Friday, November 6, 2015

"Just a Charge": A Submission to the Anglican Students' Fellowship, FUNAAB 2015 Final Year Brethren's YearBook

by Adegbilero-Iwari, Idowu (bro)
ASF FUNAAB Alumni President since 2010

Friends, brothers and sisters, well beloved and cherished, I find it a great privilege to be allowed to give this little charge to you through the instrumentality of this printed document even as you go out to the larger world, beyond the four walls of classrooms and laboratories. You will recall that you came to FUNAAB some four or five years back with so much joy and high expectations. You had great hope of making the best results out of the various courses you were enrolled to study. You had even proposed to establish one thing or the other or to even aspire to occupy certain position or the other. In short, you had hopes, if not all of you but near it. Whether your expectations four or five years ago have been accomplished or not is now left for you to evaluate and judge sincerely. If you have achieved more than you dreamt, you know it. If you have achieved less, it is you that know it also. You must now do an evaluation of your life and time in FUNAAB. But whatever the outcome of that evaluation is must be accompanied with a huge sense of responsibility that puts you at the center of things. This is to say that YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE for that outcome. And sincerely, you will be responsible for the future ahead of you in the larger world.
However, I will plead with you to emulate Apostle Paul who in the reflection on his life journey has this to say, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 3:13-14 (KJ2000). If it is only this you can do, how hopeful your future would be and how fulfilling your life overall.
You may want to meditate on the highlighted words. Paul had a life of successes and disappointments to put behind him so as to reach the mark for the prize of the high calling. So also do you. You may have excelled so much in FUNAAB or had lived woefully to your gross disappointment. You may have failed to reach your target grade or even under performed in ASF and in the body of Christ as a student. You may have lists of unfulfilled dreams. You may also have broken all the records; won all the accolades FUNAAB and ASF can offer. Excuse me bro, all those are now in the past, getting behind thee. So, let them remain there otherwise you won’t have a mark to reach. And the reason you must do this is to press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The word “before”; as he was forgetting those things which are behind, he was on the other hand reaching forth unto those things which are before. So also I charge you to do. You have a lot more ahead of you than four, five or six years in FUNAAB can contain. Beyond your 3rd Class or FNG, or even beyond your FUNAAB’s 1st Class, life has so much for you ahead. Begin now to reach forth to them. Begin now to find out what life has for you. Locate them in the manual of your life which is the Word of God. The time ahead is loaded, I can belt it if need be. What God will do with your life this coming ten years cannot be expressed by mouth. In fact, the dimensions of righteousness, power and the Spirit in which you will operate cannot be conceived by the heart of men. Don’t let the past chain you down; move on and soon you will know it. The world is waiting anxiously for you to fulfill your destiny. You know why I am so sure of this? He has spoken it. Moreover, the call of God upon you in Christ Jesus is a HIGH CALLING.
Sisters and brothers graduating, you all have a high calling in Christ. Either as a primary school teacher, university professor or even a pastor or politician, a businessman or communicator, wherever God will soon place you as you exit FUNAAB carries along with it the tag of a high calling. So, consider yourselves so highly placed whichever work your hands will find doing soon. Conduct yourself circumspectly and consider keenly the PRIZE for reaching the mark of your high calling. He that called you will do it. He will reward you. God is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. So, you have a glorious prize ahead to grab if only you can put behind and before you THINGS you may have or have not achieved. Don’t put them in your head, success to elate, or failure to deflate you.
I, on behalf of your fellow saints in the alumni, hereby welcome you to be active members of ASF FUNAAB Alumni Association even the more as I commend you to God’s grace and His perfect peace in Christ Jesus The LORD. Amen.
“Finally, brethren, whatever things are pure, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which you have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” Amen!
Philippians 4:8-9 (KJ2000)

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