When Convictions Meet Reality

      So many times have I heard Men of God use the word ''conviction'' at church. What is conviction? Is it important in any way? Should a Christian be convicted about something he believes in? Do we easily give up on our dreams and convictions just because others think we can't?

    The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines conviction as a strong belief or opinion; the feeling of being sure that what you believe or say is true. Most of us have had convictions about great things we would have loved to do in this life.

For some, it has been the dream to pursue a college degree and become great entrepreneurs, for others it has been the passion to be great orators and motivational speakers. Others have longed to become great scholars like Aristotle, Plato or Socrates. For others, it has always been the burning passion to pursue a career in fashion.

    What happened to all these dreams? Did they give up on themselves? Were their actions subject to the court of public opinion? Did the usual ''financial reality'' set in to defeat their dream and purpose?

    The story is told of a young boy by name Frederick Wallace Smith who gained admission to Yale University in 1962. While attending Yale, he wrote a paper for an economics class, outlining overnight delivery service in a computer information age. According to his lecturers, his paper was not good enough. Smith received a C for writing a ''bogus'' paper whose content was not feasible at the time or so the lecturers thought. Smith was convicted that what he had put down on paper was going to be feasible regardless of what his lecturers thought. He told himself he would do everything in his power to see that all he has toiled for, would bring his idea into fruition. Smith's focus was on developing an integrated air-ground system that would deliver small packages and documents to people all over the world irrespective of their locations and address.

Smith began his company and started incurring huge debts in the first few months to the point of bankruptcy. He had to go to great lengths to keep the company afloat. In one instance, he took the company's last $5,000 to Las Vegas and won $27,000 gambling on blackjack to cover the company's $24,000 fuel bill.

     In all this, smith never gave up because he was still convicted that what was in him must surely come to light. Today, Frederick Smith is the owner of FedEx, a company that transports over 25 million packages worldwide in a day and rakes in over 11.9 billion dollars in a year as profit.

You might be going through some tough times today. Times might be challenging. Situations might dictate otherwise what your convictions are addressing. Don't give up on your goals. Never give up on your dreams. You might be the next Frederick Smith of today's age.

One of the greatest followers of Jesus Christ by name Paul of Tarsus said, ‘’ For I am persuaded (convicted), that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39’’. That was his conviction. He was convicted that not even death or Hades could separate us (Christians) from the

love of Christ. What are you convicted about? What is that seed of conviction boiling down within you?

   What have you been passionate about to do but have left undone because of certain constraints? Let’s press on toward the mark of our conviction and like Fred Smith, we would look back and say to ourselves, it was all worth it!!!