The Worst Advocacy Against Man.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is Man that you are mindful of him, the son of Man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

- Psalm 8 (New International Version).

Life is Worth Living Well.

I have a belief that the situation of every human being upon death will be like the arrival point of an international airport. There will be a long line of travelers as they arrive from earth. Waiting at the front of the aisle, are some angels who will take one look at each of the new arrivals and direct them to appropriate cubicles for entry interviews.

And very much like the Parable of Talents (Matthew 25:14-30 English Standard Version), a particular group of people will be directed to a cubicle where the interviewer will yell at each one of them; "You slothful idiot! Do you know how long and how painstaking it took God to create and mold you as a precious, distinct individual? Yet, you got lazy, complacent and wasteful of that same precious life. While on earth, you neither passed nor failed except to remain static in one spot. And now, you return up here all messed up, looking sad, depressed and dispirited! Will someone please cast this worthless fool into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth!"

Life is About Pain and Pleasure.

As individuals, our lives are like that of a magnet. A magnet is never complete without a combination of the negative and the positive polarities. So also can a human life never get fulfilled without an exposure to the reality of pain and pleasure. Pain is the harbinger of wisdom while pleasure serves as its reward. As the saying goes, "No pain, no gain". Some people go in the pursuit of a reward at the exclusion of an initial pain and they do this through superficial means. Sadly though, such "rewards" come with fatal consequences.

The Tribulation of Today is Tomorrow's Testimony.

There can never be a testimony without a prior test. The greater the test, the more gratifying the testimony.

My Life as The Apple of God’s Eye.

From infancy to this moment, I have been privileged to survive several possible deaths and a lot of potential calamities. From terrible, debilitating sicknesses to assassination attempts, auto accidents, near-death experiences on hospital operating table, medical malpractices, criminal implications, incriminating set-ups and even self-induced sheer recklessness, I have survived them all, to date. Since the year I turned 50 therefore, I have considered every additional day a bonus. And it's in view of this strange fate that I have often wondered if God has made it a special assignment for some angels to keep watch over my life, maybe for one reason or the other.

While I am not sure about the role of providence, there is however one thing I am very sure of. In all of my adult life so far, I have always likened life to a highway. No matter how great and careful a driver is, he or she needs to painstakingly think for the other drivers on the highway lest such a driver be involved in an accident that arises due to no fault of him or her. Such is the case in my life. I have always been in the habit of thinking for the other people by preempting or anticipating their actions at home, in the neighborhood, at the work place, on the road and among friends or colleagues. This is because I will not want to be “messed up” by some other people’s negligence, recklessness or carelessness.

With this personal principle in place, I have been able to conform to an adage that says “heaven helps only those who help themselves.” Therefore, even if God has designed a special protective system solely for my survival on this earth plane, he will realize and probably be impressed with my own efforts in ensuring that all is well at every point in my life.

Disappointed in God?

When my mother passed away, the sad event was so sudden and emotionally devastating that my immediate reaction was to lapse into an utter shock. Two questions kept nagging at my mind. The first was a simple-sounding word, “Why?” And the second was the whereabouts of God when that tragedy crept into our family?

My mother was a very religious woman, a good Christian filled with a very strong faith in God. Ironically, as the woman suffered a massive stroke and began to slip into coma on that fateful day, she was screaming and gesticulating with her hands out-stretched, for God to save her life.  But death still took her away. As far as I was concerned, God must have shrugged his shoulders in total nonchalance at a time the woman needed him most.

And so, for many years afterwards, I cut off all relationship with God!

There were some individuals, families, friends and colleagues, who tried to reconcile us but I rejected the idea each time. They must have considered me obstinate.

I know there are individuals out there who must be feeling the same way right now. Theirs could be loss of jobs, repossessed cars, loss of homes or some other issues. But what could ever be worse than the loss of a loved one as it was in my case? Whatever the case might be though, it is better to allow the affected individuals to reconcile and make peace with God at their own time. That was how it happened in my case. And I learned a lot of great lessons in the process.



In the first place, God gave me the grace to know that even though I no longer reckoned with him all that time, he continued to bless, adore and abide with me. The manifestations were glaring, much to my embarrassments. Secondly, God gave me the grace to “walk with him” and during the encounter, in retrospect, I began to ask for his forgiveness. I also decided to thank him profusely for my mother’s life. Within the short period of her life, the woman positively touched so many lives (one way or the other) that had she lived up to ninety, she couldn’t have done any better.  Her memory is fresh and alive in the hearts of many people she touched in her lifetime. Thirdly, I realized that my mother could have woken from the coma only to become a “vegetable”. And God knew very well that we (the kids) and our father were in no financial or emotional condition to be saddled with such a huge responsibility.

Therefore, I will advise those who are feeling disappointed in God over one thing or the other, to spare a moment to “walk with God”. The walk simply entails giving God the opportunity to “explain his own side of the story”.



 

 

The Best Routes to Wisdom.

“There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.” – Confucius.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Damned Human Race by Ebun Olawole.

In Mark Twain’s literary work, “The Damned Human Race” (1905), he conducted an experiment that compared man to other animals. He concluded that man should be called the lower animals while the so-called lower animals should be regarded as the higher animals. He found Darwin’s theory wrong.

In terms of brutality, lower animals are better than man. He gave humorous examples of how brutal man can be. He continued that man has a flaw. And with the flaw, he is unable to reason because he descended from lower animals.



I agree with Twain (p. 8), that man is greedy, compared to the so-called inferior animals. In line with Twain’s opinion, it is man that will keep accumulating excessive things, especially riches, far beyond his actual needs because he is never satisfied. Man always wants more. For example, a well-fed, satisfied lion won’t kill another animal merely for the fun of it.

With man’s brain and intelligence, he is supposed to be able to differentiate between good and evil. However, it is not so in reality. As Twain noted (p.10) man is the only animal that agonizes over insults and waits patiently for a sign of weakness, then retaliates. A dog has no brain that is so sensitive as to realize that it has been offended and has to retaliate.



Twain recognized the many bad traits of the human race. Man is the only religious animal, yet the same man fights each other because of religion. There is a good example where, in the name of religion, a Moslem sect in Nigeria is currently holding about 150 abducted high school students hostage.

I also agree with Twain that man is the only animal that engages in war. Examples are the Ukraine-Russia crisis, Israel-Gaza war and many more. While the human race is known to possess the best brain, man will often act before he thinks.

 

 

 

The World is Beautiful.

We are in a world where evil thrives.

This sad fact however does not remove the existence of the other fact (this time, a positive kind) that we are in a beautiful world. It’s the only the sheer preponderance of evil that casts a huge shadow over the beauty of the world we live in. There is beauty everywhere--in individuals, animals, insects, plants, flowers, geographical landscape and in other things and places.

It’s therefore the responsibility of every lover of the school of positive thought to keep an open mind and eyes in a bid to see, behold and appreciate the hidden massive beauty that abounds in our world.

 

They Could Have Killed Me

When my son, Adeoluwa posted the above picture on Facebook some days ago, little did he know the flood of memories and emotions it brought to me.

A couple of days after this picture was taken, I was about stepping out of my home to leave for work and wondering why my wife kept me waiting.

On that fateful morning, she wanted to pay a visit to her parents with our 3-month-old baby boy. But I soon got tired of waiting and told her that I had to leave. She said fine but I should give her  just a few seconds before driving off so that she could package some breakfast for me. I asked her to please send it down
to me in the parking lot right inside the compound.

As I got downstairs, my kid brother, Kehinde had just washed the car. I got inside the car to start the engine while my brother walked toward the gate to open it. Unknown to him, three men were waiting outside the gate. As Kehinde pushed the gate open, the men rushed inside the quiet compound, all armed. Instantly,
at gun-point, one guy ordered Kehinde to lay prostrate on the ground without a word. Another guy stood in the middle of the street, directly opposite the house to ward off possible sympathisers. And the third guy, obviously the leader, casually but firmly walked toward me.

"Hey..." he barked at me as he touched my forehead with the barrel of the revolver in his hand..."Did you feel the coldness of the gun?"

I nodded.

"I just wanted you to know that this is not a toy gun." he stated very camly as if we were just having some friendly chat.

"I believe you." I answered in utter fear even as I stared at his very cold eyes. "Please...take the car..."

There were only two families in the entire compound of twin duplexes. And there were assorted cars including a Mercedes Benz parked in the compound. I thought
the guys were interested in the cars.

"What?" the man got angry at my suggestion."Who do you think we are...car thieves? What an insult!"

"Ah...I'm sorry." I pleaded. "So, what do you want...money?"

This other suggestion even made the other guys angrier as the one standing over my brother yelled at their leader to "shoot him and let's go!"

On hearing this command, I glared at the man as I pleaded for my life. But the man was not impressed with my plea. He ordered me to face the wall.

Somehow, something made me refuse to face the wall and I told him point-blank that I would not face the wall.

"Please tell me...who sent you..." I asked him. "May I know who wants me killed?"

This time, the two other men were terribly angry with their leader as they yelled at him to stop chatting with me.

"Shoot this guy and let us go!" they ordered.

Oblivious of the sad drama, my wife had sent the house maid to bring down my breakfast. On seeing the guy with a gun pointed to my head, the poor girl
stood temporarily transfixed to the spot on the staircase. The gun man now pointed the gun at her to shoot but I found myself standing between him and
the maid. With this action, the girl bolted upstairs, screaming that "someone wants to kill Deolu's daddy!"

The man now looked at me and said since I refused to face the wall, he would just go ahead to shoot. At that moment and within a micro-second, my mind
went into frenzy as a lot of pitiful faces came flying past...my wife, my baby boy, my brothers...everyone...all looking sad as if they were already mourning my
untimely death. That was how I knew how people felt under such a crazy circumstance.

Then, a click from the gun suddenly made my mind return to focus on the assassin. The gun had jammed.

Right before me, the guy checked the revolver, assured himself it was okay and pointed it at my head. He fired. But again, all that sounded was another click.

Now angry with himself, he unloaded the six rounds of ammonition, checked them and reloaded them into the gun chambers. As he did this, I simply stood
there helplessly waiting for my death. Quickly, he pointed it at my head and fired. But there was yet, another click sound.    

For a few seconds, the guy stared hard at me without a word. Then, he said "What kind of a person are you?"

When I said nothing except to keep staring at him, he finally said "You're not an ordinary person...are you?"

Suddenly, he barked at the other men, telling them they had to leave.

"What do you mean we have to leave...?" the guy standing over my brother querried.

But without an answer, the leader of the team jumped into my car and ordered the two other men to join him. That was how they left.

Fortunately they left at that moment. My other brother, Shola was running down the stairs in reaction to the maid's alarm. Up till today, I ask myself what if the men had shot me and were suddenly confronted by Shola's presence at that moment? Of course, they would have shot him too. And what would that do to
Olawole's family...the loss of two persons in one day?

Some hours later on that same day, my car was found somewhere in Ikeja. Nothing in the car was touched or stolen. Not even my wallet which was heavily loaded with cash was touched. I was going through the cash after starting the car shortly before the assassins rushed into the compound. 

There was a friend (he knows himself) and a cousin (he also knows himself) and maybe some other people (who I don't know yet) who may "sometimes" feel irritated each time I use the Facebook to thank, praise and glorify the Lord in appreciation of my life, my family and especially, my kids, now they can understand the reason. This story here is just one of the many situations where I could have lost my life. I know God has been preserving my life for some reasons best known to Him.