Lessons from “The Jungle Book”

In the Disney animated movie "The Jungle Book," a panther finds an abandoned baby and takes him to a mother wolf who raises him along with her own cubs. The boy, Mowgli, spends 10 years in the jungle as a member of the wolf pack. However, a tiger with a known hatred of man is spotted in the jungle and the wolf pack decides to send Mowgli away to a man-village for his own protection. The panther, Bagheera, volunteers to escort a resistant Mowgli there.

Over the course of the movie, Mowgli forges a number of relationships. He befriends a baby elephant who dreams of taking over from his dad as the leader of the jungle patrol. He meets a bear who promises to raise him so he does not have to leave the jungle. He also encounters a snake who wishes to eat him and the tiger who wishes to kill him. There is an orangutan who promises to help him stay in the jungle provided he teaches him how to make man's fire. He also meets vultures who accept him in their midst as a fellow outcast.

The panther, Bagheera is able to convince the bear, Baloo, why Mowgli must leave the jungle, and both of them work together to get him to the edge of the man-village. There, Mowgli is entranced by a young girl who is fetching water from a stream and he eventually follows her into the man-village.

At last! Mowgli is where he is supposed to be! He had never before seen a fellow man (or woman) and yet he instantly identified with the young girl and instantly abandoned the known for the unknown.

For 10 years, he had been limited by his relationships, but finally, instinct won out. He is man. He was never wolf.  He may have acted like wolf, but his DNA was that of man - always was, always would be.

From Mowgli ' s story to mine…

I wrote my first book at age 10 (my mother still shows anyone who cares to see it). I wrote another in my late teenage years (that one unfortunately is lost simply because I did not give it to my mother. Lesson: trust mum!) I did not write again for many years. Throughout those years, my creative side was under wraps because the relationships around me focused on intellect and not creativity. There was no time for “flights of fancy” while I was pursuing a degree, neither was there time to write as I settled into my first job! Many years later, I started to write again and now I am writing for an enlarged audience simply because of the relationships I am blessed to have forged more recently.

Now, regardless of the circumstances of your birth or the environment within which you find yourself, you are still you.

The very essence of who you are, your giftings, your talents, your creative instincts, cannot be changed by your environment, neither can it be changed by your relationships.  However, your environment and relationships have the potential to help or to hinder you in your journey of self discovery. I could not help but notice how practically everyone, except Mowgli himself, seemed very aware of the fact that he was different and did not belong in the jungle. 

It is critical that we are careful with whom we form relationships. Mowgli was limited by his relationships until the right relationships came along that brought the real him out into the open. Are your relationships perhaps limiting you too?

You will only ever be as great as the people you surround yourself with. 

Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." 1 Corinthians 15:33

Bad company is able to corrupt even a talented person. Chances are, the people around you want to maintain the status quo in your relationship dynamics. They do not want the relationship to change. Since they cannot see what you see, they try to convince you that there is nothing where you are going. 

Be brave and let go of those who make fun of that thing you love, that thing that makes you smile, that thing that you feel passionate about, that thing that God deposited in you, that thing that is key to fulfilling your destiny. Remember Abraham separated from Lot.

In addition, actively seek out relationships that will help you fine-tune your talents. When you begin to fulfill your destiny, you will be glad you did.

P.S.: This blog is featured in the relationship column of the April 2015 edition of Effectual Magazine. Please click here and be inspired!

Say No to Hate!

Yikes!

In the last few weeks, I have witnessed depths of hate poured out on social media. It has to be said, the Nigerian elections have brought out the meanest, most vicious parts of many people I know, and quite a number that I do not know. It has been really sickening to see people turn on each other. Whether people know each other or not, numerous social media sites have been turned into platforms upon which to vilify each other. I am not going to attempt to quantify that amount of vitriol that has been poured on people over these past few weeks, but suffice it to say that it is much too much!

And why? Why this hate frenzy?

It is because we are on opposite sides of the fence, opposite sides of the tracks. It is because we do not see things the same way, because we have different opinions and beliefs, because we have different candidates for political office.

I say again, Yikes!

For those of us that are Christians, we might need reminding that in the fullness of time, we will give account of every word that we speak on this side of eternity (Matthew 12:36). We might also need to hear the Lord saying “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. As my servant, you must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.” (2 Timothy 2:23-24). We might need to revisit the admonition in the Word not to use the same tongue that we praise our Lord and Father to curse our fellow human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? (James 3:9-10)

We are salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16). Salt must remain pure to do its job. Getting low down and dirty with the 'opposition' is not remaining pure, it is allowing the salt to get contaminated and the scripture says that contaminated salt is good for nothing. Please hear me, I am not saying shirk your responsibility to stand for the truth just for the sake of keeping the peace. To know the truth and fail to stand for it, Jesus says, is as senseless as lighting a lamp and putting it under a basket. We have a responsibility to be proactive in society and address issues, but we must remain within the confines of what God’s word allows. No matter how strongly you feel about a topic, do not let fleshly desire overrule good sense...

'Being salt and light in this age means contending responsibly for godly standards wherever they are under assault,' Tom Minnery writes in Why You Can’t Stay Silent: A Biblical Mandate to Shape Our Culture. The emphasis on the word responsibly is mine. We have to go about our contending responsibly.

Meanwhile, as we canvass so diligently for our candidates, throwing absolutes around like confetti at a wedding, we might want to ask ourselves how well we really know them. I mean, really. Politics is tricky business...  whether we want to accept it or not, our candidate might really be in it for fame, money, power, and self-aggrandizement. Is it really worth it to get into virtual fisticuffs for this person?

Okay, I hear you, die-hard believer, you are 100% sure of his motives. Fantastic. You are right and the other party is wrong, you are 101% sure of it. Great. The Bible still has some advice for you. Proverbs 26:4 says, do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him. In my words, put your stand out there, but do not lower yourself to the other guy’s level. If he begins to sling mud and disparage your person, do not get in the ring with him. Don't use the same language as the fool does or you will be like him. Don’t meet him at his level. Stay way ahead of him, well above him. Just disagree without being disagreeable. That’s wisdom. That’s what is required of us.

In a matter of days, elections will be history, but many relationships will be broken irreparably. Many who have been ‘unfriended’ will never again be friends. Many others have poisoned minds and hearts of people who they have never met but who they might have otherwise influenced for good...and for God.

So, this is my appeal...say no to hate, both on and off social media. Enough of the name-calling, pettiness and insults. By all means, stand for the truth. Put it out there. But be prepared for people to disagree...they are going to anyway.