20-0: THE END OF AN ERA

                                                          

I CRIED! Mind you, I did not boohoo like a child whose lollypop had been stolen by a bully, neither was it a torrential downpour akin to a desert storm. No, the tears slowly filled my eyes like sweet drops of palm wine filling a gourd, and then the gourd broke and filled my being with intoxicating and overwhelming emotions. The tears over flooded the banks of my eyes similar to a mangrove stream during the rains and clung to my lashes like lead weights which refused to drop. I felt like an overcast sky that was indecisive about shedding its watery load.

Wrestlemania 28 was sensational, to me the much hyped “once in a lifetime” fight between John Cena and the Rock did not meet the mark even though both men gave it their best. Something was missing that I cannot place my hands on. I personally think the Rock has gone past his best wrestling days. CM Punk and Chris Jericho were also cool but the matchup that stole the show was the one between The Undertaker and Triple H. It presumably might turn out to be Undertaker’s last fight hence the tag, “the end of an era”. And in the battle the Undertaker got his twentieth Wrestlemania victory, making it 20-0.

It was this match that made me cry. Over the years, different matches have made me go through a range of sentiments; I was deliriously euphoric when Ricky “The dragon” Steamboat beat Machoman “Randy” Savage in Wrestlemania 3, miserably sad when Hulk Hogan lost to the Ultimate Warrior in Wrestlemania 6 and completely heartbroken when Shawn Michaels defeated Bret “The Hitman” Hart in Wrestlemania 12 and anytime Jeff Hardy loses but no bout has ever made me cry.

Hold your horses bro! Before you brand my post as jejune for becoming schmaltzy over a scripted and stage managed sport, please hear me out. This is not necessarily about the sport/entertainment but it was about the performance of the two men. All the matches that night were most likely scripted about but these two men stood out over others like the Andes over mole hills. They gave that match their best shot. No one could have asked for more. If it turns out to be The Taker’s last bout, then no exit in the annals of wrestling can be more glorious.

Potential, purpose and Leadership Guru Dr. Myles Munroe always says that we should die empty, meaning we should live to the best of our abilities, give everything in us to this life so that we would not add to the wealth of the cemetery by joining hordes of others who led a mediocre life and carried the potential inside them to the grave. The greatest missionary that ever lived said he had been poured forth like a drink because before he died, he had emptied himself of his purpose of being. Jesus before giving up his ghost said “it is finished” and out of him gushed out his life juice, liters of blood. The Undertaker and Triple H gave their all, threw everything into the grueling mix, blood, sweat, name it. They had left footprints in the eternal sands of wrestling history which the winds of time would never erase. That day it was not about victor nor vanquished, it was about a sterling performance. And performance is what separates the sublime from the mundane.

Life is scripted for everybody, as a great Hebrew king made us know. He said all the days of his life had been chronicled by God ever before he was born. So, since the pages of our lives have been written by Originator of life, what now makes the difference is what we put in.  Just like in the movies where everything is written before the acting but some thespians separate themselves from the pack by giving all they have and go ahead to win Oscars like Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight (I keep citing that).

As those two future WWE Hall of famers carried their battered and bruised bodies from the ring that day to the thunderous applause of 78, 000 plus fans within the stadium in Miami and millions all over the world, I cried when I thought of how I will exit the grand stage. Russell Crowe in the Gladiator said “the things we do on this earth echoes on the shores of eternity”. Will I exit in a blaze of glory like Elijah on chariots of fire? Will the witnesses both present and those gone before applaud my performance? Will the King give me a standing ovation the way he did Stephen the martyr showing that I had done a good job and that He approves?

Will I exit the squared circle of life being fully persuaded that I had worshipped God with my all? Would I make the hall of fame in the golden corridors of heaven? Would I have my wife’s and my children’s commendation that I was the best husband and father they could ever have. Would I have used my talents and my potential to the hilt? Would I have managed my finances judiciously? Would I have made history, given and left a legacy for the world I would be leaving behind? Will I be able to say this like Paul the Missionary……..?

AS FOR ME, I FEEL THE LAST DROPS OF MY LIFE ARE BEING POURED OUT FOR GOD. I HAVE FOUGHT A GOOD FIGHT, I HAVE FINISHED MY COURSE, I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH. FINALLY THERE IS LAID UP FOR ME A CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS………………………..

                                

THE DEA(R)TH OF imagi-NATION

                                                    

I live in Lagos. This metropolis is the most populous in Africa, the second fastest growing and the seventh fastest in the world. Living in this city is like palpating the pulse of Nigeria and even though its pace is absolutely frenetic, aside from Jos and Abuja I can’t imagine living in any other part of the country.

But as I pass through this Lagos every day, seeing people waiting interminably for transport in rain and sunshine, observing others being transported in rickety vehicles that are too tight to fit even match sticks while being choked in the thick smog of poisonous smoke being belched out by others, the irrepressible question that keeps coming to the fore of my mind like a buoy on a restless sea is if human beings were designed to live the way Lagosians or Nigerians (since this civic centre is a microcosm of the nation) live.

If you live on the mainland and work on the island or vice versa, sometimes you spend the better part of eight hours in traffic alone. Then you get home towards the better part of midnight and start battling with your generator sets because most times PHCN, the prince of darkness would have cast its cloak of shadows upon our civilization. Sometimes even with the availiabity of four generators, there would be no fuel to power them. Then there is the issue of water, even if we suddenly find ourselves in the future envisaged by the former bank PHB, where cars run on water, in Naija, loads of people will still walk to work due to scarcity of water. And the whole cycle plays on everyday becoming a life draining rat race. I know a lot of other parts of the nation don’t experience traffic the way it is in Lagos but the other challenges prevail everywhere.

Since the transport system of this country is messed up amongst other things and the government cannot utilize the waterways and provide an effective tube system, everyone takes to the road in their own cars thereby increasing traffic and pollution. Coupled with the long hours at the steering since everybody cannot afford drivers, Lagosians are perpetually in a daze of fatigue. So caught in this race of survival like a hamster in a cage running ceaseless on wheels, the question that comes up is, when do we think or imagine? When do we have the time to envision a better tomorrow for all mankind?

When God made man, He put him in an environment where every system was functional. There was power, light, water, name it before Adam was now placed in the garden to fulfill his potential (this is why i think it is ridiculous for most Nigerian companies to expect the best from their employees when all they provide is a deplorable work system. I guess they expect the workers to work with magic wands). In the cool of the day, man could also fellowship with God so everything was working. The psalmist exclaimed once about the King of kings, “how wonderful are thy works, thy thoughts are very deep”. That means that God was able to do great things like creating the universe because He had enough time to think and imagine. Man was formed in the image of God to function like God that is why the Elshaddai had to put him in Eden where everything was running smoothly to allow him enough time to be imaginative. Adam had enough imagination to name the animals and rule the world.

In this neck of the woods, you barely sleep before its time to wake up and continue the routine, the hum drum. Worse still, the sleep is interrupted by the groans of overworked generators. Lots of people are like walking zombies just going about not giving a thought to anything while performing perfunctory functions. I strongly believe that this is one of the reasons why this nation is the way it is.

Entrapped in the roller coaster of this joyless race, we barely have time to fellowship with God, relate with our spouses, commune with our families, invent and create things that would outlive us. We come, see but never conquer. We exit the grand stage leaving it the way we met it.

On the other hand, first world nations where the rat race is not as tiresome as ours, where the basic necessities of life are at least provided for churn out inventions that benefit the whole of mankind. For example in a roomy air conditioned transport, it is easier to think than when you are claustrophobic and ambushed with the odour of unwashed armpits (in this case all you can think about is about how fast you can each your stop).

Since we have a government that is as listless as a rudderless ship, we have to be intentional about creating a conducive environment for ourselves to think and imagine. Albert Einstein said imagination is better than knowledge.  If we cannot have time to think then we are walking a tight rope and this country will keep going backwards as other nations run past it with the speed of a jet fighter. There’s no great breakthrough that comes without some time of meditation and imagination. Jesus had forty days in the wilderness before he could launch his ministry, which has lasted for some two thousand years, Paul did some time in the wilderness too before he became the custodian of mind boggling revelations that has impacted generations, Heath Ledger locked himself away for about a month before he could deliver his magnus opus as the “Joker” in the “Dark Knight”.

Except we break away from the rat race, we would never really make any headway into the future and we would just watch while the things that mean the most in life die around us. Anything that prevents us from imagining is deleterious to our future. It was recorded that even God could not stop the united imagination of a couple of people in the early age of the world and had to put confusion in their midst to scuttle their plans. That is how powerful imagination is. Almost every outstanding thing on earth has its source from this.

OUR IMAGINATIONS ARE AS POWERFUL AS OUR PRAYERS!!! YOU KNOW WHY?

HE IS ABLE TO DO EXCEEDINGLY, ABUNDANTLY, FAR ABOVE ALL WE CAN ASK OR IMAGINE……………..