Yoke of the Youth

Lamentations 3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

I am tired, I don’t know what to do, I am not moving forward, I’m tired of life, I just want to give up’ Tolu cried as the words escaped her lips.

Tolu graduated with a second class upper and has been searching for a job since she left the university in 2010. When Tolu was a young child, her parents divorced, her father left the house and she was raised by her mother. Many times Tolu thought about the possibility of her father coming back home but that dream never came to reality. The relationship with her father was strained, years of loneliness and vain hope. Many times Tolu wanted to leave the house as she thought her mother was too hard on her, she did the chores and had to take care of a lot of things, her mum refused getting any help so majority of the work fell on her.

All Tolu spent her teen years doing was trying to get out of the chores, she hated them so much she would rather live elsewhere. As she grew older, she thought any opportunity to take responsibility was an invitation to suffering. The responsibilities that would shape her life and build her response to circumstances were the very things she ran away from. And years down the line she still hasn’t learnt to take responsibilities. As she sat down in her room thinking of what to do with her life, she blamed everyone and everything else except for herself. She blamed the government, she blamed her not so rich mother who couldn’t get her a connection, she blamed her friends who were already working for not paying her attention, and she counted all their blessings as luck. She made the government’s irresponsibility her own responsibility, she made the system’s failure her own failure and she left herself with no genuine sense of responsibility.

She forgot that she was responsible for her life, her joy, her peace and everything that affected it. In making other unnecessary things her responsibility she forgot to be responsible for her own self.

Somehow majority of youths have this similar problem. They go on thinking everything is a right, they are never responsible for anything in life because they think they are not the architect. Someone or something just has to be responsible for every box of dream left unachieved. But here is the truth, the moment you know your left from right, you begin the build the blocks on which your life will eventually stand. Those are the very things that shape our lives and there we begin to learn what is important

Hello Youth! There is nothing as wonderful as being young, but for every phase there’s a yoke, a burden. The question then is are you responsible enough? Responsibility is your response to every situation. How do you respond or take charge of every given moment and opportunity. No matter how terrible things have been, it is of God’s mercy that they are not worse. But what exactly should you be responsible for, what yoke would you bear that will bring meaning to the life you are living.

A yoke of responsibility (WORK)

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. The Bible reminds us of what the world gives: trials, tribulations, but with that knowledge comes a revelation that Christ has already overcome the world. Hence we are to walk in that victory and doing that means doing the exact things Jesus did to overcome. Walking the paths of Jesus and again reliving the choices that He made for us. When we realise the truth in Gods words, we begin to attach a lesser meaning to life and channel efforts to what is truly important. Knowing that joy is not found in people or things but in the purpose for which we were truly created. We must then be responsible enough to take our lives, structure it and own it regardless of what we have been through. Responsible enough to bear the yoke of troubles, rebukes, fatherly chastisements, obedience. Take responsibility and not whine, when you are tempted to pity yourself, ask yourself ‘What have I done’.

When something happens, think of a response, what are you responsible for in that situation? Your job is not to point fingers, your job is raise your fingers for service.

A yoke of optimism and excitement for the future

Do you have any hope left? Life is not just about sitting down, without hope or aspiration. Your Youth is for finding. It is a time to be excited about the thoughts and prospects of the future. Knowing what joy you will behold in future. It is a time to look beyond today and into the eyes of the future.

What matters is not how much you have acquired today because possessions are not forever, what matters is not even in the abundance of what you have. It is all about what you are achieving now with those resources and what they can achieve in future.

Friends if truly you are thinking about the future, you will know that some battles are not worth fighting and you will be excited for everything that is coming to you and passing through you.

A yoke of enjoyment

Put your neck down and wear the crown of enjoyment. Enjoyment is not in wasting or marrying, enjoyment is in knowing all of life’s purpose and living in it. Many times we are deprived of enjoying because we focus too much on the problems that abound. Why not accept that those trials are a part of it all, working out our patience, trying out our faith. When we accept the knowledge of this reality, we don’t spend our years constantly fighting the troubles away, we live through them and rise above them, we get better and we embrace our lives, rather than spending the years fighting and losing the true meaning of living.

A yoke of creation and control

Isn’t there a burden of creation rising in you? You have hands, what have they done? You have eyes, what have you seen? Where have your legs gone? What are you doing with your body, it is not a fashion item.

Create ideas, dreams and vision, then take control. Control over self and pleasure. Control that lust, that wrong appetite, the raging passion because those very things are what alters creation. If you don’t take control then the creature becomes control and is put under. How can a man function right when he no longer has control over what he wants, needs or craves. The yoke is to gain control and not lose it. The fact that you are young and free does not mean that every craving must be satisfied.

A yoke of Good

There’s an increase in crime and evil. Daily we behold the danger with our eyes. We complain so much of evil yet we contribute to it in our own little way. What good have you done? Who have you said a kind word to? Who have you helped in a stranded state? There is evil but even stronger is the burden to do the good required to erase the bad.

Rather than complain about evil all day, focus on bearing the burden of doing good.

A yoke of Humility, Obedience and Service.

What do we have that we have not received? We live like we brought it all as we raced out of our mother’s wombs. We hold on so tight to things that are not ours to begin with. We have our harms so tightly wrapped around our possessions that we forget to wrap it around another human, we have our mouths running others down that we forget to say a kind word.

There’s so much rebellion and always it has to be our way or nothing. Condemning and crucifying others yet forgetting the wrong we have held on to for so long.

What yoke are you bearing?

All these may seem very heavy but now is the time to bear them. Now is the time to know that life does not consist only of money, fame and pleasures. Life is creating your own joy from a source as supernatural as the one that gave you breathe then spread that joy to every area of your life, such that you receive all that happens as a part of a process and you take full responsibility for making things better as life goes on.

Your joy is your responsibility, God has given grace to shoulder the responsibility but are you walking under grace?

You can’t be tired when you haven’t even started fulfilling purpose. Because when you find the essence, everyday becomes another opportunity to achieve more.

To be continued