Daily Devotionals

You must become the kind of person that produces simple solutions based on your depth of knowledge. Well meaning, but ignorant people have caused many problems by simplifying an issue without a thorough understanding of it. A popular maxim says, “everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”. Your world will move towards the simplest ideas available. Ideas expressed in simple words will travel faster than ideas that appear complicated. This is the reason ideas and solutions must be made as simple as possible. However, in your quest to make things easy, do not oversimplify in a way that the ideas lose their core features.

Simple, powerful ideas are the product of sophisticated thinking, fueled by knowledge. People who avoid understanding the complexities of life end up naive, unsophisticated and are easy to exploit. It is foolishness, not humility, to refuse to gather enough information about an issue before forming an opinion. You cannot simplify something you do not understand in detail. You produce simple ideas from your understanding of the complex underlying issues. So, embrace the chaos and complexities of life. Thinking about problems in society and business is hard. You get started by adjusting your mindset. There must be a willingness to embrace a more sophisticated mode of thinking.

Simple ideas work better and spread faster than complicated ideas. Simple ideas come together in a mind that is sophisticated enough to make sense of the underlying issues and reach a definite conclusion. One of the duties of a leader is to do the hard thinking avoided by simpletons. You do all the thinking and then inspire others to find their role within the framework you have created. If your ideas are not getting the support and traction you hoped for, perhaps it is not simple enough. You have to go deeper in your thoughts while seeking better clarity and simplicity. This practice will help you form simple ideas that work.

Embrace and equip yourself for the chaos and complexities of life. You are not doing yourself any favours by avoiding things that look complicated. When you desire to do great things in life, and serve your God and watch at the highest levels, you must get comfortable with complexity. Your world is not as simple as it seems. When you probe beneath the societal or business problems you want to solve, you would discover that the issues are more complicated than they look. Whoever avoids complexity is a coward and will never amount to much in life. It is cowardice to hope someone else would step up and solve the problems. If you are a true watchman tasked with steering us towards a better future, get comfortable with complexity.

One of the biggest mistakes that has been made by the church is making God simple. In our quest to make God accessible to all, we oversimplified God. There is a mainstream idea that things of God are simple. It is all “yea and amen”. People seem to have forgotten that there is a shallow side to God and a deep side as well. A watchman must navigate away from the shallow end and get into deeper waters. The International Standard Version (ISV) of the Bible renders Job 11:7 as “Can you search through God’s complex things? Can you uncover the limits of the Almighty?”

James Clear wrote, “To simplify before you understand the details is ignorance. To simplify after you understand the details is genius”. A popular maxim says, “everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”. Your goal is to embrace knowledge and learn everything you can about the matters of your watch and mission in life. You can only solve problems and genuinely make things simple after you have developed your mind to comprehend and make sense of complex things. If your mind cannot handle the complexities of life, you will never find a place at the highest levels of life.

One day, you will realize that most people do not care about where they worship or who they worship. They just want to have their needs met. Jesus had no illusions about this and neither should you. He confronted the crowd, saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves (John 6:26 ESV). Jesus knew they were seeking him for the natural stuff, even though he would have preferred they come for the spiritual enlightenment and transformation. A watchman must understand the need for economic transformation.

It continues to shock peddlers of religion when someone jumps ship and heads to another flock within their religion or switches religions all together. They forget that people are not looking for religion, they are looking for solutions to their problems. Stop peddling religion. Understand that people want a place where they can grow and prosper, under visionary leadership and strong governance. People want to be fruitful (productive), not in some vague, religious sense, but in a practical socio-economic way. If you really offer spiritual transformation, it should improve the fruitfulness (productivity) of the people. The economic outlook of your world should be positive.

The economic outlook of your world matters. You cannot continue to pretend that the sufferings of this world are irrelevant as long as an escape to heaven is in the cards. People will seek whatever reprieve they can get from wherever they can get them. Certain third world countries like Nigeria are known for being religious. However, more people migrate out of that country in search of brighter economic prospects than those migrating into the country in search of God. We cannot fool everyone all the time. You want to be clear on the effect of your watch on the economy of your world. It is always about the economy.

A popular proverb of Japanese origin says, “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare”. This proverb captures both extremes of the situation. A vision is nothing more than a daydream if there are no Missionaries running with the vision. On the other hand, if you refrain from setting a vision, and simply get to work, your work will not amount to anything tangible in the long run. It is a nightmare. You must go about your day-to-day business within the context of the overall vision. Finding this balance is critical and wonderful when you get it right.

A vision is nothing more than a vivid picture of a preferred future. The idea is that of all the possibilities, everything that could happen or will happen, you have a preference. A vision is a theory about what tomorrow could look like. It is nothing more than this. When you think about great visionaries, always remember that they matched their theoretical framework with the work ethic demanded by the vision. Someone must be ready to embrace the vision, and work hard as a missionary. Without this day-to-day consciousness, it is all a dream.

Henry Ford did not just dream about building and marketing a simple, strong, reliable, affordable car for the masses. He made it his life mission and delivered on the vision. Bill Gates famously set a vision of having a computer on every desk and in every home. This ideology shaped the company they built around it for many decades. Similar companies without such a bold, but clear vision devolved into a nightmare over time. If you are enlightened enough to develop a vision, then be ready to invest the hours required for your vision to take hold in society. Dream like a visionary, work like a missionary.

Visionaries are important. They paint a bold picture for the future and redefine what is possible. They have original ideas about what the future could be like, and they inspire us to find our role within that space. However, a lot of the time, we underestimate just how much work it would take for the vision to manifest in the real world. You need to remember that it is not enough to dream up a vision, you need to do the work. A watchman should not be content with dreaming up visions, be ready to do the work. Embrace the transformation from visionary to missionary. The vision needs to hit the streets.

Every vision or idea that goes mainstream benefits from the work ethic of someone that understands missions. The big, overarching vision statement must be simplified into a mission. Then a Missionary takes it to the streets. The first chapter of the Gospel of Mark shows us this approach in the life of Jesus. Jesus went throughout the region of Galilee, where he preached in the synagogues. Some of the people he impacted along the way would not shut up about him, and news about him and his work began to spread around. A vision requires someone that can embrace the work it demands.

Today, we seem to suffer from the condition of too many Visionaries, and not enough Missionaries. There are so many pie-in-the-sky vision statements out there without any comprehensive implementation by dedicated Missionaries. The visions fail to gather the momentum required, and they fail. The vision is pleasant to contemplate but is very unlikely to be realized. A vision has to be more than a daydream or illusion to the person tasked with steering us towards a better future. You should stop underestimating how much work it would take to take your calling, or life assignment global. At some point you have to switch from vision dreaming to missions.

Creativity has been identified as the most important skill for the 21st century workplace. In fact, a special report jointly released by UNESCO, UNDP, and UNOSSC declared that “Creativity and innovation, at both the individual and group levels, have become the true wealth of nations in the 21st century”. This has led to a renewed interest in creativity. How do people become more creative? Creativity seems like a talent bestowed upon a lucky few. However, this is not correct. We observe that uncreative adults were once considered creative geniuses as children for example. All things considered, a purely mental or intellectual approach to creativity does not work. Matters of creativity are spiritual.

Creativity is defined by insights. When you come up with ideas that are new, original, and useful, you are considered creative. There are no scientific formulae that guarantees creative insights in a way that is consistent, and predictable. Creativity does not manifest by calculated thinking and analysis of facts, data, information and knowledge. It is not a fruit of your conscious efforts. High level creativity manifests when you cultivate and strengthen your spirit, then supplement your creative spirit with knowledge. When you grow your spirit, you get ready to channel love, wisdom, and the creative energy of God into the world.

When you study creativity and invention, with a focus on how breakthrough ideas were discovered, you will soon notice a pattern. Every act of creativity has its root in the spirit. Something that goes beyond the rational mind. It is always subconscious. That is why Nikola Tesla concluded that, “my brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists”. If you want to become a creative genius, approach it from the spiritual angle. When you build a vivid relationship with the Holy Spirit, you will have access to insights. Those insights will earn you the label of a creative genius.

If you believe everything you see, read or hear about marriages, you would be convinced that getting married is old-fashioned. Marriages seem destined to go the way of the typewriter, laptop computers and DVDs. Unless we can defend the institute of marriage, marriages will vanish off the face of the earth like trial-by-combat, the Roman gladiator games and human sacrifice. The world is a better place without trial-by-combat and human sacrifice, but the same cannot be said about marriage. Nobody in their right senses would dismiss the need for marriage and family building as the foundations of a productive society.

We focus so much on individual marriages and the physical/tangible aspects of marriages that we fail to see the bigger picture. Marriage possesses spiritual utility, there is something eternal about marriage. Marriage is a fundamental component of a social order that the Lawless One opposes. Critics see marriage as one of the social restrictions on individual free choice. It should call for concern that some people see the social restrictions essential to a civilized society as unnecessary hindrances to each individual’s freedom. If marriage and family building fails as an institution, society will collapse. If you take away marriages and proper families from human society, we become no different from animals. Anything goes in the animal kingdom.

Marriage is a very special institution. Not only because Christians insist it was instituted by God, but also because it signifies a place where people can tie the ropes of their lives together so that they’re stronger (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). Married people do better economically. Men become more productive after marriage; they earn between ten and forty percent more than single men with similar education and job histories (as per a study conducted in the USA). Marriage provides a safe space where people can tell the truth to one another and be themselves. Getting married provides an environment where sexuality can be integrated properly into life. There is no better way to embrace sexuality and its benefits than within the confines of a marriage. Marriage also creates that space where children are put first. It is important to remind ourselves what marriages and family should look like and work towards the ideal.

The vision arrives in a flash. In a moment, everything comes together and you receive clarity on what you would love to achieve with your life. However, the journey from where you are to where you want to be is not as easy or straightforward as you would have imagined. This is because you are channeling to the earth an idea that came from the eternal realm. A realm where there is no lack or scarcity. A place beyond time. The physics and social constructs of our world will push-and-pull against your vision. Your vision will be assaulted by other ideas and personalities seeking to distort it or destroy it.

You have to find the balance between the vision in your spirit and the vision you are able to build out in the real world. Sometimes, you will have to leap first and assess the risks later. Like you fire first, then aim (the opposite of aim before you fire). David was anointed as king over the entire nation of Israel (1 Samuel 16:1-13), but he had to work hard with skill and cunning to achieve that vision in the real world. His vision was assaulted by the House of Saul, and other enemies. The journey took him more than twenty years in the real world. A heavenly decree took twenty years for the world to respond.

You are underestimating how much work is required to succeed. You are yet to understand how much you need to change, before you can achieve what you have set out to do. A lot of times, we see a vision as something you discover on a Sunday morning and get it done by Friday morning. This is not true in any sense. Your vision will contend with forces of the world. You will have to find a way to bend the forces of the world to allow your vision to shine through without compromising your vision. It is not possible to build your vision without any regard for the systems of your world. Like David, you have to evolve from a lowly shepherd boy to a mighty, warrior-king.

What would the next level of your life or mission look like? If your next level comes knocking, would you recognise it? You would think that you are ready to embrace your next level, but most of the time, it does not manifest in the way you are thinking. The destination is clear in your heart, but you might have skipped one or two steps of the journey. You have to trust the process and embrace your life’s journey as it unfolds. Within your heart, you know you are headed in the right direction, even though it makes no sense and you cannot fully explain it.

When a young David was anointed king by the revered Prophet-Priest-Judge Samuel (1 Samuel 16:1-13), we wonder if he knew it would take over two decades before the throne would become a reality. David was a shepherd boy when the anointing of a king came on him. He could not become the king overnight, he had to grow into the statue of a king. A shepherd boy would not have lasted more than 24 hours on the throne. He had to become a warrior-king. So, in reality, his “next level” was not the throne, it was actually to become a military commander (1 Samuel 22:1-2). David became a captain first, and then grew his army over time. In the next phase of life, he began to rule over a small territory before eventually becoming king of the entire nation. The next level in your head, might be ten steps away.

Are you a peasant-shepherd boy drooling over the throne? When you ought to be learning the ways of a prince? Are you daydreaming about ruling the entire country? When in reality, you should be focused on dominating a small territory first. You need to break down your grand vision and consider your evolution as you grow into it. Your work as a watchman will not all be fun and games. The vision is powerful and gets you fired up all the time as you dream about how cool it would be. However, you should also understand that the vision will come with a lot of things that are unpleasant. The next level in your head, might be ten steps away.

An economic miracle is a period of extraordinary economic growth and development. Especially when such is unexpected. Several countries over the years have recorded such a dramatic growth to earn themselves the economic miracle tag. Poverty remains a major problem ravaging the world today, and economic miracles are needed more than ever before. However, we need to get back to the basics. Economic miracles are not instantaneous, random, and unexplainable results. It goes beyond wishes and hoping for a brighter future. Economic miracles are not the fruit of financial engineering. At the root of an economic miracle is the creation of the necessary environment to enhance the productivity of the people.

In december 2014, Bill Gates published a blog post titled “Can the Asian Miracle Happen in Africa?” on his website. The post was an excellent book review and analysis on Joe Studwell’s book: “How Asia Works”. Bill Gates said he read the book “because it claimed to answer two of the greatest questions in development economics: How did countries like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and China achieve sustained, high growth and turn into development success stories? And why have so few other countries managed to do so?” Long story short, we got a concise, simple formula that worked for the economies understudied. He observed that they created the conditions necessary for small farmers to thrive. Then used the proceeds from agricultural surpluses to build a manufacturing base that is tooled from the start to produce exports.

A watchman must learn to lead with knowledge. Be a visionary. A visionary has the patience to lay the blocks of transformation one at a time. The true visionary realizes there are no shortcuts and that being petty does more harm than good in the long run. There is no economic miracle without an obsession to improve the productivity of the people. This is not something exclusive to governments, anyone with a vision for a people-group can begin to consider what it would take. Never underestimate your ability to build a business that improves the productivity of people. The compounding effect of that would drive the economy of your world in the right direction.