THE GATEKEEPER

I was thinking this morning... A week ago, I attended the annual gathering of my professional association. During the meeting, a man walked up to me and asked, "Do you remember me?" While his name sounded familiar, I couldn't recall his face.

"Do you remember 22 years ago when we came to Port Harcourt for an interview?" he asked. "I was the one who convinced you to stay back and do the interview when you thought the position was only a contract role. You wanted to abandon the interview and return to Warri to make an office presentation because you believed the job wasn't what you expected."

Wow!

As he spoke, the events of that day came back to me vividly. Thank God I listened to him. I got the job, and 22 years later, I am still with the same organisation. Looking back, I can confidently say that one conversation changed the direction of my career.

After we parted that afternoon, I couldn't stop thinking about a recent article written by a friend titled "Gatekeepers, Bookkeepers and Timekeepers." God places all three kinds of people in our lives at different seasons.

The man who stopped me from abandoning that interview was a gatekeeper standing at the entrance of my next level. His assignment was simply to make sure I didn't walk away from the gate God had opened for me.

Sometimes God also sends gatekeepers to stop us from entering the wrong gates. At the time, they may seem like ordinary people having ordinary conversations. Yet they are quietly carrying out extraordinary assignments.

The interesting thing is that gatekeepers rarely stay in our lives for long. They appear, do what God sent them to do, and move on. That perhaps explains why I couldn't even remember him until he introduced himself. I only recognised him as one of God's gatekeepers after 22 years.

As we climb higher in life, may we also become gatekeepers for others, encouraging, guiding and sometimes gently stopping someone from walking away from their own breakthrough.

Like we say in Nigeria, "Person wey show you road no reduce him own journey." Helping someone find their path never diminishes yours.

Never underestimate the value of one timely conversation. God often changes lives through ordinary people. "Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future." Proverbs 19:20 (ESV).

Stay hopeful. God's got our back.

Happy Sunday!

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey