started scanning. In just two months, we had completed what the bank management had planned three years to accomplish!
And that is how Nile Bank chief operating officer then, gave me a spot award prize of Ugx. 150,000 and a certificate as an Employee of the Month at the bank.
To succeed, do not settle for less. To do so, you must follow the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, “How happy are you who are poor.” May God give you the wisdom to accept your weaknesses so that you may improve.
Be Blessed.
