The Story behind Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.

In April of 1737 at 52, Handel suffered from a stroke which incapacitated him, making it impossible for him to perform or conduct. He also complained of blurred vision. He was not a wise businessman and this led to the loss of his fortune. By 1741, he was swimming in debt and it seemed he would land in debtor’s prison. It was in this period that he was commissioned to write The Messiah which included The Hallelujah Chorus.

While writing the music, Handel never left his house for three weeks. A friend who visited him as he composed, found him sobbing with intense emotion. Later, as Handel groped for words to describe the strange phenomenon he had experienced, he quoted St. Paul, saying, "Whether I was in the body or out of my body when I wrote the music, I did not know."

There are two lessons in this story. Firstly, the true measure of a person lies in his or her ability to maintain a sense of resilience and determination even when faced with personal tribulations or tragedies. Secondly, God has a way of using certain individuals, irrespective of their situations, to achieve extraordinary feats under mysterious circumstances.

 

The LoveOasis Magazine.

The issue #12 of the adorable and glamorous LoveOasis Magazine is out. You can read it free by clicking on the following link: http://www.magaden.com/issue.php?id=13&volume=4

A Brutal Irony of Life.

A brutal irony of life that I have come to realize is that it’s not everyone that comes with me on this life’s journey that will go with me to the end. Along the road, some individuals will drop off either by choice or due to some circumstances beyond our collective control. When this happens, I believe no offence is meant. It’s just that each affected person has played their destined roles in my life and we both need to move on, in different directions. Once in a while though, I think about certain individuals who made some ground-breaking impacts on my life socially, morally or professionally. Then, I wonder where they are now likely to be on the surface of the earth. After a few seconds of reminiscence however, I let their memories fade away as gently as they have appeared. Such is the irony of life.

Mother Nature, What’s Up?

Today, we on the East coast grapple with the coldest winter this year so far with temperature dropping to a single-digit degree, those in the Midwest area such as Chicago in Illinois State are having a minus 17 temperature. But these are really no big deal because both the East coast and the Midwest are used to cold weathers.

However, people in Dallas, Texas and Montgomery, Alabama are having 10 and 14 degrees respectively. Now, this is very strange because those parts of the United States are not used to having cold weathers. In fact, many people in those areas don’t have winter coats. The same thing happened last winter when a place like Atlanta had snowfall and the different levels of government suddenly became disoriented. They did not even have snow salt to spread on their roads. Mother Nature, what’s up?

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.

 

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."

African Weddings and the Ominous effects of Evil Principalities.

Among Nigerians, very much like other Africans, there is always a very strong belief in the ominous effects of juju, voodoo or evil powers. This belief is sustained by the constant occurrence of mysterious phenomena in the lives of the people. And the belief can not really be discounted as unfounded or rubbished as a mere superstition because even the Holy Scriptures acknowledged the existence of witches, familiar spirits and other evil principalities.

The problem with this belief however is the flawed tendency of our African folks to ascribe every incident, including the consequences of personal recklessness and negligence to the unseen spiritual forces.

In 1987, my wife and I had a huge society wedding. This occasion came on the heels of some scary, mysterious events that occurred a few months before the wedding. From a strange illness that almost claimed the life of my wife to the subtle threats of spiritual harms from certain quarters, a low-keyed wedding ceremony would have been the ideal thing to do under the circumstance. As a couple however, we chose to brave through the scare.

And we did have our fun-filled wedding while enjoying the momentary fame as the cynosure of all eyes. Finally, we thanked God that everything went well as planned.

A few months after the wedding, my wife and I invited Goddy (the best man at our wedding) and Bimbo (Best Lady), to the annual Christmas party hosted by my employers.

We all went to the party in my car.

The week preceding the party had been one of great accomplishments for me in terms of my professional life and private business. With this sheer sense of joy in mind, I proceeded on a drinking binge as soon as we arrived at Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, the venue of the party. When the bar ran out of my choice of white wine, I simply switched to VSOP Brandy that was much stronger.

We called it a day at about one o’clock in the morning of the following day. I remembered vividly how I opened the front passenger's door for my wife and the rear doors for our guests.

But that was all I could remember.

About an hour later, I looked in the rear-view mirror and found the rear seats empty.

“Where is Goddy…and Bimbo?” I turned to ask my wife.

Thinking that I was about launching into one of my dry jokes, she stared at me without a response.

“Listen…” I continued to say. “I’m serious. And by the way, where are we now?”

This time, my wife stared at me with a controlled anger before responding to my question.

“What are you talking about?” she asked irritably. “Can’t you see that we are in Ikeja?”

“Ah!” I exclaimed in panic.

“What do you mean by ah?” my wife asked again. “Aren’t you the one driving the car?”

In place of a response however, I continued to drive toward home.

Finally, we both arrived at home.

That was when I called my wife aside to tell her that I could not remember how I drove the car from the parking lot of the Federal Palace Hotel in Victoria Island all the way to Ikeja, covering several miles of distance in the process.

For a few seconds, all she did was stare at me in shock.

“What really are you trying to say?” she finally asked in fright. “…that you passed out while driving?”

“I guess so…” I answered, nodding my head solemnly. “Because I can’t remember anything.”

“Oh my God.” she remarked. “No wonder you were so quiet all the time Goddy, Bimbo and I were chatting and laughing. You just kept staring at the road ahead….”

“No, my eyes were shut tight.” I stated. “I only opened them when we got to Ikeja.”

“Really?” she screamed while clasping her palms atop her head in shock. “But…but you pulled over for Goddy to step out of the car at Palm Grove bus stop.”

“I did?” I asked, staring at her in surprise. “I can’t remember doing anything of sort.”

“What?” my wife yelled in astonishment. “And what about the time you pulled over at Maryland for Bimbo to get off?”

“I can’t remember doing that either.” I shook my head.

“But how then did you drive so smoothly all the way to Ikeja?” she wailed in shock.

“I don’t know…” again, I stated, shaking my head.

“Ah!” she exclaimed for the umpteenth time. “For God’s sake, you drove all the way from Victoria Island, a journey of several miles with curves and turns…all through the long Third Mainland Bridge and you can’t remember anything?”

“No…I can’t.” I answered.

For the next few minutes, we both meditated quietly over the strange phenomenon.

We both wondered aloud about whatever strange force had taken control of the car all the time I was unconscious. Without the benefits of that strange force or providence, which we finally ascribed to another special grace of God in my life, the car could have plunged into the looming, dark Lagoon beneath the Third Mainland Bridge if I had lost control of the car. And this was more so, after such a very flashy, lavished wedding ceremony.

“Do you know what people would have said?” my wife asked in consternation. “Our families, relations and friends would have blamed it all on the wicked engine of witch-crafty, sorcery or some other evil principalities.”

“Of course, yes. “ I nodded solemnly. “Even though, it would all have been my fault.” 

I marveled at the phenomenal event of that fateful day and resolved never again to drink, eat or do anything whatsoever in excess.

It has been 25 years since the incident took place. Had the situation been the other way around, someone else would probably have written this story as an eulogy in a memorial to me, my wife and our guests. May God be praised, thanked and glorified at all times.

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.