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Last month was one of my busiest month, travelling to Tarkwa for a speaking engagement. Something I have done three years in a row. But what made my recent visit an inspiring one for me is what I am about to share with you. It’s an encounter I had with a young, energetic, young man wrongly labelled as “deaf and dumb” by our society.
I got down from my car, directly opposite the entrance of the University of Mines and Technology, waiting for my host in the hot sun. I found myself between two small scale businesses; A Mechanic shop on the right with the workers staring at me in the sun. On my immediate left was a block laying factory where a young man was busily working and another man sat on a bench looking on.
After a few minutes of waiting, I felt a gentle touch on my shoulder, it was the young man modelling the blocks at the block factory on my left. He pointed to a plastic chair. He wanted me to go sit on the chair under the shade. It was then that I realized he was deaf. He could neither speak nor hear.
I followed him, and when we got to the chair, he prompted me to wait. He went for a piece of cloth, cleaned the chair, then signaled me to sit. He had smiles all over his face, so happy, at which I was quiet amazed.
He then went back to continue his work. He looked up every two minute or so to smile at me, and through sign language asked if I was okay. In ten minutes time, my host arrived and I had to leave. He left his work, to see me to my car and waved. I was touched.
On the way to my hotel room, I kept asking myself why we call these people “deaf and dumb”. The guy might be deaf but he wasn’t dumb, he was smart. To have offered me such hospitality in the midst of the able bodied people, was such an inspiring encounter for me.
Whilst in Accra, many of such people are found on the street begging for alms, with some at various shopping malls having envelopes and asking for money, he was in the hot sun working. He had a business, which has the potential of employing others like drivers, labourer, accountants, marketers, etc.
While others become resentful because of their inability to do certain things, he was very happy and very kind. On this day, he was giving, he never asked anything from me like what other friends do whenever they meet me.
It was at this point that it occurred at me, to start a business one needs zero degrees. Talent and brain is enough to start. But working for a business owner, one needs a degree.
He didn’t see his inability to be a problem, but he still found problem in his community and used what he has got to solve them. This goes a long way to show that limit is not in the sky but rather in the mind.
We are limiting ourselves from reaching success, using our disabilities or inabilities as an excuse. Don’t let your disability, inability, weakness, short comings limit you. You are beyond that.
Losing one part or form of your body should not make you idle or a beggar. You are more than what you think you are. God never leaves us. Anytime you lose something, God always gives you something new.
You might lose your eye sight through an accident but God bless you with another sense you never had. What people term as impossible should not be accepted by you. With the Grace of God, impossible is possible with you.
God always makes provision for us in the midst of our troubles and battles. Our trouble is that, we focus on what is gone or lost and not on what we have gained or are blessed with.
If the focus is on the new, then can we discover what we can do with the new. It is then that it becomes a blessing to us and the people around us. So in your state of disabilities or inabilities discover what God has blessed you with and make good use of it. Become useful to your maker and mankind.
In Conclusion “Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already—you can see it now! I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there” – Isaiah 43:19 (GNT).
For enquiry, counseling, feedback or speaking engagement, call or WhatsApp +233206774279.
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