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!!!!