The Stars Appear In The Dark

Twinkle, twinkle, little star 

How I wonder what you are

Up above the world so high 

Like a diamond in the sky  

This is a rhyme we all learnt during our days in nursery; it was one of the favorite poems we couldn’t stop singing even after school. The center of this poem was the star; beautiful it is up there, indeed a glittering diamond it is in the sky, a great light it streams to the earth.

Stars are huge celestial bodies made mostly of hydrogen and helium that produce light and heat from the churning nuclear forges inside their cores. According to the estimation of astronomers, there are about 300 billion stars in the sky and as little as they appear in the sky, astronomers say, “One star is bigger than the earth.” The twinkling stars we see disappear during daylight and reappear during the night. But is that really the case? No, stars are always in the sky all day and their light keep streaming to the earth at all times. We benefit and see greater importance from the light that streams from the stars only when there is darkness. Why then do we not see the twinkling stars at day?

During the day we cannot see the twinkling stars, despite the brightness and shininess of it, till darkness appears for them to illuminate. The sun (although a star, but not the twinkling star we know) is seen not to be in “good terms” with darkness because it does not acknowledge any correlation between it and darkness, whilst the twinkling stars see darkness as their hero,because it provides an opportunity for them to shine. There is a lesson I want us to learn about the stars and darkness.

The stars symbolize our lives whereas the night symbolizes hardship, struggles or sufferings in life. Life has got its own methods or procedures of working and getting things done. Everything in life goes through a process before it is done. For instance, in schooling, we move from one stage or level to another. In the same way, our life is procedural, that is to say,our lives move from one stage or process to the other. Anything life has got to offer you does not all come in a day but will pass through a process before it is attainable. Doctors, teachers, presidents and other great people we see today were not made in a day, but through a process and time.

Everything on this earth has its own process or procedure because the process of becoming a doctor will never be the same as that of becoming a teacher or president. Sometimes, the process will be very long with a lot of curves and mountains (suffering or hardship) whereas others will have few procedures or processes with little or no suffering.

Some people succeed without going through much struggles or sufferings, but to most people, success does not come easy. In the life line of a lot of people, it was struggles after struggles, hard times after hard times, and hardships after hardships before they saw success. Some of them even thought they were useless and good for nothing, but with time, victory came because they never gave up. Let’s take a few moments to glance through the life pages of some great and prominent people who thought their lives had almost come to an end but still decided to push and at the end, they saw light at the end of the tunnel.

The famous Jesus Christ, the savior and the redeemer of the world, went through tribulations, persecutions, insults and other unpleasant things and after was honored the name above all names. Philippians 2:9 says, “Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name” (NIV). The great Nelson Mandela, former president of the republic of South Africa was given a life sentence in prison in1962 because of his fight against apartheid in South Africa, of which he served 27 years in prison before he was released and then after, became the president of South Africa in 1994.

Martin Luther King Jnr, before being able to push the US Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s was arrested more thanfive times. His famous speech “Letter from the Birmingham jail” was written while in prison in 1963. It was a struggle after struggle, but he never gave up. His voice was finally heard one day. Lastly, Oprah Winfrey passed through a lot in life but still decided to push hard and she made it. As little as 9 years, she was abused sexually in several occasions by a cousin, an uncle and a family friend. At the age of 14, she became pregnant, however, she couldn’t have the baby after birth. She had the chance to go to school after going to stay with her father in Tennessee. After graduation, she decided to work with atelevision station. She was fired by one producer after the other because they all thought “she was unfit for television.” Shestarted her own show which unfortunately did not work for her. She then relocated to a different place, began a new show and now she hosts the number one show in the States, “The Oprah Winfrey show”.

Life was never easy for a lot of great and prominent men. To some, it was tears after tears. To others, it was hunger after hunger. To some, it was rejection after rejection and to others, it was disappointment after disappointment. However, their key to success was not, “I am not giving up.” Your decision for not stopping in your darkest times will determine who you will become in future, as one writer said “The darkest night produces the brightest stars.”

No matter how bright (stars) you know your destiny, dreams and vision are, you will still go through some darkness (struggles or sufferings) in order to shine. Don’t try to dodge the darkness (struggles or sufferings) for it might be your opportunity to shine. One preacher I love so much Mr. Samuel Addai Gyimah(The preacher) once said, “Any Christian who does not have a cross (suffering) does not have a crown.”

I want to use this article as an opportunity to advise everyone especially the youth that hard times might come but when they come, that does not mean your world has come to an end, but you should embrace that as an opportunity for you to shine. Trust me, everything in this world is temporary including the hardships and problems. Trust the process and push harder and I believe you will see the noise of victory at the end of the tunnel.

I want to end with these two quotes but I want you to personalize it and move with it every day; “When life is not good, remember that it will not last forever and better days are on the way” and “Life never gives me what I want but what I persistently contend for.”

KEEP SHOUTING, “I CAN MAKE IT”

AZA AZA  FIGHTING ………….. AZA AZA FIGHTING.

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