EMBRACING UNBREAKABLE FOCUS IN THE FACE OF DOUBT AND FEAR

One of the persons that I was really scared to inform that the Lord had called me into ministry caught me red-handed on the way. He was our very cerebral neighbour and a dear father to me. He was a visionary with long-standing records and achievements. I did not know how I would tell him that I would not be practising law. He had even supplied me with materials for my final year project. 

I kept dodging him until I ran into him on the road one evening. I froze as he asked me, “Temi, you are done with service year now. What is your plan?” I was scared, but I followed him home and told him what the Lord had laid on my heart. His response was prophetic: 

“Temi, Jesus did three things while he was here. He taught, he preached and he healed. You have taken on a good path”. I could not believe my ears. 

He added, “Temi, thirty-three years ago (now 45 years), when I was coming to the land of Eruwa, my colleagues called me all sorts of names. They even thought I was mad. But today, none of them has a better legacy than I do. They realized that my madness has a method”. 

His words taught me unbreakable focus. I stayed the course like my entire life depended on it. 

If you are a divine visionary, you cannot joke with focus. You need unbreakable focus. You cannot run a divine vision like a side hustle. You are either in or out. The vision needs you. You need the vision. The vision will pick you up only after you have picked it up.

Can you imagine a poultry farmer abandoning the birds for just one day because he has other matters to attend to? No food. No water. What about for two days? How about a week? You need the focus of the poultry farmer. You need to be there. Give that vision all it needs. 

It needs your time. Feed it 

It needs your effort. Give it. 

It needs your best. Do not hold back. 

Nehemiah restored the wall in fifty-two days, but there were things he had to say “No” to. They invited him to ‘legitimate’ courses, but he said “No, I am doing a great work.” 

I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.

Nehemiah 6:3-4 NIV

If you do not see your work as great work, you will not give it the attention it deserves. You will despise the vision in its raw form. You will despise the vision because it looks small. 

Listen, I stayed the course even when it was just one person I preached to in church. We discipled one person with the same energy we are discipling hundreds today. Why? It is called unbreakable focus. Dear visionary, stay the course. 

If it is one person reading what you write, stay the course. If it is just one customer, serve them well. If it is just a member of staff, put structures in place. You do not lay the foundation after the building is in place. That’s a strange project! 

© temilOluwa Ola, Eruwa