ARE YOU A RIVER OR A SWAMP? | By YINKA EKUNDAYO

TEXTS: John 7:38
“He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of their belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
Introduction
A river is a large body of water that comes about as a result of water flowing from a high point to a low point-ultimately to the sea.
Young rivers, geographically, flow straight and fast, while older rivers meander, twist and turn and flow slowly.

A swamp on the other hand comes about as a result of water collecting in low lying areas which then remains trapped there because there is no outlet for it.
Over time the water becomes stagnant and unpleasant.
Swamps have remained so for thousands of years, hence they have not seen much in the way of human development and are unlikely to do so in the nearest future.
While rivers bring life and become the focus of settlements, trade and civilization, swamps remain stinking backwaters where very few people care to go, let alone live.
The difference between river and swamp is like the difference between life and death.
Rivers have outlets that allow the water to flow through it while swamps lack outlet, therefore they remain stagnant and foul smelling!

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF A RIVER
FLOW
As a result of their capacity to flow with fresh water, rivers support life. Fishes and water plants have their life supported by rivers. Swamps on the other hand are avoided like a plague by all. Hence becoming a collection point for debris, dead plants and animals around.
As a person do you enjoy flow?
Does your life benefit others?
Do people get better when they come around you or do they get pissed?
It all boils down to your flow state!
How often do you get inspired on a daily basis?
How fresh is the water of your life? Are you a river or a swamp?

ATTRACTION
All over the world, rivers are sources of tourist attraction. From River Nile in Africa to Mississippi in United States to River Jordan in the middle East, to Zambezi River in Zambia and Angola. Rivers attract people from different walks of their life to their banks.
Does your life attract or repel people?
Do you attract people easily?
Remember, it is like that begets like. Who you attract is only a function of who you are.
To attract attractive people you must be attractive yourself.

NAVIGATION
Over the years, rivers in different regions of the globe have served as a means of navigation from one continent to another, nation to another and city to another city.
Ever before the advent of the aircrafts, people navigated from Europe to Africa by means of different rivers.
Are you a wall or a door? A wall talks of a barricade while a door speaks of a thoroughfare. Are you a river or a swamp?
Navigation on a river is only made possible as a result of their flow. Flow ensures the speed of the water of current. Dear friend, how current are you? Are you like a swamp that keeps taking in but never giving out?
Rivers are able to transverse nations and continents and take people with them because they keep flowing with fresh water always.


IRRIGATION
The River Nile was probably one of the first rivers that provided the opportunity for much needed irrigation for agricultural purposes.
In Mediterranean regions, where rainfall is very scarce, rivers provide irrigation to water farmlands.
As a person, does your life irrigate others or does it deprive them of certain much needed benefits? Does the content that flows from you make others better or bitter?
Are you a blessing or a burden? Are you a river or a swamp?

HOW TO BE A RIVER?
EMBRACE CHANGE
A wise man once remarked that- “Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.”
The distance between where you are now and where you could be can be shortened in your response to the changes that come your way.
One major strength of rivers Is their ability to bend and meander through obstacles that come their ways.
It’s a popular cliché that rivers are crooked because they avoid the obstacles on their path.
While I am not suggesting that you should avoid these obstacles, you must do something about them in order to move on to your desired goal.
You must learn from them and use them to your advantage.

BE A DISPENSER  NOT A CONTAINER
Rivers are dispensers of fresh water to all forms of life in the biosphere.
The undoing of swamps lies in their ability to contain water and never dispense it.
As a ‘river person’, you must make up your mind not just to accumulate knowledge of how life works but also to dispense it to all that come your way.
You must make up your mind to become a source of life and never a place where good ideas and skills go to die and rot away.

SELECTIVE CREATIVE ENVIRONMENT
The environment of your life determines the attainment of your life.
The people in your life determines a lot of things about you; your income, your success, your bank account balance, your speed, your exposure etc.
Unlike a swamp, a river has both an inlet and outlet.
Every river person must have 2 sets of people in their lives:
Those that feed into you, i.e. your mentors, they are inlets.
Every great man has a mentor in their lives. Aristotle had a Plato.
Plato had a Socrates.
Those that you feed, i.e. your proteges, they are your outlets.
Aristotle had Alexander the Great as his student or protégé.
Whatever you don’t share ends up with you. Be a dispenser!
River people channel their knowledge into people.
Make up your mind to imbibe river characteristic features in your life today. Your life can never be the same again.

           

THIS IS A GUEST POST COMPILED BY YINKA EKUNDAYO (aka Eagle). 
AUTHOR BIO: He is a Pastor, a Motivational Speaker, Leadership and career Coach, He holds a monthly Knowledge Impactation Programme for the Youth and Teens at the Conquerors Assembly, Akowonjo. Lagos. Connect with him by clicking on Facebook or email  tosyinks@gmail.com

                                                                                 

         *(Also Read Becoming A World Changer by Yinka Ekundayo, Click HERE)