A few days ago, my brother & I were talking - generally and specifically - and the following thoughts were sowed. Please let me share them with you. I hope you can make some understanding out of it.
There are certain things we do, for which we must apologise; there are traits within us which must change - exposure to God's words & Person must see us conform to His image - and there is the voice of reason (more appropriately: the gentle usher from Father: the one & only Holy Spirit) giving us insight into our real being. As different as these three things are, there should not be any conflict at all in them; the practicality thereof. You have no reason to apologise for who you are, for it has pleased Father that you be so made! Everything else is subject to that - His will; and everything here would include choices, love and the totality of life itself.
Weeping may endure for a whole night before joy shows up, so can men dwell in darkness for (what may seem like) a lifetime before light begins to 'creep' into that darkness. But when light comes, it could hurt our eyes (the functional word being hurt), & generally change how we live. This may be a very difficult step though. What matters most is that we be found in the Light as we progress in this God-ordained journey called life!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
The Feast of Love
So it is Valentine's day, and lots of people would offer differing, even warped, definitions of love. Here is a lesson in love I learnt recently. Enjoy!
Whether it is my assumed reasonability of their food prices, or the tourists’ appeal the place exudes, Eastern Food Bazaar attracts lots of people during the hours it is open (thirteen hours each day, it seems). And there are many possible reasons for this; one could be the fact that they have stands representing the traditional meals of about six parts of the world in addition to a contemporary stand for sweets. It was a big place, but not nearly big enough for the kind of crowd it pulled. You could almost always be certain to have difficulty finding a free table - and the free seat you scramble all the way across the room to claim might already have been taken! Yet, it is not unusual to find individuals, couples or groups of people walk into the place only to study the boards for several moments before making an attempt to decide what meal would create the most lasting impression of this extra-ordinary place on their minds. So on the whole, the place had almost the look of a small section of the old Tejuoso market in Lagos when you entered.
Here, I was in this strange place with my strange plate of food surrounded by an assortment of people of varying nationalities (strange, too), trying to enjoy my strange food which on the display board looked like the kind of breakfast that was based on fried eggs. On my plate though, it looked and tasted like some sort of pancake with onions and lettuce and very many other strange things. As if that was not enough to grapple with in my mind, this middle-aged man walks up and sits across the table from me. He was a little dark-skinned and had a texan-styled hat on and looked as though he were waiting for somebody; rather than sit facing me, as the convention of the table was, he sat with his side and was looking around the room somewhat frantically, yet with a measure of calmness. The picture of S-T-R-A-N-G-E was originally painted when he came to the sitting area without a tray or plate of food in hand.
A few minutes later, the seat in front of me was empty again and my mind soon went off the man (please bear in mind that I had a plate of food to contend with). I turned my head from the plate (for respite, I think) and I caught sight of the same man who, moments ago had just left my table, standing by a pillar just ahead of me. Then he moved again! This time I could not help but notice that he was going towards the table just beside me. The occupant had only just left and my former companion was coming to feast on the remnants in his tray. Not a few people looked at him with disgust. I? I was wary - my mind ran a few scenarios in which the man could make a move for my plate, so I was already on the defensive. And the man? He may not have noticed me at all because he got up rather quickly and made his way to another table that was being vacated in that moment.
It then crossed my mind that someone could - and should - call on the attention of the attendants and have the man taken outside, and save us the offensive sights. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of laughter from the other side of the room (my right) where another company of “eaters” had been - there were two ladies and a man. By the time I turned, they had put together a plate of food (leftovers from their plates, I think, but it looked full) which they gave to an attendant who had just arrived and asked him to place it in front the man who had taken the attention of a number of people at this time. On getting the plate, he simply stood up and left the food court. It was then that I simmered down and thought for a few minutes: the man with the Texan hat could not afford a meal for himself, and rather than beg, he had come to take his fill from the plenty that more-privileged people had bought - some out of adventure - and had left to waste, and he was probably taking that plate “home” to a family in need of anything edible.
It was indeed food for thought for me. How often do we get so sophisticated and socially conscious that we become socially irresponsible? I could not help but bring to mind God’s instruction to old-testament Israel in times of harvest not to clear up everything their ground yielded, but leave enough for the poor and stranger to harvest from their lands too. That experience jerked me awake to the fact that we often live for ourselves alone as we harvest all and care about no one else, not even our own families! If you got into business, it was usually for your pocket; if it was school, then it had to be about getting the most knowledge in class so you could make the best grades. What about traffic? You simply had to be the first to break-free from the [mostly] unnecessary tussle. Could there be a better demonstration of selfishness?
Then came this sweeping revelation: citizens of the developed western world (whom many on this side castigate for their lack of culture and shame and tact, sometimes) are the ones who need the least prompting to take care of the less-privileged in their societies. They set up trusts to run homes for old people and homeless people; their governments give out regular welfare packages for the same cause; they adopt children from off the streets to raise them ‘normally’. It is therefore no surprise then that they continually reap the rewards - their better economies, systems that work, and last, and a higher percentage of socially balanced citizens. Our society’s reaction to that, we see them as ‘maga’, fit only to be dupes via all forms of scams! It would take a real awakening for us to realise the deep connection between benevolence, success and development. Perhaps then, we shall stand as a people for ‘feasts’ that would be served to everyone.
Happy Valentine's day!
Whether it is my assumed reasonability of their food prices, or the tourists’ appeal the place exudes, Eastern Food Bazaar attracts lots of people during the hours it is open (thirteen hours each day, it seems). And there are many possible reasons for this; one could be the fact that they have stands representing the traditional meals of about six parts of the world in addition to a contemporary stand for sweets. It was a big place, but not nearly big enough for the kind of crowd it pulled. You could almost always be certain to have difficulty finding a free table - and the free seat you scramble all the way across the room to claim might already have been taken! Yet, it is not unusual to find individuals, couples or groups of people walk into the place only to study the boards for several moments before making an attempt to decide what meal would create the most lasting impression of this extra-ordinary place on their minds. So on the whole, the place had almost the look of a small section of the old Tejuoso market in Lagos when you entered.
Here, I was in this strange place with my strange plate of food surrounded by an assortment of people of varying nationalities (strange, too), trying to enjoy my strange food which on the display board looked like the kind of breakfast that was based on fried eggs. On my plate though, it looked and tasted like some sort of pancake with onions and lettuce and very many other strange things. As if that was not enough to grapple with in my mind, this middle-aged man walks up and sits across the table from me. He was a little dark-skinned and had a texan-styled hat on and looked as though he were waiting for somebody; rather than sit facing me, as the convention of the table was, he sat with his side and was looking around the room somewhat frantically, yet with a measure of calmness. The picture of S-T-R-A-N-G-E was originally painted when he came to the sitting area without a tray or plate of food in hand.
A few minutes later, the seat in front of me was empty again and my mind soon went off the man (please bear in mind that I had a plate of food to contend with). I turned my head from the plate (for respite, I think) and I caught sight of the same man who, moments ago had just left my table, standing by a pillar just ahead of me. Then he moved again! This time I could not help but notice that he was going towards the table just beside me. The occupant had only just left and my former companion was coming to feast on the remnants in his tray. Not a few people looked at him with disgust. I? I was wary - my mind ran a few scenarios in which the man could make a move for my plate, so I was already on the defensive. And the man? He may not have noticed me at all because he got up rather quickly and made his way to another table that was being vacated in that moment.
It then crossed my mind that someone could - and should - call on the attention of the attendants and have the man taken outside, and save us the offensive sights. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of laughter from the other side of the room (my right) where another company of “eaters” had been - there were two ladies and a man. By the time I turned, they had put together a plate of food (leftovers from their plates, I think, but it looked full) which they gave to an attendant who had just arrived and asked him to place it in front the man who had taken the attention of a number of people at this time. On getting the plate, he simply stood up and left the food court. It was then that I simmered down and thought for a few minutes: the man with the Texan hat could not afford a meal for himself, and rather than beg, he had come to take his fill from the plenty that more-privileged people had bought - some out of adventure - and had left to waste, and he was probably taking that plate “home” to a family in need of anything edible.
It was indeed food for thought for me. How often do we get so sophisticated and socially conscious that we become socially irresponsible? I could not help but bring to mind God’s instruction to old-testament Israel in times of harvest not to clear up everything their ground yielded, but leave enough for the poor and stranger to harvest from their lands too. That experience jerked me awake to the fact that we often live for ourselves alone as we harvest all and care about no one else, not even our own families! If you got into business, it was usually for your pocket; if it was school, then it had to be about getting the most knowledge in class so you could make the best grades. What about traffic? You simply had to be the first to break-free from the [mostly] unnecessary tussle. Could there be a better demonstration of selfishness?
Then came this sweeping revelation: citizens of the developed western world (whom many on this side castigate for their lack of culture and shame and tact, sometimes) are the ones who need the least prompting to take care of the less-privileged in their societies. They set up trusts to run homes for old people and homeless people; their governments give out regular welfare packages for the same cause; they adopt children from off the streets to raise them ‘normally’. It is therefore no surprise then that they continually reap the rewards - their better economies, systems that work, and last, and a higher percentage of socially balanced citizens. Our society’s reaction to that, we see them as ‘maga’, fit only to be dupes via all forms of scams! It would take a real awakening for us to realise the deep connection between benevolence, success and development. Perhaps then, we shall stand as a people for ‘feasts’ that would be served to everyone.
Happy Valentine's day!
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