Just imagining…

This great poem by Rudyard
Kipling was posted here by Seth Barnes recently
and it stuck to me. My adaptation of it on a day like this keeps me imagining what life would be like…

If I can keep my head when all around me
Are losing theirs and blaming it on me;

If I can trust myself when friends and family doubt me,
And I still make allowance for their doubting too;

If I can wait and not be tired of waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, don’t write or talk too wisely;

If I can dream – and not make dreams my master;
If I can think – and not make thoughts my aim;
If I can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If I can bear to hear the truth I’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things I gave my life to, broken;
And still I choose to stoop and build them up again with worn-out tools;

If I can force my heart and nerve and sinew
To serve my turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in me
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If I can talk with crowds and keep my virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt me;
If all men matter to me, but none too much;

If I can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Then the earth and everything in it would be mine,
What’s more, I’ll be a man and not a child!

If you read the original Poem, you’d notice I omitted this piece:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

Not just because I don’t know
how to play Pitch-and-toss, but simply because this is hard to imagine let
alone experience. I missed my flight to Abuja last week and I’m still mourning
the fact that I had to buy a brand new ticket at such an exorbitant price to continue my journey.

It’s my birthday today and I’m
wishing these great virtues for me as I move into 2011.

Why not join me?!

Author: Uche Izuora

I'm inspired by God’s passion for His name in every generation, which provokes global worship through Jesus Christ. Becoming an emotionally healthy and transformative disciple, I aim to mobilize the Church to engage in cross-cultural missions and raise other like-minded disciples who discover themselves in Christ and seek to present and represent Him as Savior and Lord among the nations northward of Uganda. View all posts by Uche Izuora