••• I have a friend close to my heart. Whenever things go wrong in her life, she’ll jerk her left
shoulder slightly, throw back her neck and exclaim, “Story of my life!” Rihanna’s masterful song, “Unfaithful,” began with exactly the same phrase. I don’t know what the story of your own life is right now but every heart knows its own sorrow.
The problem is when I let the story of my life draw from the story of the circumstances around me. For example, Nigeria is currently grounded. Strategic national collapse. National shut down. You can’t move around because there isn’t PMS to power up your car. I priced a 10-liter can of PMS right beside an NNPC megastation; N5,000 the seller said. You can’t fly because there isn’t aviation fuel at the airports. I understand Arik and Aero haven’t flown for three days!
••• Here’s even a more astounding algebra of the current situation: There is no electricity. We haven’t had a blink in our area for more than a week on. There’s no diesel or PMS to power up your generators at home and office. The foods in your fridge have soured. Besides, has anyone else noticed the brain-frying temperatures of these days? You can’t sleep. You can’t work. You can’t charge your computers. And the worst of all: You can’t quite explain what’s going on to your bewildered children.
Now, because you can neither sleep nor work, you’re home eating and accumulating calories like KLM’s Loyalty air miles. Over the years, I have observed that if it cost N100 to gain 1 kg, it cost N67,000 to lose it. Not an exaggeration – think gym fees, veggie juicing, the early morning walks, and the condemned wardrobe. Another interesting dimension of the systemic dilapidation of Nigeria, I hesitate to mention, is the population spike we’ll record nine months from now. History shows that when married men can’t go to work, they become unusually romantic. (I’m not implying that it’s happening to me today, though.)
••• To ice the cake, a major telecommunications company finally warned that if the fuel supply situation did not improve within 24 hours, they too would shut down because they can’t find diesel to power up their base stations. Yeah, right. No power. No movement. No communication. People living outside Nigeria have no clue what it means to live in hell. Everything works upside down, left to right. Indeed, “righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to the nation.” This is happening in the 7th largest producer of oil in the world! What else is this but a harvest of reproaches?
This might just be the perfect timing to ask God, “Why did I have to be born in this part of the planet?” A comedian narrated how a woman in labor was rushed to a maternity. The nurses shouted, “Madam, push am well make this pikin comot!” When the baby heard the nurses, it said, “Ah, they called me pikin! This must be Ajegunle! I’m not coming out here!” It crossed his legs and refused to come out.
••• Yesterday, I was about to jerk my left shoulder, throw back my neck and exclaim, “Story of my life!” when these same words streamed into my spirit again: “Thine is the kingdom!” I wish I could explain the great peace and confidence that those words infused into my spirit. I’ll attempt.
••• Kingdoms come and kingdoms go. Kingdoms have come and kingdoms have gone. Each time, a man rose up and made himself so strong you could call him a god. We have had powerful Pharoahs, Nebuchadnezzars, Alexanders the Great, Caesars, Emperors, Conquerors, Napoleons, Hitlers, Stalins, Saddam Husseins, Gadhafis, Gowons, Obasanjos, Abachas, Babangidas, Jonathans, and soon, Tinubus, Buharis … mere men. Usually, something got into their heads and told them that they were really powerful. Instead of leaders, they became rulers. When you hear these men boast, sometimes, you wonder whether they breathe something other than this same oxygen.
If your boss breathes his usual threats over you this week, pull him by his corporate tie, choke him just enough to keep him barely conscious, stare deeply into his eyes, and, with the coldest baritone you could muster, ask him, “What else do you breathe other than oxygen?” Trust me, that would be the last time he’ll threaten you. It might also be your last day at work, though.
••• My youngest son’s favorite hymn as a child was ‘This is My Father’s World.’ I never enjoyed the hymn as when I heard it from his unspoiled, angelic, tender voice:
“This is my Father’s world.
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!”
In spite of what is going on in your life, be at peace, because the Kingdom belongs to God! Not to any human being. Not to any political party. Not to any boss or employer.
Rejoice! “Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”
••• I plead with you today, be glad and rejoice! God reigns, even in the apparent chaos! People close to me are often mystified that I could carry such constant joy even in the middle of challenges that would sink a Titanicfull of men. First, it’s because joy is a fruit of the Spirit. Second, it’s because I know who holds tomorrow. I know who holds my hands. I know who sits on the throne.
Don’t let the upside down circumstances in your life right now make you ever forget Who is really in charge! And if you must run into me this week, make sure you don’t wear a long face. Or else …
I love you. BE healthy, wealthy and wise.
Ogbo Awoke Ogbo.