{"id":34,"date":"2017-06-30T11:43:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T11:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/?p=34"},"modified":"2017-06-30T11:43:36","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T11:43:36","slug":"half-year-2017-where-are-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/2017\/06\/30\/half-year-2017-where-are-you\/","title":{"rendered":"HALF-YEAR 2017&#8230;&#8230;. WHERE ARE YOU?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Unbelievable! It\u2019s already June 30<sup>th<\/sup>, 2017? How time flies, right? Seems like yesterday I was celebrating the NewYear-2017, preparing to attend induction week in London, writing FMA &amp; OB exams, starting Strategy and Corporate Finance, etc etc. And just like that\u2026. Friday June 30<sup>th<\/sup>, 2017 marks the end of half-year 2017\u2026. I don\u2019t know about you but I am so excited. As I look back at the last 181-days in 2017, I can\u2019t help but ask myself \u2013 <em>\u201cOmon where are you?\u201d<\/em>\u2026. This is a question that kept pondering inside my head\u00a0for the last\u00a0days leading into the 181<sup>st<\/sup> day of the year, 2017 (\u201ctoday\u201d). I found it quite difficult to answer up until June 28<sup>th<\/sup>, 2017 when I attended <strong><em>Day 1 of the Accelerate 2017 conference organized by The Elevation Church<\/em><\/strong>. This is a day I will never forget. Let me share my experience with you\u2026..<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Mensa Otabil (it was my first time hearing of him but trust me I\u2019ve watched a number of his talks since then) gave an empowering talk on the subject <span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><strong>\u201cWHERE ARE YOU?\u201d<\/strong> <\/span>The message was eloquently delivered and left me thinking of no other but myself!<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Otabil, his description of life is that &#8211; Life occurs both in \u201cStages\u201d and \u201cSeasons or Cycles\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>\u201c<em>stages of life\u201d <\/em><\/strong>is better understood if split into three parts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Children and Young people \u2013 who\u00a0are continuously learning<\/li>\n<li>Adults \u2013 who are living and exploiting life<\/li>\n<li>Elders \u2013 who aim to leave a legacy and also empower people<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <strong>\u201c<em>seasons or cycles of life\u201d<\/em><\/strong> is better understood in several parts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Seedtime \u2013 time of making sacrifices, investing, digging deep, doing things that will make you achieve your goals<\/li>\n<li>Harvest \u2013 the time to bear fruits, growth period, reaping your rewards, it\u2019s the joyful outcome of seedtime<\/li>\n<li>Cold\/Winter \u2013 time of dryness, loneliness, rejection, where everything seems like it\u2019s going wrong when actually it\u2019s the opposite, it\u2019s just that God is preparing you for your own \u201charvest\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Summer\/Heat \u2013 time of warmth, joy, when everything is going just right and bright<\/li>\n<li>Night \u2013 time of darkness, not been noticed, you are working so hard but no one is seeing you, here you are simply incubating a \u2018dream\u2019<\/li>\n<li>Day \u2013 time of light, exposure, recognition, people now\u00a0notice and appreciate you, rewards keep coming, you are been celebrated but be aware of target enemies who will envy you<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At every point in time in your life, you are either exiting, entering or existing in a particular season within a certain stage in life. You must understand the stage and season you are, enjoy it and just appreciate it. The truth is no stage or season in life is a disadvantage or a curse. You are there because God wants you to be there. So don\u2019t be upset, angry, depressed or sad that the season you are in\u00a0isn\u2019t where you want to be. In due \u2018season\u2019 you will cross over to favored seasons of life \u2013 day, harvest or summer.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Mensa further explained that sometimes what may appear to be logical isn\u2019t spiritual. <em>Sometimes where God wants you to stay is a command of his blessing.<\/em> So be alert that wrong actions and response to seasons of life (especially those you may not favor) can destroy what God has in store for you! I have grown to learn that the struggles of life mostly results from the ignorance of the seasons of life. Asking for reward when you are in the wrong season can be detrimental. The truth is when you are not in a season of harvest, harvest becomes a temptation!<\/p>\n<p>One thing I took away from this message (amongst many others) is that when you are about to shift seasons, things get really tense and is at its highest peak. These are the times when the struggle seems so severe that you just want to give up or try to control the \u201cseasons of life\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>So I am here to tell you, do not curse the season you are currently in. Better still, celebrate it. Like the weather, no season is permanent. The weather will always change and so will the stages and seasons of life. Everybody\u2019s season of acceleration greatly differs. So don\u2019t envy someone else who may be in a season of harvest or summer. Enjoy your seedtime or night time and prepare for your own harvest. Truth is you will not always be where you are even if right now it seems so permanent.<\/p>\n<p><em>Watch the full video of Dr. Mensa\u2019s talk here &#8211; <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AbjdVexiEpE\"><em>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AbjdVexiEpE<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>So again, let me ask my earlier question \u2013 \u201cWHERE ARE YOU?\u201d <\/em><\/strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"110\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-35\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/files\/2017\/06\/seasons-of-life-300x110.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unbelievable! It\u2019s already June 30th, 2017? How time flies, right? Seems like yesterday I was celebrating the NewYear-2017, preparing to attend induction week in London, writing FMA &amp; OB exams, starting Strategy and Corporate Finance, etc etc. And just like that\u2026. Friday June 30th, 2017 marks the end of half-year 2017\u2026. I don\u2019t know about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1073,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/omon-gomba-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}