“Driver, abeg no be sardine you carry o! if you dont value your life at least value the life of your passengers”

I looked cautiously in the direction from where those words had come, and I saw a man who was obviously upset. Well, he had good cause. Have you ever been in a commercial vehicle and you didn’t realise you had stopped breathing, till you got down at your bus-stop and let out a deep breath? If you have, then you understand this man’s plight. If you haven’t, well, it’s either you dont ‘bus’ or all the drivers in your area are God-fearing.

While on a bus few days back I mulled over these thoughts; do I ever wonder about the expertise of a driver before boarding his vehicle?  Does it ever cross  my mind to ask the driver for his license? What about the road-worthiness of his vehicle?. I’ve never bothered with these things. Time and time again I go to bus parks and enter any available vehicle, with no concern about the driver’s abilities or the condition of the vehicle. I put my life at risk without even realising it, trusting a complete stranger with my very precious life, how can I be so trusting? How can you?

It boggles my mind that while I can be so relaxed when a ‘mere’ man is at the wheel, I find it difficult to do same in life situations where I’ve asked Jesus to take the wheel. I tell Him of my challenges and ask Him to help me navigate through life’s many storms, but through the ride I remain perplexed,  wondering if I’d make it. Yet I say I trust Him. I bet this must have happened to you at some point.

I am challenged and I want to challenge you too. If you can sit still in a vehicle or even doze off and miss your stop, if you can be relaxed enough to watch the moving scenery or be lost in thought, as a man about whom you know nothing drives you around town, then how much more should you be absoulutely at ease when the giver of Life himself takes the wheel of your life. Its easy to say “I trust you Lord” but who do you really trust?

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“Do you know who I am?!”

Some years back, a very important and urgent matter propelled I and a relative to seek help at a high court somewhere in Nigeria, where we were treated poorly, a man there was a bit rude to us, and the young man I was with finally lost it and screamed at this man “do you know who I am?!” Of course this only made matters worse, caused a near-fight and we ended up getting thrown out of the office, but at least we had shown our displeasure, we showed them that we weren’t cowards, we werent scared to speak our mind, even the bible says the “kingdom of God sufferers violence…..” and who takes it by force? ………..

Some weeks ago, I was sorely tempted to ask that very question. I was trying to resolve a misuderstanding and the other party was being largely unreasonable, it was an issue that had to do with money and you know how people get when they feel  you want to cheat them on money matters, well in this case I was the one at the risk of being cheated and I was determined not to let that happen. I tried hard to remain calm and resonable till some words were spoken that hit a raw nerve and then I just lost it “Wait a minute” I thought to myself, “does this lady know who I am?”, in that question, what I was saying invariably was “do you know that I can spark as well?”, “do you know I can loose my temper?” etc, etc….

Unfortunately or rather, fortunately for me, God in his mercy chose to deliver me from my own folly. The conversation which had been going on over the phone was cut short suddenly and the line went dead. But I was still fuming, I really wanted to vent, to tell that lady who I am, give her a piece of my mind but the oppurtunity had been taken from me. Moments later as tempers bagan to simmer down and reasoning returned I had to ask myself, “Who am I?” Minutes before I was so revved up to show someone else who I was, but in a calm state I wondered, really, “who am I?”

I am a child of God first of all, the highest rank of royalty, the very physical evidence of an invisible God, I am who He is. So if I am all these and more what ‘me’ was I so gingered to reveal earlier? (food for thought).

Many times life has and will put us in that precarious position where we feel sidelined or cheated and we just want to tell others who we are, we want to ‘rake a little’ so we wont be taken for granted, or be seen as timid. When these times come, ask yourself this question ” what part of my personality  am i pushed to reveal, Is it Christ in me or someone else?”

Well you may say that there are some people that will not ‘hear word’ till they have been spoken to harshly, but I reflect on the character of Jesus and I am persuaded to believe  otherwise. Jesus in his interaction with others always seemed calm (maybe too calm sef), except for that one time when
He got angry, and that was over his Father’s business. In other times of conflict instead of being brash He just seems to have the perfect answers that leave others speechless, I call that wisdom. Won’t you prefer to handle tension and conflict with a few wise words spoken calmly than to speak many words in anger that may or may not yeild any result?. Imagine if your neighbour’s view of God is founded on how they see you act and react, would you say you’ve been a good representative ?

There are many questions for you to answer but I have just one plea, in crises situations when you just want to ‘let it all out’, please do not tell them who you are especially when that revelation of yourself is a misrepresentation of who God is.

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When I thought about what my first post would be about, i never imagined that i’d start by dissecting my very own self. But what better way to start than to share my most recent challenge and oh yes! How I failed woefully.

Just four days ago (do the math and you would know exactly what day of the week it was☺). I woke up feeling the way Bruno Mars must have felt when he was inspired to sing “today I dont feel like doing anything, i just want to lie in my bed……”. Only difference was that I sat in bed I didn’t lie. So strong was my determination to do  nothing that I didn’t even bother to fellowship with my heavenly father (first mistake). After sometime though I was fed up with all the nothingness and decided to do something, so I picked up my phone and went on some social media platforms (second mistake). There I was on facebook, and what did i see? someone had been putting up funny posts which were showing in my news feed. Note, by funny I don’t mean hilarious I mean the kind of things you’d be embarrassed to view with a child, or at least I would be. My mind seemed to wake up, I was filled with rigtheous fury, this had to be stopped! So I formulated a plan: track down the individual and delete/block her/him. Quickly I set to work, feeling like Sherlock Holmes. All was going well till I thought, “hmm.. let me even see where this link leads” (third mistake). Too soon curosity won over good intentions and I went from that one link to the other and the other and many others. I spent hours (and i mean H-O-U-R-S) Intentionally viewing things that were feeding my lust, grooming my flesh and killing my spirit, all the while justifying my actions with very good points ” after all it isn’t really porn…or is it?”

I ended that day with a clear conviction in my heart, I had desicrated God’s temple (my body) and offended Him. I felt very small,  like my image in the mirror was saying to me “is this how low you’ve come?” You see, its true that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Mehn, i fell for that one big time. But that wasn’t all, nahhh. The next morning I got a phone call from a caring aunt, she had seen some lewd posts on my Facebook wall posted there by ‘me’ and she was concerned. So here’s what happened, one of the sites I had visited actually stole my password, logged into my Facebook account and began putting up posts on my wall, in my name. I spent good time cleaning up walls, changing my password and deleting the individual from whom it all began. But some damage had already been done and as embarassing as it all was I smiled to myself and thought so this is how the devil leads people into temptation privately and then embarrasses them publicly. Believe me when I say he’s good at what he does, but no I’m not putting the blame on him, I take full responsibility for my actions. Yes, he tempted, but it was my choice to fall.

So what’s the moral lesson of this story? Am just hanging  my dirty linen out here because I dont have a cupboard to hide it in? No. These were the lessons I learnt;
1. The devil goes around  seeking whom to devour, don’t stay idle or away from God’s presence, when you do you become an easy target.
2. Let he that thinks he stands take heed lest he falls. I’m sure you understand that.
3. Nothing is free with Satan, there’s always a price, and finally……
4.If you do fall (I sincerely hope you dont) quickly set it right with your  heavenly father. I have and i’m mighty  glad;).

It is said that experience is d best teacher, I say wisdom is better. Dont make your own mistakes before you learn these lessons. Learn them now for FREE.

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