STOP! It's just a mirage!

For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13

I once watched a movie of a lost desert traveler anxiously in need of water. To his great pleasure he sees a pool of water up ahead of him. He mustered up his last bit of strength and ran toward it. When he got to the point that he could swear he saw the pool, he discovered it as perched and dry as any other place in the desert. He then realized he had been deceived by a mirage.

As it was with this traveler so it is with young folks in life. The things we most desire and pursue earnestly are just mirages – they don’t exist!

We are all prone to pursuing mirages – I have pursued some of my own. Mirages look real and so folks pursue them with all their strength and resources only to get to the spot they thought they would see it and discover they never were there.

The funny part of it is mirages are easy to identify. A mirage is the 30-year-old man that earnestly wants to be like Lionel Messi, or the 4-foot tall man who wants to be better than Michael Jordan. I came across a research some time ago that says young Africans have 1000-times better chances of becoming successful professionals in the likes of doctors, engineers and pilots than great singers, actors or sports celebrities.

The confusion between mirages and visions arise because they are just one step apart. Whilst a vision has logical steps that bring them to reality, mirages just hang in up there in space without any real way to actualize them.

Are you pursuing a vision or a mirage?

Let me build a scenario. A young Nigerian can have a desire to be great and influential in America. He would be pursuing a mirage if all he is concerned about is meeting someone who would do him a favour and get him a visa or if his plan is to follow a group of miscreants who could take him with them to America through whatever means possible. On the other hand he would be pursuing a vision if he decides to go to school, pass all his examinations, becomes a professional in a field and apply for jobs in America while he works in Nigeria.

So check within and ask yourself if you are pursuing a vision or simply chasing a mirage.