Life is a count down!

It’ s been few days less seven months since my last post. Wow, I have almost forgotten how to manage my blog; even writing seems a little unfamiliar. Indeed, I have missed you guys, missed writing, missed blogging, missed this part of me so so much! So what happened? Well, laptop crashed and the word press mobile app just did not work for me. So much has happened in almost seven months but I’ll start from now and then go back in time.

It was a sad day in Nigeria yesterday, a plane carrying twenty people and a corpse crashed barely two minutes after taking off killing thirteen people. The corpse was intact and was buried today – it was the body of a former state governor. There was a lot of talk about how mystical it was that people died yet the corpse and coffin remained intact. For most people, it was a story of double tragedy – an accident en-route a funeral! For me, it was personal, I knew the wife of someone on the plane, I even spent the weekend with her and was at her office a day before!

I haven’t been myself since, I keep thinking about her – what she is going through, the questions she’s asking herself, her explanation to their children! Her life-o-meter on Saturday read ‘five days to becoming a widow’, her children’s read ‘five days to becoming fatherless’, her husband’s read ‘five days left on earth’ yet no one had a clue! My sister-in-law’s sister died three weeks ago, she left a husband and five children behind (the oldest is eight); she too had no clue, same way no one has a clue what your life-o-meter reads. Am I scared of dying? No. What I am afraid of is dying having done nothing.

“Life is a count down! It is not about how long you have lived but how much time you have left” – Olufemi Paul.

The only thing you leave behind when you die are your works, either good or bad; not your status or possessions. The only thing that God will inquire of you when you leave earth is your work, whether you did good or bad; nothing else. That said, all your good works without Christ is ZERO! Religion can’t save you either! Remember Cornelius, read Acts 10. Please get saved! Accept Jesus Christ in your life, then trust the Holy spirit to teach you to live right.

When people die, we say ‘Rest in peace’; that means we are on earth for some purpose, to work! Find your purpose and fulfil it, live it unapologetic! I have decided to live everyday like it is my last day, I want to do the things that really matter, be the best sister, daughter, staff, aunt, friend, stranger I can be every single day! I want my life to be an honour to God, I want to go to heaven fulfilled, with my head held high! Jesus lived thirty-three years and He is the ONLY access to eternal life because he fulfilled purpose; Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years, except for Sunday school and bible trivia, you probably never heard of him.

Guys, it is not how long but how well. Make the rest of your life count. Let your life inspire someone after you are long gone. Finish your work here so well that all that is left really, will be to rest in peace.

 

 

 

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DEAD MAN WALKING!

“It’s so easy to commit suicide”, these were the words Timi heard as he answered Bidemi’s call. “Hello, Bidemi hello” but the line goes dead. A frantic Timi dashes out of the office to find Bidemi, his mind racing and praying earnestly that there is an explanation for the seeming obvious.  Poor Timi to receive such an unsettling call, the psychological trauma is best imagined. And Bidemi, what in the world would make a young woman willing to end her own life? What? Nigerians don’t commit suicide? Truth is, it is easy to commit suicide and a lot of us are dead already, even you.

We die when we fall for the temptation to give up – on God, life, love, hope, people. We refuse to fight and assume a posture of indifference. We think it’s safer not to get involved, to sit on the fence so we are not hurt. At first, we give the barest minimum because we want convenience, never stretching ourselves but after a while we become grey and numb, we cease to live and just exist so life spits us out. That’s the rule my dear, even God wants you to take a stand, either hot or cold but lukewarm is unacceptable – dead man walking!

Scary right? This is what the Satan sells to us!

We die when we fall for the temptation to be angry at God. So life has beaten you black and blue from the moment you took your first breath and God has never heard any prayer you made. You have been the victim and are angry and rightly so too! But seriously, be mad at God? You think Christ being nailed to the cross was wickedness? No, it was the purest form of Love. Do you realize that no matter what you go through, unless God okays it or you ask Him to leave you alone, Satan can’t touch your life? Ask Job. Someone said, if you think it’s your alarm that wakes you every morning, try placing it beside a corpse. I thought trials were meant to make you stronger and most importantly wiser yet you do the most foolish thing – be angry at God! Dead man walking!

We die when we fall into the temptation to believe we do not deserved to be cared for. We accept the lie that we are to live for others only and not ourselves. Boy meets girl, boy somehow doesn’t treat girl with much respect and value but sparks are flying all over the place so they get married and start a family. Somewhere along the way woman believes her sole purpose is to make hubby and children happy. Twenty – five years after with the most adorable family portrait; hubby is an accomplished man, a successful icon; children are stable with promising futures and mum? Dead and bitter woman walking!

We die when we fall into the temptation to compromise. You know that awkward feeling where you are the odd one out and obviously so, no one really wants to be in that position. So gradually we loosen up, lower the standard, tell ourselves that nearly is ‘close’ to the real deal and finally, we settle for too little. Good bye excellence, hello mediocre. We won’t stand for anything so we will fall for everything – dead people walking!

We die when we fall into the temptation to make excuses, to blame everyone and everything other than ourselves. It wasn’t me, the government didn’t do this, my father did that, it’s because I’m not American, more blame and excuses till we wake up and can’t account for 40 years of our lives! We suddenly realize we never got that degree, sweetheart moved on when we refused to ditch the nappy, our neighbour’s toddler is now running for governor and our classmates are enjoying retirement – dead and old man walking!

We die when we fall into the temptation to not number our days so we just live life as it comes, with no vision or plan. The bible says write the vision down and make it plain that he might run that reads it. A life without vision lacks passion, flavour, is typically bland. We even back it up with scripture sometimes “give us this day our daily bread”, “do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will take care of itself”, not in this context o! Everyone is born with a purpose so find purpose! Live for something else 15years as a receptionist, no salary increase, no promotion, no bonuses and definitely no retirement plan may just be around the corner after all, let tomorrow take care of itself – dead man walking!

Life or death? Choose Life!

The difference between us and Bidemi is that her body is on it’s way to 6 feet under where there is probably no redemption. We fall for the temptation to choose death over life because Satan hides from us what is really at stake so we think it is worth it. Death before our purpose is accomplished is NOT worth it! If only we could see through the eyes of Jehovah to see how special we are, important we are, incomplete the world is without us especially when we do not fulfill purpose. As 2012 wraps up, you might realize that you have been dead. Will you stay dead or will you rise and take another shot at living?

MY GENERATION AND THE NEXT DECADE

Where are you?

My sister participated in an essay competition which topic was ‘WHAT WILL BE THE GREATEST CHALLENGE FACING YOUR GENERATION OVER THE NEXT DECADE?’ She challenged me over a month ago to write same and yours truly has been stalling because the topic seemed too ‘text booky’ and boring. It just seemed like one of those seminar topics that our leaders talk about but never do anything about, somehow, I was not just interested. Anyway, she gave me the most amazing speech yesterday and it got me thinking…

I think the greatest challenge my generation and our children will face over the next decade is the ignorance of who we are and a loss of identity.

We seem to have lost our humaneness and are focused on ourselves, at most our immediate family. It is what we are accustomed to, what we see around us on the streets and in our neighbourhood, what we read on the internet and in the newspapers, what we watch on network news and satellite TV, what we hear in the music home and abroad, what we grew up to know, learn and now have become. We have replaced humanism with selfishness. Our new language is Me! Me! Me! Everyman for himself, acquire all you can now as you might never get another opportunity, rob Peter to pay Paul, anything goes.

We are no longer a people of ethics and values; I thought that was our pride? Ah! No, our pride now is how much we have, how much property we have, how expensive our cars and clothes are, who we associate with, how many times we travel abroad and our travelling class too. These things are not wrong but when you have the budget of a state in your account because you are in charge; take a bank loan so you can live in Parkview estate, drive a Range Rover Sport and wear a suit by Alexander Amosun; lie, steal, cheat, kill to be in power and remain in power, you are a challenge to my generation.

What happened to contentment? When did we become so insatiable? What happened to honour, integrity and respect? Your honour is still intact as long as no one sees the brown envelope slipped into your hand behind your back; a little alteration of the value of the contract doesn’t harm anybody and won’t diminish your integrity, after all it’s government money; I respect you, that is why I will lay with a stranger on our matrimonial bed only when you are out of town. What happened to compassion? I thought the rest of the world envied us for being one big family? When did we become so hostile?

The older generation somehow missed it and got us in this mess. They were our fore runners, our examples, our guides but sadly they failed us. That established, should we fail ourselves also? We are a generation lacking a sense of belonging; one that looks in the mirror and sees foreigners staring back at them. We are not to blame for where we are but we will not be forgiven for remaining and progressing in the dump we have found ourselves. We need to clean up our mess and the mess of our fathers; and create a healthy environment for our children.

For their sake, we will rise!

 

We need to be models for them to look up to, professionals that inspire them, musicians that create words of life for them to dance to, politicians that enact policies and laws that protect them, writers that tell our stories and actors who relive these stories, religious leaders that guide them spiritually, parents that nurture them, friends that will always be beside them, teachers that correct them, government that provides infrastructure that works, neighbours that look out for them, fans that cheer them on to achieving their dreams.

We are a humane people, kind and compassionate. We are strong, physically, spiritually, mentally and in character. We are a people of hope, we believe in ourselves, our brothers, our nation and our tomorrow. We are a proud people, proud because we value respect, honour and integrity. We are a confident people, courageous, fearless. Who is the alien staring back at you in the mirror? Be courageous enough to stare him down and dare him to stop you from rising up from within. This is the only way we will save our generation and our children’s, today, tomorrow, in a decade, a century, till the end of the world – by rising up!

Life is a race that has a start and finish as in every race. However, the race of life is not in finishing first but in finishing well. Isn’t victory sweeter when more than one member of the team crosses the finish line in record time, complete when every member of the team finishes on time? If we run ahead and destroy the road behind us so another cannot cross, when we finally break the breast tape do we then celebrate alone? Who said it’s impossible for all of us to break that breast tape together?