I believe in unity, but also believe that it is better to stand alone on the rock than standing on the slippery mud with others. I better say no to others and be alone than join the multitudes to do wrong. So it is better to stay alone than to unite in error. One should never be afraid to stand alone as long as he is standing for the right thing. Prophet Daniel said: “I alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision; therefore I was left alone”. The hardest walk is walking alone, but it is also the walk that we make you stronger. Don’t be afraid to walk alone. Goals are personal. It needs courage to cheerfully accept loneliness. We need courage to forgo popularity. There are very few people, I think, who are really indifferent to popularity, and there are many who will buy it at the expense of truth.
It is a fact that great lions hunt alone, yet they are not alone for their maker is with them. There is no greater security than knowing that our Heavenly Father is with us. If you do what you think is right, you don’t need to be tense; especially when your action is in agreement with the Holy writ. The great patriarch Enoch knew that, if you speak the truth you will stand alone. I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.
The greatest of saints avoided the company of men as often as they could, and chose to serve their Creator in secret. It is better to stay completely hidden than to watch yourself if you go out. You can go out a saint and come back less than a saint. It is better to keep quiet altogether than to avoid speaking wrongly. A man who intends to reach the inner castle of the spirit, must as much as possible withdraw from the crowd. He may be alone but not lonely. No one can safely go among men but the man who loves solitude. In our association with one another, we should be careful lest we forget Him who is our hope of eternal life. Wise men from the east, in obedience to Wisdom avoided further relationship with King Herod after worshiping Him who was born, King of the Jews.
Unity is good for the sheep and the lion as long as the lion is not hungry. The rat should not wait for experience to teach him that walking alone is safer for it than being with the cat, because it may not have the opportunity to tell the story. Experience is a good teacher but the fees are high. Seek not unity at the expense of the truth and integrity. Where you are and who you are with will determine what grows within you: weeds or flowers, strength or weakness. Sights affect desire. What you keep looking upon, you will eventually pursue. What you hear determines what you feel. The more one hears the words of love, the more love he gets from the words. Your character is shaped by what your mind takes in; don’t be a waste basket. If you don’t want the fruits of sin, keep away from Satan’s orchard. A person’s character is not only judged by the company he keeps but also by the company he avoids. Let them not honour you who do not honour the Creator. It is wisdom to avoid certain people to protect your emotional health. Show me your friends and I will show you your future. Circumscribe your association. Not everyone that looks good to you is good for you. Evaluate the people in your life. Not everyone is meant to stay. Standing alone does not mean you are weak. It means you are strong enough to wait for what you deserve. It is good to love, but we must also learn how to hate. There are times when hatred brings solution. A man cannot successfully fight against and destroy that which he does not hate. He who is enjoying corruption cannot fight against it successfully. Hatred gives energy for battle. A bow in the hands of a man is an instrument of battle; the bow bent by the hand of the Almighty (rainbow) is an instrument of peace. Everything is good if used properly, even hatred.
Our friends are not the kind of people we want but the kind of people we are. You should guard access to yourself. Qualify those who enter your arena of life, they must desire what you possess or possess what you desire. When you are with the right people, the best comes out of you. When you get the wrong people out of your life, the wrong things stop happening. But if for any reason you be among the bad, try to overcome their bad with your good. You can know a man by his appearance. The first time you look at him, you can tell if he has good sense. His character shows in the way he dresses, the way he laughs and the way he walks. Every tree is known by it’s fruit. But don’t be deceived, lions are gentle but dangerous. And the silence of a lion is more dangerous than it’s roar. Don’t let bad communication corrupt good manners. A good traffic rule on the road of life is; when you meet temptation, “KEEP RIGHT”. Anyone that is attracted to evil has a trace of it in himself. Temptation has its strength not in the outer lure but in the inner lust. Remember, when things or people go wrong, don’t go with them. You can be alone in the midst of a multitude of people. If you are suffering from a bad man’s injustice, beware lest there be two bad men. How can you be rewarded for endurance if you have never met anything that has to be endured. Temptations are sure to ring your doorbell but it is your fault if you ask them to stay for dinner. A bird can perch on your window, but don’t allow it to make a nest there.
In any case, do not forget to be good. Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, with anything you can, as long as you can. Missing a chance of scoring a goal in a football match is not a loss as much as the chances to do good you have missed. Sometimes rich blessings come to us through our willingness to take an active part in helping someone to fulfill his dream. Focusing on what you can do to help others get what they want is one of the greatest secrets to success. The little Israelite slave girl in Naaman’s house did not remain a slave girl after through her advice her master was cured of his leprosy. Her status changed through helping somebody
You will pass this way but once; any good therefore that you can do or any kindness that you can show to any human being, do it now. Do not defer nor neglect it for you will not pass this way again. A person becomes good when he actually does good rather than not doing wrong. One who does no evil is still not good until he does good. Good has two meanings. It means that which is absolutely good and that which is good for somebody. To most people, good is getting what you want. Evil is any obstacle to getting what you want.
An ambition is good only if it does not subject others to unnecessary sufferings. There is self interest in every action of man. But it becomes selfishness when the self interest is pursued regardless of how it affects your neighbor. Do not climb the rungs of success over other people’s bodies. Be a man that cares about his brother. Those who care less are careless. “Walking in love” “Let us consider one another”; being careful “lest we offend them”. Walking in love will make you overlook offences from people. When you walk in love, you learn to separate the offender from his offence, and condemn the offence alone. Good is anything that maintains peace while evil is anything that disturbs peace. Seek peace and pursue it. Don’t preach unity but exhibit actions pernicious to co-existence. Do good; but in a sense, you cannot really do good. Aim at doing what is right. The “right” may be good and acceptable to some while to others it is bad and unacceptable. There is none who can please the world. There is none good. Some will praise, others will criticize. Don’t be flabby and flabbergasted. Stand for the right. Let your decision be, “…nevertheless what says the scripture…” Don’t be driven by the public opinion. Stand on the way of righteousness. If you do the right, does it really matter who is displeased?
A desire to please everybody and fear of displeasing someone will rob you of your inner peace. Whatever that costs you your peace of mind is too expensive for you. Desire to do the right no matter who is pleased or displeased. Do not fear the anger of man. A curse causeless will not stand. We value principle more than friendship. Have values that govern your life. Define values that you live by and stand for it. Don’t seek peace at the expense of the truth. Don’t want a good name at the expense of your spiritual value. Love can be unconditional, but trust and respect are not. Loving the lovable and the unlovable is a virtue, but trusting the untrustworthy is tantamount to suicide and associating with the unrespectable is self affliction. There are still with us today “unreasonable and wicked men”. There is no use arguing with them or trying to be at peace with them; they are false at heart and deceitful in speech. I think such should be avoided.
Do not over-speed yourself in seeking unity lest you crash. Unity that robs you of your peace of mind is not desirable. Unity is good for people of like minds. A people who can at least, to a good percentage think, speak and do the same thing. For only birds of identical plumage can conjugate in the same proximity. It is a galaxy. You will be uncomfortable and less productive if you are with a people on sufferance. You are old enough to know when you are not wanted. This is not about ego. I advise that once you feel ignored or unwanted, you should distance yourself silently. Do not be satisfied with an enforced camaraderie. Satisfaction, of course, cannot be enforced, one cannot be satisfied until he is satisfied. Go where you are wanted not just where you are needed. Go where you are celebrated not where you are tolerated. People in love typically advertise their condition by getting close to the object of their affections. Loving behaviours increase by satisfactions, but lack of reinforcement or non reciprocation deadens it. Though love is a matter of the heart, yet condition of love is influenced not only by internal secretions, but also by external stimuli. Looking at a person who is not willing to look at you will break your neck. You cannot get far with a person who is not willing to travel with you. It is a grudging obedience and is a clog in the wheel of progress. Do not misinterpret unity and enslave your soul. Do not keep company with a reckless man, so that he may not overburden you. For he will do just as he pleases, and you will perish through his foolishness. Dwelling in the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram means that the earth will swallow you up. Joining in the ship where prophet Jonah is means you will loose your wares. A false friend is more dangerous than a true enemy. Those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it. Don’t fit in, you are born to stand out. I do not fear being alone, my fear is being in a room full of people I do not trust. It is hard to trust when all you have from the past is evidence of why shouldn’t.it is wiser to be alone than to be in a wrong company. Light and darkness were separated from the beginning of creation and even now, iron and clay cannot mix. Though not of the world, we are in the world. So, I am not suggesting isolation but insulation. Isolation exposes one to danger, as it cuts him off from valuable information. It was when Saul joined a group of prophets that he began to prophesy and was turned into another man. Don’t be alone. Remember that a sheep that strays from it company, becomes food for the wolf. Is not only the divine Father that visits you when you are alone; the devil also can visit, and being alone, you may be weak against him. But don’t give yourself to people. Liberty with danger is better than peace with slavery. The more people see you and hear from you, the more common you will become. “Why have you not come to see us for a long time now”? is better than “Why have you come again”?. Don’t be easy to get because you will be easy to forget. When an eagle notices that it can no more soar because its wings are weak, it will fly away to a far place and dwell among rocks. While in this far place, it would pluck out from its body all flight feathers. It then remains in this hide-out until a new set of stronger and dependable feathers grow up. We similarly need to sometimes stay away from our regular environment, make out time to think, make amends where necessary and bask in the presence of the Holy Spirit; and have our strength renewed. Separation accelerates incubation. When you start improving yourself, loneliness is the prize you pay. Sometimes the best way to get someone’s attention is to stop giving him your own. Sometimes your value is not seen until your absence is felt.
Also know that a close friend is a potential enemy who knows where to strike. He knows where you often resort, and like Judas may betray you with a kiss. Beware of your friends. Many people in the world today are no more friends with someone that they once called their best friend. Betrayal can never come from an enemy but from a trusted someone. Satan, the devil, was once a holy angel. Having thousands of friends is not a blessing. What is a blessing is having a friend who will be by your side when thousands go away. Real friends are like stars. They are only recognized when it is dark around you. The days are evil. One should not be too good to keep bees in his bedroom. A bad odour or bitterness in a relationship may mean incompatibility or expiration. The problem of incompatibility is best solved by separation. Let those that cannot agree get out of one another’s way. If persons simply cannot get along together, nothing will be gained by attempting to force the issue. It is easier to stay out of temptation than to get out of it. “United we stand, divided we fall”, do not apply in all situations. There must be a division between darkness and light, for each of them to stand for what it is. For a saint to stand, he must not be equally yoked with immoral people. Whenever you find yourself comfortable on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and think. You may be getting lost. You need STOP; It means Stop, Think, Observe and Pray (plan). Do not place yourself needlessly in the society of those who by their acts or speeches would weaken your purpose to do right, or bring stain upon your conscience. And do not seek acceptance with those who flout the law of the Most High. It is only the evil that leagues with evil for the destruction of the good. When Abram left the land of UR, he was safe in the land of Canaan, even in the midst of foes. Lot was not safe in Sodom though in a circle of friends. Our safety is in dwelling alone with the Holy One and His holy ones. Give yourself sufficient time to be strengthened and made whole. What good is it if you look healthy in public while you are hemorrhaging to death in privet.
Among the saints, unity is inevitable because when the whole body is joined and knit together, and every joint works effectively its own share of the work of the ministry, supplying to the body according to the grace given to it, it causes growth of the body. Personality conflict is a clog in our wheel of progress. Real men of impact don’t fight for position or recognition. Their results speak for them, not propaganda. Be salt, not insult. The need of unity can never be overemphasized. Coming together is a beginning; staying together is a progress; working together is a success. Two are better than one because they will have a good reward for their labour. It will be easier for us to go higher if we appreciate and help one another. Really it is not good for man to be alone. Before you can become what your Creator planned for you to be, many people have to make their contributions. From conception to birth; from cradle to the throne, you need people’s help. Nobody is self made. What they do in your life today may come to fruition in twenty years time, “… the vision is true but the time appointed for it may be long” Treat people well, you need them and they need you for their success. If you omit the letter “u” from the word success (s-ccess) it becomes meaningless. We need U for our success.
Go for fusion and not confusion; friends and not fiends.
GREAT EAGLES FLY ALONE
-BKC
