God's Ways are Beyond Human Understanding.

Somewhere in the late 1980s, there was a mad man that was always loitering around the main bus station in Onitsha, Nigeria. He was not just mad but known to have been in the sad state of insanity for decades.

One day, a luxurious commercial bus was about being boarded by a long line of passengers who were heading to Lagos City. At that moment, the mad man came along. As he did, a couple of armed police officers whose job was to escort the bus on its journey, ordered the mad man to leave the area.

"Hey!" the mad man yelled at the passengers on the line. "If I were you, I would not board this bus."

"Alright, thanks for telling them." the police officers yelled back at the mad man. "Now, you can leave."

"I'm warning you people..."  the mad man yelled again, ignoring the cops. "Do not board this bus...there is danger ahead..."

At this moment, one woman turned to the mad man to ask. "What danger are you talking about?"

Typically of the insane, the mad man laughed hysterically in reaction to this question.

"Because..." he continued to laugh. "Among you passengers are some notorious armed robbers who intend to rob you along the way."

Initially, no one took the mad man seriously. But as he kept on saying the same thing over and over, some of the passengers finally began to feel wary about boarding the bus. In a bid not to lose passengers however, the bus driver pleaded with the police officers to do something. And so, at gun point, the officers decided to conduct a body search of all male passengers. It was soon discovered that six men had pistols tucked under their shirts and they confessed that they had intended to rob all the passengers whenever the bus took off. This was a phenomenon that baffled everyone at the bus station.   

About 16 years ago, I got a job with Shell Petroleum in Warri, Nigeria. It was a culture shock. Unlike the long hours I was used to at my previous bank job, I soon realized that the Shell premises would become a ghost town as early as 5pm.

With no friends to visit and not being interested in the bar scene, I would usually return to my gloomy, empty apartment after each day’s job and retire to bed as early as 6pm instead of the midnight I'd been sleeping while in Lagos.

Although a Christian, church thing was a weekly affair for me. But now that I was getting bored to death, I resolved to start visiting a church.

I was in the church one Sunday when my name was announced among the church’s new marriage counselors. Stunned, I met the pastor after service to correct what I believed was a mistake. But the pastor said that it was no mistake. He went on to explain that my audience would consist of couples who were about to get married and those who were already married.

“Uh...uh, no way!” I shook my head indignantly. “Excuse me, I don't think I can do it."

"Why not?" he asked.

"First of all..." I began to explain. "I’m not much of a Christian…”

The Pastor smiled and patted me on the shoulder. “Brother Olawole...don't worry about that...”

I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly. “Seriously, I'm saying it now! I'm not much of a Christian…"

"And I say don't worry about that?" he stated.

"Well..." I stared at the man and then whispered. "You know...I drink beer and I do a lot of orisi-risi that a Christian is not supposed to do…”

The man smiled and shook his head. “Fine...but why don't you leave that aspect to God?”

He went on to explain that an ad hoc committee of the church, which he headed, did the selection and it was the Holy Spirit that directed them.

“Great!" I said in exasperation. "But seriously speaking...I don’t think I can do it.”

The pastor stared at me in disappointment. “But why do you think you can’t do it?”

I shook my head again. “I mean...how can I counsel anyone when I can’t even quote from the Bible?”

Now laughing, the pastor said "You are a very funny man. Okay then, don't quote the Bible...do it any way you can...how about that?"

On this note, I returned home bewildered by the encounter and angry with the pastor for being so unreasonable.

On my first day as a marriage counselor of the church, I sat down with trepidation and almost freaked out when the first couple was ushered into the provided office. Brief pleasantries were exchanged and the session had started before it suddenly occurred to me that we had to start with a prayer. Did I feel terrible!

About an hour later, I nodded in satisfaction as the couple thanked me profusely on their way out, feeling elated .

By the third time I got to the church to perform my role as a counselor, almost all the couples who came to the church for counseling insisted on seeing me...and me alone. It took the intervention of the church pastor to persuade some of them to go see the other counselors.

“Brethren.” the pastor pleaded. “This brother will not be able to go home on time if you all choose to meet with him. And don’t forget that all the counselors just got off their regular jobs…please be fair to them…”

After his address to the couples, the pastor walked into my office. "And what is it that you, a rookie counselor, is doing that the seasoned counselors are not doing?"

"I don't know..." I said, shaking my head in disbelief. "I really don't understand..."

The man nodded his head, smiled and said "God works in wondrous ways...do you know several people in the church have been coming to me to praise you for what you're doing in their lives...not knowing that you're a reluctant counselor?"

He went on to tease me about the day I came to reject my appointment. "I knew you had a point but something kept telling me not to accept your withdrawal. And now I thank God I didn't...this is a clear confirmation that God's ways are far beyond human understanding."