Did I see the writing on the wall? Yes I did!

As usual, a day never goes by without a visit to this house. You ask which house? and before I give an appropriate answer, let me ask- Like who in this world can do without this daily visit? Well, I visited this house daily and if I never willingly wanted to, necessity made it compulsory at times. 

But at a point, any time I wanted to get into the house, I was greeted by a notice. This notice, I never adhered to, I gave it the courtesy of reading it [nonchalantly though] and making my way into the house. [Ain’t nobody got time for ‘unnecessary’ distractions] Well! So it appeared to be at that time. This notice was not there every time, it was there two times out of the seven times I visited.  

Unfortunately, this day came when I was to embark on my usual visit, I got to the entrance of the house, this ‘attention-seeking notice’ was there again. Whew! Trust my reaction, as usual, I just wanted to pass through to the house. At least, I’ve an idea of what this notice was all about. Not that I had attentively read the notice, I had just ‘fulfilled all righteousness’ by going through the words. But this time, I could not pass through into the house, the door was locked, the windows shut firmly and with the look of things no spare key was going to do justice. So I remembered the notice, and this time I read it with rapt attention.

I know you are wondering, what’s the house? what’s the notice? This girl which kind of long story is this? 

Here it is- the house is my laptop and the notice is the windows message that popped up intermittently whenever I turned on my laptop. The windows message informed me that windows had detected a problem and asked if I wanted to attempt repair or start normally [that’s the summary of the troubleshoot message]. I always chose the start normally, and it did start normally, till the Saturday when the final straw broke the Camel’s back, I could not even boot the system any more. My hard drive was dead. I have taken the laptop for repairs and it’s back, but I must say, it is not the same again [Sobs] But I’m sure it will stand for the time being, till I am done with my dissertation.

The notice at the house..

From this my long story, I just thought about Obedience, God and Us. When I go through the bible, there are numerous commandments that God has laid out for us to follow. Apart from the fact that it enhances a sweet fellowship with God, as obeying these precepts leads us in the path to please God and not just be loved by Him. These commandments are for our very own good. God created man, and he knows the beginning, middle and end of man. So this commandments are to enhance ‘togetherness’ with God and make things easier in a ‘not so easy world’ [though at the first sight of the commandments, it seems difficult].

As Children of God, We need to yearn to get to a level where we please God by obeying His words [amongst other things], not just the ones that are easy to adhere to. Let us take steps further to yield to the Spirit of God to war against those sins that easily beset us. The Spirit of God is always speaking to shine the light on the parts of our lives that need to be aligned to Christ, it is left for us to accept His grace, to consciously war against those things ‘we do not wish to do, but we find ourselves doing’. Be it lies, backbitting, adultery, fornication, murder, slander, time wasting, greed, disobedience and the list is endless.

No sin is too little….

Indeed, we serve a merciful God. But we cannot abuse His grace. The amazing thing about God is that He will always give us  ‘heads-up’ whenever we are doing things that displease Him or about to derail, however, the choice/will to listen is still left in our hands. I remember a powerful fellow in the bible, Samson. He was warned by God, his parents and [in a way] Delilah; about the future disaster. But he did not listen, and we know what befell him[Judges 16]. He had the second chance to destroy his tormentors but he did not live to see their death, he went with them.

Back to my laptop story, the laptop has changed [not in a positive way]. Was I warned? Yes! Did I listen? No. I hope this post stirs up the necessary conviction that our spirits require. May God help us. Amen!

Please remember to share and bless me with your comments as well…..

Also this post is not to condemn anyone, but to encourage us all….If you missed my last post, here’s the link for it:  http://pricelessthinking.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/where-is-your-sl-at-lowaveragehigh.html

Hello, Welcome to the month of February. It is my desire that this month will be so better than last month for you; it will be more productive and peaceful. You’ll be in sound health and be favoured amongst your peers. [Can I hear an ‘Amen’].

This post was supposed to be up for last monday, but as a result of my indisposition, I couldn’t. Anyway, it can be said that this is the right time as we are ‘supposedly’ in the ‘month of love’. Whew! It is a very serious matter. Everywhere I turn, I see Valentine’s day-February 14, a gift for him, a gift for her……….the only place that is free of such adverts is my dreams. Personally, I do not have an issue with the ‘Valentine’s day concept’ and all. I just want to be a ‘self-love doctor’ for today.

So let me begin by asking: how much do you love yourself? It is amazing how people ‘unconsciously’ regard ‘self-love’ as less important to that of the ‘love between people’. I won’t try to define love neither will I be making reference to the accustomed ‘1 Corinthians 13’ definition. Self-love in my opinion, is a strong feeling of endearment of oneself. Though, self-love goes further than my personal definition, I guess that’s the simplest way I could put my words together.

Why do I think self-love is very key? [Self-love-SL] SL is the bedrock of any sphere of love. If your SL is low, it is not too far-fetched from being detected. The next time you want to check how much you love yourself, just take a look at how you view other people [this is one of the ways- a major one]. We live in a world where there are standards set, where you have to look a certain way or act a certain way in order for you to be accepted/worth listening to. This will never change; the standards will always be there. It is left for you and I to shut the standards out, and just love ourselves, and the major hurdle has been taken care of.

I believe the world will be a better place if we loved our own selves as we should. This love is one that should transcend the physical attributes of oneself. I just remembered the recent ordeal between Mary Konye and Naomi Oni, where Mary hurled acid in her friend’s face due to jealousy over her friend’s looks [I do not know the hidden details of this case, so I am making use of the known facts]. So from this scenario, I believe SL would have played a vital part and the outcome would have been different. When you love yourself in a manner that surpasses the love of the ‘obvious attractive features’, you get to recall that apart from the physical features, there are other features that you need to love about yourself.

Your intelligence, handicraft, hospitality, generosity, kindness and many more qualities that sets you apart. If I must be very honest, SL is a daily affair that has to be energised/enhanced. Because everyday you step out of your house, surf the internet, watch a movie, you will always find someone/people who you supposedly think/believe is ‘better than you’; we basically have to acknowledge/appreciate the features/qualities and try not to get into the envy/covet moment.

Oh dear! the amount of times that I’ve had that ‘moment’, when I wanted to be taller, have a smaller nose[pointed one sef!], have a different colour of fingernail, blah blah blah.. I can confidently say by HIS help, I have gone past this stage. Does this mean I do not have such moments again? Nah! I will be telling a lie if I say yes, I don’t have such moments, but it takes shutting those thoughts up and understanding that you need to love yourself because your persona is distinct from even the closest person to you. One danger of low SL is that you give another person the power to define you with their words and opinions.

It is time we rise above oppressing ourselves with the thoughts of ‘I wish I am like…’ and the imaginations of ‘If I were…..’. In this month and beyond, choose to love yourself, every single lil’ detail. When we choose to make this decision, it becomes easy to love another. The originator of ‘self-love’ is the Honourable king of love, God. He said, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself‘ not vice versa.

That sums it up- you can only give what you have. Loving yourself should never be underplayed!!

So let’s do something, rate your self love [10%-100%], how do you handle the ‘envy/covet moments’?

A DIFFERENT KIND OF PEACE

‘Bruv please can I have some money from you?’

And that was it, well as simple as that. I remember that evening, well the whole day somehow stood out for me. Those kind of days where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. From missed train connections to failed transactions and mobile phone forgotten at home, intricate and non-intricate details, something did go wrong for me. The elements played their committal part, cold and brutal, the evening weather reminded me of my missing woolly scarf usually around my neck. My mind, here and there wondering, thinking, calculating as I stepped off the train. It was then I heard the voice. 

‘Bro please can I have some money from you, need some money to complete my train ticket’

I remembered turning my head around, in a half-circle, our eyes connecting. Mine icy and expressionless and his, almost fading, but still with emotion. He was an elderly man, tall, dressed in some kind of unfashionable work overalls. He shivered a little; the cold nibbled slowly on him, hands almost clattering. He proceeded to speak, explaining his need he had for some money so he could get going home. Tearing my will from my conscience, albeit momentarily, I muttered that I did not have and walked slowly away. It was, of course, not true. I had the ‘change’ he needed, but replied that I didn’t. 

My brother, will you blame me? As with an African mentality, I am led to believe that there is some kind of evil lurking behind every pale-faced beggar, every small request. That when a beggar by the road side, male or female begs and takes their fill till their cup runneth over, they have also taken some useful thing from you, in some diabolical manner. Hence suspicion usually follows any act of charity made, in this case- What if he was lying? What if he was some junkie needing to refill his tobacco and alcohol intake? And, the funniest of them- what if he is some bad ghost, some apparition in flesh sent to haunt me? What if…?

I remember trying to convince myself as I slowly walked away. My conscience was having none of it though. ‘Go and help him’, I heard my inner man, speaking to my outer man plainly, remorsefully. And so it happened- I blocked out whatever ‘what if’s’ that also spoke to me at that time, and walked back some 100 yards to meet the man. There, I met him, shivering in the cold, staring in the empty space, wondering how he would get home. ‘Thank you, God bless you’, he muttered, as he gratefully took the money from me. The next action he did threw me and blew me, quite literally, away- he calmly walked to the train ticket machine- and bought a train ticket for his journey. 

I remember thinking how silly intellectualism was. How derisory expressed philosophy and education could be. I remember wondering how our judgements is prone to failure because, indeed, we are not infallible creatures. Because then, as I watched the old man express gratitude, as I watched the old man actually buy a train ticket, I realised that whatever historical-based empirical analysis I had previously engaged in, the haves and the have not, I was actually very wrong. And I could have missed helping one who needed some help.

And that is what the world refuses to remind us, what those who pontificate from religious robes and adornment refuse to state again to us, that is what our claimed learning and education refuse to state, that is what socialism, capitalism, communism seem not to speak to us- that goodwill to all men, irrespective of colour of skin, tribe, sexual orientation or any other definitive trivial factors- is peace of a special different kind, is the only needful thing. I say this and hold this to be true, because as he offered his gratitude to me, as he gingerly walked away to buy his ticket, as he walked up the steps towards the train platform- I felt it, something rather special, yet strange in a blissful kind of way. I felt it- a different kind of peace.

Okechukwu Okorie

I have to ask-how are you doing? and how has your week been? I am sure you did not get to have a week like mine. Yeah! I’ve had a very challenging week.

I’ve been battling with this ‘uncommon’ cold for the past 9days. I call it uncommon because I have never had a cold that knocked me off totally. At times like this, is when I wish I was a doctor really. I would like to know why having blocked nose has a knock off effect than having malaria [doctors in the house, please do justice!]. So basically, I’ve breathing with my mouth [covers face], and have a bloody nose due to constant blowing as well. I must confess, the cold has been intensely horrible to me.

To make matters worse, I went to the hospital and I was told that there’s nothing they could do, that I should allow the cold run its course [this is when I miss Nigeria] All the medications I’ve taken as a result of this cold can cure a nation, it’s that many. So at this point, I’ve just decided to rest well.

Also, my laptop’s hard drive died over the weekend. It’s out for repair at the moment. I did not want to put up this post earlier than now because (1) I did not have the strength (2)I did not want to bother you.

Hopefully, I will be hale and hearty by this weekend and my laptop should be fixed as well. And I should be blogging as normal from Monday.

So Precious Thinkers, remember where there is life, there’s hope. And what does not kill you makes you stronger.

Shalom!

Chinomnso Precious.

The Writer Competition 2014

Hey guys!! So, I want to say that Nigeria is getting better. I am a patriotic ‘naija’ babe even in the midst of all the setbacks. Why I am saying Nigeria is getting better?? So yesterday, it happened that I had a need to visit the Nigerian embassy in London. And I’ve heard so many tales about how the experience can be excruciatingly frustrating, so even before yesterday, I just settled in my mind that the whole day will be spent in the embassy.

But it did not go that way at all, everything just took place smoothly. I was shocked. Need I add that I ‘conditioned’ the matter with prayer [God is still in the business of answering prayers-save this statement #apostinthefuture#]. When I was called for my biometrics, two gentlemen were vexed. They were saying: “didn’t we come before this girl”? Oh well! they had no idea how I held God’s leg on top the matter[lol]. So yeah, apart from the fact that on their records, I am a ‘male’ and not a female [still wondering how I look like a man #rollseyes#], everything was smoooooooth! So I have to say-Nigeria is getting better #onlybelieve# God bless Nigeria!

So today, I have decided to compile a list of some of the posts I’ve done so far, that you may have missed. Let’s just call today- The Review Friday!! So feel free to leave your comments and share as well. Also, share your experience on the development of things in Nigeria, C’mon there has to be something good taking place [home and away]; enlighten me please. Here’s the list:

Are you Mad? Yes, I will love to be http://pricelessthinking.blogspot.com/2013/12/inspiring-bay-are-you-mad-
yes-i-will.html

SUPERHUMAN-Is your focus shifting http://pricelessthinking.blogspot.com/2013/11/superhuman-is-your-focus-shifting.html

LET’S TALK- You say I’m past, I say I’m present http://pricelessthinking.blogspot.com/2013/11/lets-talk-you-say-im-past-and-i-tell.html

The ‘Siri’ of life  http://pricelessthinking.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-siri-of-life.html

Where there’s no law http://pricelessthinking.blogspot.com/2013/11/where-there-is-no-law.html

Even in the darkest of times http://pricelessthinking.blogspot.com/2013/12/even-in-darkest-of-times.html

Can you give me a title- http://pricelessthinking.blogspot.com/2014/01/can-you-give-me-title.html

What goes on ‘in-between’- http://pricelessthinking.blogspot.com/2014/01/what-goes-on-in-between.html


So those are some of the posts I’ve put up in the last ‘almost 3 months’. Do you have a favourite? What am I doing wrong? What am I doing right? Over to you!!!

P.S please don’t forget the question on the development of Nigeria. Have an exciting weekend! And you can have a look at other posts- http://www.pricelessthinking.blogspot.co.uk