WHAT DIDN'T HAPPEN

Inspired by a chapter in the book club’s current reading material “Winning the War in your mind” by Craig Groeschel

“I could’ve been on the pitch doing rainbow flicks” [SJ voice] but instead I’m writing this blog. 

Should’ve……                                Would’ve…..                                         Could’ve…..

Honestly, that first line is a lie. I was never that player, I played centre-back so no rainbow flicks were ever happening. Neither am I not rowing at an Ivy League college on a full scholarship, training at 5:30 am every day then going to lessons in a varsity jacket. ‘Knee injury’ or not, I’m definitely not where a 14-year-old NYA would’ve thought he would be. Do I ever think about where I could've been? Yep. Am I upset at this ‘version’ (REALITY) of my life? NOPE. There’s a peace about embracing what did happen, but even further being thankful for what didn’t. 

My life could’ve gone in so many other directions than it has now. But it didn’t and I'm glad that it turned out this way. Nowadays, I don't even like football like I once did and truthfully I only did rowing because it was ‘hard’ rather than anything else (kind of like me doing A-level Chemistry, which I don't regret at all.) One thing that took me especially long to get over is not getting into Oxbridge (2 years in a row.) That was a huge pill to swallow. I remember after the GCSE results I got, the head of Oxbridge applications at my school started speaking to me about my application. When I got rejected from Oxford I was at work and saw the email, nearly broke down on the spot. The second time from Cambridge was easier to get over, I was just sitting at home and my Dad said “Ohhh ɛyɛ” (“ohh it's fine” in Twi.)

Whilst writing this I just remembered I screenshot both emails, with the intention to use them in an autobiography or story in the future. LOOOOOOOOL I should really go and delete. 

For the longest, I had a chip on my shoulder, and every time I encountered a student from either university I sized them up in my head “Are they actually smarter than me?” or “What do they have that I don't?” It was the prestige of those institutions more than anything that made me want to go there. Now looking back life would’ve been radically different, for the worse. Just thinking logistically, running the life-giving programs that I do wouldn’t even be feasible. Further, I wouldn't have had the experience of a lifetime working in the government’s economic & finance ministry during a pandemic let alone getting a university scholarship and more….. 

I’m not really one to share wins, but I guess today it’s important for the point of this blog piece. Often life turns out to be far better than we ever imagined for ourselves. People, opportunities and experiences that we never would’ve imagined end up presenting themselves whilst others don’t go our way. As counterintuitive as it sounds, it's more comforting and appealing for me knowing that my life is in someone else's hands rather than my own. A being whose knowledge knows no bounds, whose capacity has no end, and whose plans aren’t limited to the realities of the present. My heart towards ambition is this: work hard at each stage you find yourself, “planning in pencil, allowing HIM to write in Pen.” Similar to Moses and his staff, lay what you have down and see what he can do with it, it may far exceed the finite potential you had for it.

Isaiah 55:8-9

New International Version

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

    neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord.

9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Thought: Having given thought to your “unanswered” prayers, what can you be thankful to God that he didn't do? Give thanks that his ways superseded yours, for your own good.

Hope this gives you something to think about. Comment things you’re grateful for that DIDN’T happen or any other thoughts.

NYA

(Listen to: Defender - Tribl, Cecily)