THE HOLLY AND THE IVY.

                                                  

The Holly and the Ivy is one of my favourite Christmas carols. But I have always wondered why the song started with both plants but ended with the Holly being the superior of the two trees.

The holly is an ornamental tree that is believed to bring good luck and repel evil. It is one tree that remains evergreen even when the cold fingers of winter has withered and shriveled the souls of its surrounding woody cronies; this ability makes it symbolically linked to life and hope. The plant is also associated with exuberance and enthusiasm. In Roman culture it represented good wishes. In summary, the Holly is a plant with a cheerful disposition.

The Holly’s thorny nature also makes it protective in the sense that it is used to make hedges to keep people safe from predatory elements.

On the other hand there is a type of Ivy called the poison ivy. This plant causes a lot of blisters and irritation on people who come in contact with it. Sometimes, the anaphylactic reaction it causes can snuff out a life. The fume it releases when it is burnt is toxic to the lungs. Approaching this plant requires a lot of caution because it is dangerous.

As amazing as it might sound, human beings are likened to trees a lot of times in the pages of life. Jesus was called the Tree of life, David; the famous Hebrew king said that a good man is like a tree planted by the side of a river. He also said that the growth of this dude’s life is akin to that of the cedars of Lebanon and his existence abounds like a flourishing palm tree.

The holly person is jolly, makes people see beyond the winter of life, and helps to insulate people in the warmth of his conviviality. Everyone finds a friend in the holly buddy; he is a Barnabas (son of encouragement) to everyone. He prepares a spread of joy amongst colleagues, dishes out a feast of geniality like Santa Claus giving a toy to an indigent kid. The holly individual helps us forget the frosty attitude of the elements and makes us look towards the hope of spring. With him we feel we are sitting before the comforting heat released by the laughter of crackling logs in a fireplace while the world outside is filled with the howls of nature’s frustration. The holly person is a defense from pain. He heals because he injects us with the serum of roaring mirth and a merry heart doeth good like medicine. The holly nature is sweet.

Unlike the holly dude, a poison ivy person is sour, dour, abrasive and nasty. No one wants to be around this guy. In his wake, is other folks’ shattered self esteem, blistered self confidence, and scratched feelings. God help you if you are around this person on his bad day, you will nearly be choked with the deadly fumes of bitterness. This person is has a noxious effect on a spouse, children, colleagues, neighbors, friends, name it. It is lethal to have him around. He pours cold water on the bonfire of your vivacity. Poison ivies do not feel good except put someone down or backstab another. It is in their nature to cause a world of hurt. People usually cry around them. They rain down snow on others parade, don’t give bonus or even worse still, withhold salaries during Christmas. They are selfish; all they care about is me, myself, I and mine. The poison ivy person is mean!

As much as hampers and all the thrills of Christmas are so cool, please don’t let’s get it twisted and forget the reason for the season. The main gift of Christmas was a human being, the Christ. When he was born, the angels declared that following his birth was goodwill and peace towards men.  We are supposed to be the true gifts of the season.

Truth is if you are not known for peace and goodwill, you have no business celebrating this season, blot it out of your calendar in an awful hurry. Jesus was friendly, it was recorded that he went about doing good.

Considering the differences in these two plants, it is not a surprise that the holly is the king amongst all the trees in the wood. Little wonder too that it is associated with the Christ. IF YOU WANT TO BE A KING AMONGST MEN THEN YOU HAVE TO BE A HOLLY!!!  That is when you will initiate angels to continually sing this refrain to men, “GLORY BE TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND ON EARTH, PEACE AND GOODWILL TOWARDS MEN”!!!

Be a holly buddy this yuletide period; stand out as the tallest tree in the forest of humanity. Make someone’s Christmas wonderful and unforgettable.

So, the question is if we are living trees, what kind of tree are you?

ARE YOU A HOLLY OR A POISON IVY?

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!

THE GOLDEN APPLES OF HESPERIDES.

Greek mythology has it that the eleventh task Hercules had to perform was to get some golden apples from a garden guarded by a 100 headed dragon and some nymphs called the Hesperides.  Now this was one job that was even too much for the strong man so he had to get the help of Atlas in exchange for helping the titan carry the world for a while.

Life is full of herculean tasks and the absolute truth is that we cannot handle most of them on our own. Hercules was a demigod yet he needed the help of a god. All his machismo, wits, muscles, guts could not help him out this time so he needed higher power.

From the genesis of creation, we were not made to function without help, which is why the Elohim said from the beginning that it was not good for man to be alone.
 
The power of partnership is exponentially powerful! Yes I know we live in a world where people hurt one another and try to swindle them out of what is theirs but that is not new. Atlas tried the same thing on Hercules but that does not negate the benefits of team work. In the days of yore when the tag team aspect of the WWE was still rocking, seeing one or two fights in this category would have shed more light on the advantages of pairing power.  “One shall chase a thousand and two shall chase ten thousand” says the good book. When two people make up their minds about something g on earth even the heavens move for them.

Firstly we need a higher power, without God, we can do absolutely nothing. We need God like a sail needs the wind to fly. Our lives are empty without Him, on our own we can’t do zip. It is delusion of grandeur to think we are self sufficient.

Secondly we need our life partners (husbands and wives); this is one area of partnership that is not maximized in our day. We even sometimes look down on our partners thinking they are a burden (men are more to blame in this regard) but this is usually to our detriment. Thing is, the first idea about team work that God had about man was in the form of marriage. The benefits of this great institution can never be over emphasized.  It just boils down to making sure you hitch your cart to the right horse that is someone you agree with (check out my post GENESIS, MAGIC AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING). Being alone on the matrimonial bed on a frosty night would rob you of the warmth of companionship when the harsh cold realities of living seep into the soul.

The third thing is we need people. In the chronicles of the Hebrew kings, there is a story of a widow who got into a financial ditch with her children and the revelation a seer gave her was that she should borrow vessels.Of course it should be noted that her borrowing was to develop an assets base and not to fritter it away on liabilities. We need people’s vessels, that is, their ideas, time, experience, expertise, money, name it! Most of the things that move life are based on other people’s books, past movies, technical knowhow, the works. The financial gurus of the world know they need other people’s money (this is one of the reasons the real estate market in Nigeria is exploding, OPM). On the terrain of warfare, we all need someone’s input in fighting back to back with us, so that our rear is covered while we face the issues before. We need the covering fire of friends to keep the heads of our adversaries down when we go for the big prizes.

We are sunk in the race of life without the input of others. God wanted to make man and asked for the input of His Companions. He said “Let Us make man”. Jesus needed the disciples and the women that helped his ministry, Paul had Silas, Batman had Robin, Superman had Lois Lane, Asterix had Obelisk, Bill gates had Steve Ballmer, Starsky had Hutch, Dempsey had Makepeace.The fantasy universe impresses this on us with great teams like the “Avengers, Justice League, X-men, Teen Titans, Legion of the Superheroes, etc. Life is basically team work and we should never forget this.
On the other hand like I mentioned earlier, on the road of working hand in hand with others there are also pit falls which can be avoided if we are sharp. Therefore we need to be wise, look hard and well before leaping so we don’t get burnt. Hercules had enough gumption to get the best from Atlas without being hoodwinked. Fire has great potential for good but it could be destructive; we cannot do without it! In the same vein, we cannot do without others. It is just that caution is needed!

Like Hercules, if you are stuck on the quest for some golden apples in some area of life, then it’s time to change your strategy! Seek for Help! The only time that it was recorded that Atlas moved from his comfort zone (better still comfortless zone) and made some progress in life by doing the seemingly impossible was when someone else helped him carry his burden. WE ALL NEED BURDEN CARRIERS! Even Jesus needed one. If Simon the Cyrene had not carried his cross, the road to the heights of Golgotha would have been more arduous.

Having this truth in mind would help us appreciate God, our spouses, friends and other people more. For example, if you have a business, you would not think that you are the benefactor of your workers and without your outfit they cannot take care of themselves or their families. The actual fact is that it is a mutually benefiting relationship. My people have a saying that if the right hand washes the left, the left hand would equally wash the right.

The trail of life is littered with the skeletal remains of people who tried to do it all alone. Life has no place and patience for lone rangers and one man gangs.

TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE FOR THEY HAVE A BETTER REWARD FOR THEIR LABOUR………..

THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS

                                              

The size of bugs makes them very insidious in their nature.  A microscopic organism finds its way into the human system and causes untold damage. If its virulent progress is not countered, it ends up causing overwhelming sepsis and ultimate systems failure resulting in the death of the host.

I have been wondering how human beings survived infections before Sir Alexander Fleming made his accidental discovery of penicillin. It’s a huge relief that antibiotics now exist that can halt the ravaging march of germs.

The best movie I have seen this year is “Limitless” followed by the “Green Lantern”. There was something about the “Green Lantern” that brought Nigeria to my mind. I guess it must have been all that fluorescent green (like T.Y Bello sang, “the land is green”). But Nigeria is the host of various kinds of evil, wickedness, selfishness, greed, corruption, terrorism, tribal and religious bigotry, ritual killing, armed robbery, amongst a few. Evil is what has paralyzed this country and the truth is the government cannot do anything about it. So the buck stops here, here in YOUR laps, irrespective of who you are, where you are so long you are a Nigerian.

The story line of the movie shows that the ring chose Hal Jordan not by random but deliberately, even though he did not seem to have what it took. If you are a Nigerian, it’s not as a result of happenstance. You are not a random act of nature or a product of the big bang, God INTENTIONALLY made you a product of this nation and chose you for a time like this. Like he told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew and approved of you as my chosen instrument”. YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE!!!

Thing about evil is that it flourishes so easily when nothing stands in its way even when it starts out in a presumably innocuous way, for example, when Boko Haram started, instead of ruthlessly extirpating it, our government was shilly-shallying and now, here we are! You don’t tolerate evil, no sane person kisses a live cobra, maybe except a snake charmer but some have even lived to regret it (some don’t even have the opportunity to regret it). A country like Mexico is overrun with drugs and safety in that place has become a thing of the past. It did not make sense to me since God categorically said evil cannot prevail over good and the wicked man will bow at the gate of the righteous but in my musings the answer came to me that the diabolic only has an upper hand over the virtuous when there is complacency amongst good men. The darkness surrounding the throne of Hades himself cannot stand the weakest flicker of light but eclipse that light and see what happens.

To salvage this nation is to dare to be different, to resist being carried away by the flood of bad things prevalent around here, let your light shine wherever you are and believe me your light is not little. Thing is, someone might feel it none of his/her business especially if you are abroad and everything is going swimmingly but life is not only about us but  about posterity, our children and their children. Just as no one can totally dissociate himself from his family, we also can never absolutely cut ourselves off from our country even if we live in Pluto. Life is about responsibility. Funnily enough, everyday people who are not Africans wake up to the call to come do something about this continent, about Nigeria. What about you and me? NIGERIA IS OUR COUNTRY!!!

I completely agree with you that the problems here are enormous that is easier to pull  an Ostrich and hide our heads in the sand like but it all boils down to your will.

The most poignant scene of the movie for me was when Parallax was on rampage and bore down on the Green Lantern with his yellow monstrous power, trying to induce fear in the Super hero by inundating his mind with all the horrific things he was going to unleash on the ring bearer. But Hal Jordan held his ground, refused to listen and instead repeated the Lantern corps vow to himself…

Brightest day,

Blackest night,

No evil shall escape my sight,

And those who worship evil’s might,

Beware my power, the GREEN LANTERN’S LIGHT!

He went on to win a major victory for mankind. His will won the battle.

On your watch and mine is evil going to triumph while we groove and feel it is none of our business? Or are you going to take up the ring of responsibility and make a pledge to this country. Are you going to become an Emerald Knight, one of the green lantern corps of this nation?

If yes, then let’s recite our oath together:

I pledge to Nigeria my country,

To be faithful, loyal and honest,

To serve Nigeria with all my might and uphold her honour and glory,

So help me God.

Edmund Burke said, “Evil only runs riot when good men do nothing”! LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE!!!

FOR YE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD……………………………………………

DRAGON SLAYER!

                                                            
One of the delights of childhood aside from popping a Popsicle into your mouth is reading or hearing a fairy tale. From Rapunzel, Sleeping beauty to Snow white, there is something about the damsel in distress that eventually gets rescued by a prince or a knight in shining armour that sweetened my childish palate.

I find it almost inexplicable that the most genteel knight gets reckless in winning the hand of a beautiful dame even to the point losing his life. To me it is the height of gallantry, the zenith of chivalry, the peak of sacrificial love.

As I said in my post “Animated Truth”, there is a thin line between fantasy and reality a good deal of the time. As incredible as it sounds, we all have a Lover who gave everything including his life to win our hands and our hearts. We are His bride, His fixation, His love (irrespective of your deep baritone, and beefcakes, you better believe it bro!).  This is why he declares that He loves us with an everlasting love. He is extremely jealous about us and says that anyone that touches us touches the apple of his eyes. He is drunk on our love.

But his threats usually fall on deaf eyes when it comes to the wily, ole dragon. The bugger would time and time again slink in and hold us captive. We become damsels in distress looking for salvation. We are kept hostage in our enemy’s dank, dark smelly dungeon. Deliverance usually seems so distant in this hot underground pit. Hope becomes as far away as the distant stars you cannot even see. Dragons cause so much pain!

But in comes our Knight in all his splendor, silver armour shining, his sword glittering in the dark like Anduril, never can it be broken, never can it bow before an evil foe. His shield is big enough to cover us from the roaring, searing breath of the ugly beast.  Our eternal Cavalier arrives, hacking, slashing thrusting, savage in his fury, furious in his rage, berserk in his wrath. His lady has been put in harm’s way. He makes the dragon feel the sting of his sword. Good thing is that that steely body that bends the daggers of our human effort is like butter before the steel wielded by the “Lord of Heavensville”. You touch this one to your Peril, He tells the pain inducing monster and before our eyes, his sword pierces the heart of the hideous animal, it falls dead like a felled tree. He cuts of the ropes binding us and sets us free.

Are you currently feeling like a damsel in distress, held and bound by the ropes of limitation in the cave of hopelessness as you look into the bloodshot, hate filled eyes of the dragon? Has its hot breath charred your soul and broken your heart with life’s troubles? Has its slimy scaly skin pierced your health, your marriage, and your finances? Has its tail repeatedly struck fear into your spirit until your faith has almost become as extinct as a dodo? Has its claws torn your dreams and shattered your vision? Has its malevolent presence filled you with desperation and thoughts of self extirpation?

Before you give up, Cry out to your Saviour and listen well! Do you hear the sounds of hooves echoing, charging and thundering through the dark night? In the midst of your challenges, look up with greater hope! Your Knight is coming, your King is on his way and he is bringing victory and healing with him. The fight will be over in the twinkle of an eye and He would bear you on a horse more graceful than Pegasus to a future where you will live, happily ever after.  He will yet make a fairy tale out of your circumstances.

FEAR THEE NOT, BANISH THE DOUBT INSTEAD REJOICE IN HOPE, REVEL IN EXPECTATION BECAUSE OUR INAMORATO IS A WARRIOR KING; THE LOVER OF OUR SOULS IS A DRAGON SLAYER!!!

THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS RISEN AND THERE IS HEALING ON HIS WINGS…………………………

A SHARK'S TALE.

                                                            

I had the “privilege” of entering a Nigerian Police station recently and was shell shocked at how dingy the place was. The buildings were so ugly that a coat of paint would shiver in trepidation and disgust before embracing their walls.  It had rained the night before and there was enough water inside the station to make me go looking for a scuba diving gear. The squalor was so bad that Napoleon and his cronies in George Orwell’s “Animal farm” would not have stayed there for a day. Their own accommodation would have seemed like the Plaza or the Ritz compared to what my eyes beheld.

Some of the officers could not string words to form a good sentence in English even at the risk of losing their lives and they strolled in way past their resumption time though they are supposed to be a bastion of punctuality. Their approach to urgent things and pace was slower than a hamstrung tortoise (I wonder if they have some tortoises’ for tutors in their colleges). Looking at their physical condition, it’s pretty obvious that a lot of them cannot do a 5 meter dash without their hearts giving in.

Someone had gone to report the theft of a car and you could almost see them licking their chops like wolves at the sight of hapless lambs. They converged on this fellow with the predatory instincts and rapacity of sharks at the smell of blood. The frenzy with which they encompassed the guy even made them start fighting amongst one another. Greed filled their eyes like malevolent light and their compassion meters read zero. Anyone with the eyes to see would notice a reverse evolution taking place as men transformed into something less human. (I finally could get into J.R.R Tolkien’s mind and understand how greed turned a living being into Gollum in Lords of the Ring. Greed does that). All this was in a bid to get something out of a guy that had been emotionally assaulted by armed robbers.

Recently in the southern part of the country a young man was shot to death in the presence of his mother because he confronted some policemen and told them to stop harassing and taking N20 from bus drivers. These same guys, who attack citizens with impunity and so much bravado, who pump limitless rounds of bullets into innocent boys, flee at the sight of armed thieves. They look the other way when area boys molest innocent citizens.

The men in black have become more of undertakers than protectors. They say that they are our friends but in reality they are the biggest enemy of this country apart from the “great” PHCN.  Black uniform and all, they are like soulless fiends from Hades instead of friends.

In all sincerity, I met a really good one amongst them who cared but what good can one ant do amongst so many scarab beetles.

Observing this made my heart break and I wept for this country. If the force that is supposed to protect its citizens is almost as bad if not worse than bandits aside from the fact that they wear uniforms then it is pathetic. Thinking of the whole thing reminded me of the dirge David sang for Saul and his sons. He might as well have been singing for Nigeria because that jeremiad was about the tragedy of a nation amongst other things. Truth is, the police do not have a monopoly on greed, the vice is like a cancer in the blood of this country and that is one of the major reasons the nation is in the quagmire of stagnancy, poverty and mediocrity. We forget that Jesus said that, “WE SHOULD BEWARE OF COVETOUSNESS; THE LIFE OF A MAN DOES NOT CONSIST OF THE ABUNDANCE OF THINGS WHICH HE OWNS”!!! The malady of greed is just worse with the police because of what they stand for.

But the experience got questions running in my head like a herd of stampeding wildebeest. Why is the police force the way it is? I strongly believe the answers to these questions would help the force and be like a panacea to this ill nation.  For me it is a riddle of the egg and the chicken, which comes first?

Are these people the way they are because the Government does not give a hoot about them?  Is it because they are cultured in poverty soaked and filthy environments (no one raises peacocks in pig’s swill). Is it because they don’t go for trainings and are not paid well even though their line of duty is hazardous? Is it because they almost have no insurance for them and their families to fall back on when they become casualties in the line of duty? Or is it that it is the dregs of the Nigerian’s society (the unschooled, the uneducated, the unrefined, and the mediocre) that are enlisted in to its Police force, people who were stuck in ruts on the path of destiny and decided to join its ranks for lack of something better to do? Is there a vision that guides their behavioural patterns? Do they have a clear understanding of what they are supposed to be doing?

The Nigeria populace is filled with citizens whose limbs and hearts were at one time or another bitten to bits by this black uniformed monster at one time and another. This country is hemorrhaging, HOW DO WE TAME THE SHARK??? Please, I need your input, I need some answer here.

SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED!!!

 

As much as I think Daniel Craig is a good actor, in my opinion, he doesn’t just cut it in his role as the new James Bond. Aside from being blond, the brother, can be brutish, bleeds, lacks finesse and rarely uses special gadgets. In Casino Royale he was toting a submachine gun (totally unlike Bond) and when asked for his name, he doesn’t say “my name is Bond….James Bond”.  Special rides are not part of his repertoire and the one that nearly made me pass out was when he was asked how he likes his martini and the dude responded “who gives a damn”.  The guy doesn’t brush off his suits after a brawl; surmise it to say, he falls pretty short in the suave and debonair department.

I long for the good old days of the traditional Bond. You might call me a stick in the mud but in as much as change is inevitable, why change a good thing or a winning formula.

As we go through life every day, we find ourselves in a few skirmishes where negative punches are thrown at us, insults are hurled at our persona, failure tries to stain us with grimy fingers and the labels of funny monikers are stuck on the suits of who we are but the question is, how do we handle this? We have to learn to be like Mr. Bond. After each and every melee, he dusts off his suits, downs a drink for the road, gives a punch line and moves on still looking impeccably groomed. The past is promptly forgotten for the purpose of his future and his mission. Paul was stoned almost to death but after his tormentors left, he shook himself up, dusted his clothes, and moved on with his life’s mission. The missionary said none of the things he suffered moved him. He learnt to shake things off the way he shook off a venomous asp off his hand into the fire on the island of Malta, instead of allowing the snake’s toxin stir his blood into a corrosive stream of poison.

I have been thinking that maybe that is why James likes his martini shaken, not stirred. Thing is in life things will shake us up but do we allow them to stir us? For example, when we are hurt, do we feel the pain and let go or do we allow it to stir up hatred and animosity. Stephen was stoned and killed unjustly. The agony and the pain meted out to him shook him to the foundation of his life but he still prayed for his killers and forgave them. Jesus’ story was similar too. He did not allow the shaking and ripping his body took diminish his love for his tormentors and mankind. His persistent love enabled him overcome.

Do the ashes of events gone awry stick to you beyond rattling your cage, do they stir up destructive feelings of failure and defeat within. Were you hit by the blow of a big loss? Are you pining away in the cold of a summer gone by?  In the hearth where the roaring flames of love used to be, are there only charred embers left? Did a doctor give you a doomed medical report? Yes, I know any human being with flesh and blood will be shaken, but do you allow these temporary hitches to stir up depression, hopelessness, despondency and suicidal tendencies. Bro/sis, dust it off and move forward, the future beckons. Never give up, toast yourself to victory. As Fred Hammond sang “in the armor of the Lord we are standing strong and even if we take a hit, we are moving on”.

Don’t allow your boat to be rocked until it becomes a wreck submerged in the raging seas of life. MAINTAIN YOUR EQUANIMITY; THIS IS THE ROAD TO THE PEAKS OF TRIUMPH!!!

For us to rise above the “bars” of life, we would have to be like Mr. Bonds martini, SHAKEN BUT NOT STIRRED!!!

IT IS A JUNGLE OUT THERE!

                                                     

The Amazon jungle is one of the most beautiful places to visit if you are a nature lover. The diversity of flora and fauna existing in it is more incredible than the Hulk. But the Amazon is also one of the most dangerous places in the world. The poison dart frog, the piranha, the anaconda, the jaguar, poisonous plants, unfriendly tribes with their curare laden arrows are some of the reasons why you would always have to watch your back in this neck of the woods. Any traveler with a bit of gumption knows that to traverse this naturally booby trapped environment, a guide who knows the terrain is indispensable.

MTN usually tells us that life is beautiful. But as beautiful as it is, life is equally dangerous. We all live in a jungle albeit a cosmopolitan one with glassy skyscrappers, sleek machines, fashionable peeps and what have you. Like Piranhas lurking in the rivers of the Amazon, cancerous cells in the blood gobble up life and vitality. Akin to the poison dart frog, people in a vituperative way release poisonous words that kill the spirit, diabolic fiends cast poisonous spells to wreck destinies, foes and philosophers spin beautiful webs of lies (the poison dart frog is very colourful and beautiful) to trap the soul like killer spiders. Every day science tells us that some of the things we enjoy eating are now inimical to our systems like edible looking mushrooms which turn out to be lethal on consumption. Hypertension and cardiomyopathies crush the heart the way anacondas do. Terrorists and natural disasters unleash terror in the same way as jaguars. Comparative to unfriendly tribes’ curare laden arrows, sophisticated guns cough out bullets in a paroxysmal burst of death. The snakes of recession crawl in slowly to give finances that have been squirreled away deadly and venomous bites. In Nigeria, our roads are pits of destruction like the uncharted trails in the heart of the rainforest. A good deal of the time we come to our wits end like a newly arrived US marine in the Vietnamese tangled growths. We live in a world gone mad.

But what is has always been. David Jesse more than four thousand years ago in one of his most famous poems talked about terrors by night and arrows by day, mostly by philistines I presume (bullets by raiding marauders in our case), pestilence that walks in darkness (Avian flu and other insidious hardy bugs), destruction that wastes at noon day (9/11, UN building and Boko Haram, natural disasters). This guy’s world was so crazy that he went ahead and got himself a Shepherd. The bro said that even in the thick of the shadows of darkness that resembles that of the Amazon on a moonless night, he doesn’t fear squat because of the presence of his Shepherd.  His Shepherd was so good that while his enemies (wolves, lions and all sorts of predators) were gazing at him with eveil intent, a buffet was spread out before him. He was safe and relaxed like someone sipping chilled coconut milk and drinking in sunshine on a hammock somewhere on the beaches of the Bahamas.

Thing is, in life the enemy would always try to lock us in the cross hairs of his destructive firepower like a ruthless assasin. It is only the presence of a Shepherd that will prevent each person from becoming dead meat rotting on the floors of the jungles of life. The Shepherd makes sure we don’t want for protection.

DO YOU HAVE A SHEPHERD? WHO IS HE???

LAMPS AND LENSES

                            
The pharos of Alexandria was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was a lighthouse that was built to help sailors navigate safely into the harbour especially at night. It was the king of lighthouses.

 
The wonders of lighthouses are too wonderful to be expressed; they have prevented loss of uncountable lives and goods on the seas. Most lighthouses used to do this using a combination of lamps and lenses. The lamps give the light which is focused and magnified by lenses.

 
The Psalmist affirmed in his timeless poems that the word of God was a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path. The first lens ever was natural and it’s the one in the eyes. King David also wrote that, God instructs and teaches us in the way we should go, that He guides us with his eyes. It is the synchronization of his word and the light of love in his eyes that makes life navigable.

 
Paul the missionary due to confusion was on a genocidal mission of calamity when he saw a light and heard words which brought about a positive U-turn in his life. The conversion led him to the security of divine and eternal significance.

After suffering a crisis of loss of Identity, Moses was singing baa baa black sheep with wooly ovines until he saw a burning bush and heard Gods words. He stopped being ordinary and went on to become the extraordinary leader of a fledgling nation. The encounters these two had, showed that the lens of Gods eyes was always on them and He could not just sit while they self-destruct on the rocky shores of human existence. He showed and gave them light in the midst of pitch darkness.

 
In my last post, I said we are all masons but aside from that we are also mariners sailing the seas of life seeking for a harbour where our destinies would nestle in safety. A better job, a secure career, fat domiciliary accounts, fertile real estate, the embrace of sweet love, solid pillars of posterity and so on.

 
But sometimes it seems the storms of life hit with a vengeance, we find ourselves on choppy, stroppy seas in a skiff. Masts broken, sails torn, huge waves of helplessness batter and make one feel like a hapless featherweight boxer who unwittingly finds himself in a heavyweight category . Poseidon rises with fury, his trident of hate stabbing pain into the core of our beings. The sun hides its face behind gloomy, dark clouds, the mist and fog of confusion blind folds. The shoals of disaster are before and the reefs of catastrophe bare their hungry fangs. Depression becomes like rocks that tear the bottom of our ships (fellowship, friendship, relationship, etc) like a sharp knife gutting the underbelly of a guppy. The salty waters of our tears rush in and threaten to drown us under the weight of crushing challenges. Hope slinks away like a cowardly hyena.

 
At this point all that matters is how to get to the other side or perish. Everything boils down to who and what you can see. The priority becomes how to see beyond the darkness that engulfs like that of Tartarus' pit.

 
Thankfully on the shores of our lives the Lighthouse always stands, beaming His light for all to see. For His light cuts through darkness like a chainsaw through papyrus parchments, shreds it into ribbons of nothingness. Never give up, for his eyes of love are always on you to take you through the storm. He said you are the apple of his eyes, intricately connected to his lens. The lamps of his words are always glowing but the question is CAN YOU SEE THE LIGHT, CAN YOU HEAR HIS WORDS???

 
You had better! This is what will prevent you from becoming sardines’ food in the depths of a watery grave.

 
You can ask His disciples, they faced inevitable death once but for The Lighthouse. IN HIM WAS LIFE AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN…. AND THE LIGHT SHINES IN DARKNESS AND THE DARKNESS CANNOT COMPREHEND IT................

TORRE PENDENTE DI PISA

The tower of Pisa is a 210 million pounds structure that keeps leaning towards an inevitable crash because it was built on an ancient river bed. With the passage of time this structure would most likely experience a colossal crash due to its faulty foundation.

The story of the three little pigs and the wolf is one of the tales we grew up knowing. The building capabilities of the pigs were put to the test and the ones who built with straw and wood ended up becoming tasty pork chops for their lupine foe. While the one that built with bricks saved his bacon.

Thing is, in life we are all masons, every day we are building a future/eternity, our marriages, our children, our careers, businesses, health, relationships, name it. Each person in the world has a destiny that is weightier than the 210 million pounds of the tower of Pisa, hence we cannot afford to joke with the construction of our lives.

Life is about foundations because everything we build will be subjected to the huff and puff of unfriendly elements. Paul the missionary said that we have to be careful of the materials we build with because everything will be tested by fire. So if you build with straws and wood, your edifice doesn’t have a prayer but if you are constructing your world with gold and silver then you will be around for the long haul. For instance, if the structure of your body is built daily with the raw materials of nicotine, alcohol and junk food, when the wolves that reduce immunity come around with their fetid breath in your face, you sure do have a battle in your hands. Or if your relationships are built on what you can get and not what you can give, they can only be as solid as phantom ships. What about your marriage? What is its bed rock? Was it lust, looks, desperation or pure love (check out my post; Genesis, magic and the fellowship of the ring)? Are you building your business on greed, selfishness and lack of vision or the desire to serve? Did you steal other people’s money to start your enterprise? You might as well forget it because time will see it submerged into nothingness like the lost city of Atlantis. Are your children being built on the cornerstone of values or you just let them be and spoil them to assuage the guilt of the little time you spend with them, then you would have sentenced those kids to a future that will make them less tasty than porcine steak (check out my post; The Unit).

The tower of Pisa became a source of concern some years back and tourists were barred from its site until some work was done in the 90’s to buy some more time before the inevitable. When we start construction wrongly, the most we will be able to do is some make shift temporary work to ward off impending doom. This is why King Solomon said that if the foundation is faulty, even if you employ all the goodness in the world, you are just “monkeying” around.

Jesus Davidson said that our building should be on the rock of principles which we hear and apply into the frame work of every area of our lives. This is the only way we can survive even when others have become as extinct as the dodo. He said the foundation we build on is what will ultimately show whether we are wise or foolish.

There are principles involved in every walk of life and it is by abiding to those principles that we can build enduring and eternal monuments. King Solomon also said that it’s the honour of God to conceal a matter and the honour of kings to discover it. The Onus is on us to find these principles and build with them. If not our edifices would eventually crash in such a way that comparably will make a house of cards seem to have the durability of the Taj Mahal.

The question is, WHAT FOUNDATION ARE YOU BUILDING ON? The answer to this is what will guarantee whether we are constructing timeless monuments like the pyramids of the Pharaohs or whether we will be buried in the shifting sands of life’s circumstances. Life is not a game of dominoes, BE WISE; BUILD YOUR HOUSE ON THE ROCK!!!!

                                                                                                                                            

OPEN SESAME

There is an Arabian night’s tale of a poor merchant who discovered a grotto full of treasures belonging to some thieves by uttering a magic password “open sesame”. The tale is that of Ali Baba and the forty thieves.

There is a seemingly ordinary guy you see on your street and maybe at work scraping through a mundane existence but you would never have guessed the kind of adventures he has had.

You would be amazed that the brother had, battled dragons and goblins, shared the round table with King Arthur, wondered at the grace of Guinevere, been amazed at the beauty of Helen of Troy, cast spells with Gandalf, fought in the trenches of world war 1, seen the onslaught of the Nazi machine being halted in Stalingrad, frolicked with elves and fairy’s, been part of the Californian gold rush, rubbed shoulders with Donald Trump, hobnobbed with Einstein, deliberated with John Maxwell, had lunch with Joel Osteen, has been part of a Pharaoh’s daily itinerary, witnessed the six day war, shed tears as Romeo died for Juliet, donned a Spartan war suit and fought against the Athenians, handled submachine guns alongside rebels, ridden on horses, galloped on camels, traversed deserts, trekked the arctic, hiked in the Amazon, seen a Samurai commit seppuku, fenced with Templers, been involved in the battles of angels and demons and parried the thrust of musketeers.

His transport medium is made of papyrus; he enters new worlds through portals of ink. He has a fever from the bug of bibliophilism. He is a bookworm, a reader. For him turning the pages of a good tome is like Ali Baba saying open sesame and unlocking a cache of treasures beyond his imagination (King David attested to this in one of his timeless poems by saying reading the words of the bestselling Author of life makes him as deliriously euphoric as one who happened upon invaluable jewels).

Our world would never have been complete without books. They are one of the few things that will transcend earth. Books are eternal, even the heavens have a library. They are one of the best gifts God gave to man.

God presents himself to us in the Book. St Luke the physician tells us that before Jesus began his ministry, he read a biography about himself by the prophet Isaiah. Joshua was advised to meditate and obey a legal volume because it was the manual for prosperity and success. Timothy was told that to obtain God’s approval he had to study. I dare say that part of Paul’s missionary accomplishments can be attributed to books because even when he was staring death in the eye in a Roman prison, one of the last things he asked for was his parchments.

Books are powerful; Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” was a huge factor in the turning of a nation into genocidal Nazi’s. Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” made him a target for assassination. Harriet Beecham Stowe’s “Uncle Tom Cabins” is purported to have been part of the initiator of the American Civil war. Adam Smith’s “Wealth of nations” changed world economics forever. Darwin’s “Origin of species” still makes some people believe that human beings are the progeny of apes. Karl Max’s “Das Kapital” spearheaded world communism. Josiah’s men found a book during the renovation of Solomon’s temple and it sparked off a spiritual revolution in morally bankrupt and decadent Israel. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A BOOK!!!

The value of a good book is priceless; it enlarges your mental capacity and makes your mind as agile as Spiderman. It is actually inexplicable but a change akin to Bruce Banner becoming an intelligent Hulk from gamma irradiation or Reed Richards becoming Mr. Fantastic after being subjected to cosmic rays happens to one after the perusal of a really nice book. For example after reading “From third world to first world, the Singapore story” by Lee Kuan Yew, something stretched within me. That is the wonder of a good book, whether it be fiction or true life like Chimamanda’s “Half of a yellow sun” or a business book like Jim Collins “Good to Great”. A great read can change your life in more ways than one. Martin Luther started the protestant movement when he came across the verse “the just shall live by faith” in the Book.

Are you seeking for some heady experience, a tour of exhilaration or you are on a quest for knowledge? Go out of your way and pick up a good book today, opening its pages might just be like saying open sesame. You might discover things you never bargained for.

I posed a question to Seun Akinsanmi, the photographer I talked about in my post “The Kiss” about how he was able to discover treasures in the depths of photography that his predecessors never found. I will never forget his answer, he paused for a minute and said in a contemplative voice “BOOKS, BOOKS ARE THE SHORTEST ROUTE!!!” I wasn’t surprised though; you should try and check out his library someday, the riches in the cave of the forty thieves has nothing on it!

LESSONS FROM MOLLUSCS COUNTRY

Tyre was an ancient prosperous island with wide spread and far reaching influence in its day. It was a world power in international trade and a force to be reckoned with in the world of enterprise that is until it got too big for its breeches and incurred the wrath of God, Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great. Sadly enough it subsequently fell (but its fall is not what this post is about).

The Murex is a water snail found in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, whose glands produced purple dye. This slug was a prominent factor in the prosperity of Tyre.

The people of this island country learnt how to extract the mollusc’s dye to make robes for royalty and nobility all over the world. Through this business the nation enlarged its reserves and grew like a fat squid whose tentacles reached into the heart of the world. Tyre used a snail’s gut to multiply and diversify itself into greatness. It ultimately became the hub of commerce and the merchant centre of the globe.

The people of Tyre were illustrious and industrious. They were financially savvy and canny. So much gumption was also in their creativity mix, that even God had to refer to their wisdom in the prophetic book of Ezekiel.

Besides the purple dye, they had a great forest (I bet you must have heard of the Cedars of Lebanon). It was from this lumber industry that the monumental temple of Solomon was built, earning them great foreign exchange from about the most stable economy in the world then. The citizens of Tyre used what they had to get what they wanted. They became an economic power to be reckoned with through their innate smartness.

Nigeria is blessed with more man power and resources than this small but big nation, but we are still trying to get our act together. We don’t even know how to make the most of what we have yet. Some years ago, Malaysia got some palm seedlings from us and now they are one of the world’s greatest producers of palm products. This is heartbreaking sad.

But enough said about Nigeria, what about you and I ? Its takes insight and innovation to make the most of the seemingly ordinary things around us ( there is no big deal about creating a radio station in a local language, but the crew of WAZOBIA FM have been so great that they absolutely thrill me no end. Believe me, the kind of gold being deposited into their coffers in ship loads is amazing). James.W.Henry the owner of Liverpool football club and the Boston Red Sox spent about a 100 million pounds to purchase footballers this season. The man made his billions trading futures in Soya beans. Yeah, as ridiculous as it might sound, Soya beans.


Inherent in the red ocean of our lives are gifts that might be as ordinary and as unglamorous as the mucus of a slug. If we could process and refine them to the point where they appeal to the noble and royal streak in every man, then we can trade them for the best things in life, the ivory of wealth, the gold of substance, the wine of merriment, the silk of comfort, the timber of stature, the pearl of value, the jewels of distinction and so on. Until our gifts are processed, they remain of little worth like the glands in the murex, (the peanut butter is more expensive than ordinary peanuts).
　
There is a dye that sticks fast to the destiny of everyman, a colour that separates you from the other man but for this hue to be as valuable as a Tyrian purple robe, we need to put in a lot of hard work. The extraction of the murex’s mucus was cost and labour intensive. Extract your potential, whatever the cost! The journey might be slower than a groggy invertebrate slowpoke's but you just keep at it. It is a matter of time!

The citizens of Tyre, knew that irrespective of how much stuff they were blessed with, they could not become much unless they went international. This galvanized them into becoming one of the greatest seafarers of all time. They ensured their goods got to the length and breadth of the world. The lesson is that in order for us to become great, the gifts God has blessed us with need to become world class! Good enough to be consumed by all and sundry. The reason why we would rather patronize goods from Europe, Asia and the US, than our own locally made products is because they are found wanting a lot of the time.

Another essential feature of this remarkable Island is that they had natural ports which was open to the world. They employed the use of specialists from different parts of the world in their economy. Being open to knowledge is one sure way of becoming successful. The need to subject ourselves to the expertise of experts and specialists can never be overemphasized.

If the slimy saliva of a snail could turn a small island into a great seafaring nation, then the beautiful things God has deposited in you can bless nations.

The question is, WHAT IS THE MUREX IN YOUR BLOOD STREAM? Take note of it amigo, the answer to this eternal query is what will take you far and beyond your ports into the international waters of life’s trade.
　
　
　

ALTARS OF MEDIOCRITY

Moloch, Baal and Tlaloc were some of the evil gods that ancient civilizations sacrificed their children to. The promise of a bright future for those progeny was destroyed due to ignorance and the consequence was that most of these races were wiped out by more enlightened people.

Watching a good movie takes you through a spectrum of feelings; it is usually an evocative experience that may never leave you except if it is a Nigerian home video that is. At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I would have to say that some of the worst acting you would ever see is usually displayed in Nigerian flicks (I had said in one of my earlier posts that there should be a caution sign on the screen aside from the usual ratings). Some of their thespians should be jailed and not celebrated (compared to them Muppets should receive Oscars), most plots are shallower than a thimble and a huge number of the directors cannot direct themselves to the rest room in their homes. I dare say subjecting oneself to these videos would ultimately turn your brain to mush. They leave the mind addled. Of course, there are a few good ones like Jenifa, which substantiates my claim that most of the ones that catch your attention are those made in our traditional languages. The best cosmopolitan production I have seen in this country recently is Tinsel and you can see it is painstakingly made with attention to detail.

I grew up knowing some Nigeria programmes, like “Cock crow at dawn”, “The Village Headmaster”, “Checkmate”, “Mind-bending”, “Second Chance”, ‘Things fall apart”, and some others. They were world class in their sublimity.  Even the groundbreaking home video “Living in bondage” was very good. With the improvement of technology, one would think that we should have gotten better; unfortunately this has not been the case.  The whole thing got me thinking and I realized that the difference between then and now is profit and commercialization. Back in the day, there was a touch of excellence because directors like, “Tade Ogidan”, “Amaka Igwe”, “Lola, Fani-Kayode (these folks were masters of their craft) were more interested in the beauty of their work than in making money from their creations. A true creator is always concerned about the product his name is attached to. One of King Solomon’s timeless proverbs says that a good name is better than silver or gold. The man would know, his works of excellence gave his name fame and made the Queen of Sheba come looking for him with all the gold in the world. After creating the Titanic, James Cameron wanted to make Avatar but he felt the technology he needed to produce the movie was not yet available so he held on for more than a decade. If he had produced it immediately, he most likely would have still made a lot of money from it, at least riding on the waves of his previous success.  But this producer cum director was more about exceptionality than profitability. Avatar turned out excellent. In contrast to this, Nollywood churns out movies in days. That is why you would find someone currently wearing the same hairdo and clothes, he or she wore five years ago in some of their productions.

The argument might be that the blame should be laid at the feet of the Nigerian Public and not Nollywood since they consume the shabby works voraciously. But works of excellence is first about the manufacturer, then the consumer. Another argument might be that Hollywood is far older than Nollywood but like we have already established the movies made in the past are better than the current ones and anyone making that argument should check out some of the movies made fifty years ago in Hollywood. “Dr Who” is more than thirty years old but it still has a cult following today.

The challenge with the Nigerian movie industry is greed but this is not limited to Nollywood alone, the problem is like cancer cells spreading into the vital organs of this nation. Most Nigerians worship money and would sacrifice their tomorrow on its altar of mediocrity like an Aztec offering a child to Tlaloc to summon rain (in this case, naira rain). For a fledgling business, this is a recipe of disaster. An average Nigerian would have seen many enterprises start up and shrivel off over time. Mediocrity is high up on the list of discouraging factors in our part of the world that cause the demise of businesses. In the bid of hitting the big times faster than speed racer hits the finishing line, we take up jobs we cannot do and even if we can do the job, we take on more than we can handle and spend little time on them. At the end of it all, the production turns out to be a disaster and the disgruntled customer walks out the door taking future business elsewhere.

Our artisans are some of the worst in the world because immediately they get the cash advance from you, they do not care about the job anymore and even when they come through, it is usually with the stuff nightmares are made of. This bars the customer from coming back to them. Their mediocrity swallows up their future.

The greedy jaws of the altars of mediocrity keep wolfing down the promise of what would have been and for the culprit, life becomes like dew drops on a rose petal that gets sucked up by rays of harsh sunshine, ephemeral at best.

Steady plodding on the path of excellence eventually leads to wealth while hasty slip-shod work ends in penury.

Don’t rush, give that manuscript another look over, try another scene with the movie, another brush stroke with additional colour might be all your painting needs, give the dress another trim, do something new with that cake, polish that punch line, it might take time but it will be worth it. Believe me!

Excellence is what will make our name and our creations outlive us. C.S Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, Michael Jackson, Winston Churchill, Michelangelo, Versace, Heath Ledger (he was exceptional in the dark knight, absolutely top notch) are some of the people that give much credence to this.

God did such quality job with the earth that despite man’s habit of wrecking things with war, nuclear inventions, and flagrant bush burning, e.t.c the earth is still so beautiful after aeons (check out the setting sun drowning in a deep blue sea sometime). It is not a surprise though since it was recorded that after God had made the world, he looked at it and saw that it was EXCELLENT in every way (LB)! YOU CAN NEVER BEAT CLASS!!!