About a decade ago, I went to see the late Air Marshal (Elder) Nsikak-Abasi Essien Eduok, who had retired as Chief of the Air Staff Nigeria (1996 to 1999) and had come back to our home state of Akwa Ibom to spend the rest of his life. Then his phone rang. Well over four years since the 7-star very senior officer of the Nigeria Air Force transited (11 July, 1947, to 6 January, 2021), his ringtone like very many aspects of his beautiful life continues to minister to me in ways I am unable to capture in words. A little research showed me,“I have made You too small in my eyes, O Lord, forgive me. I have believed (in) a lie that You were unable to help me,” are the opening lines of Don Moen’s classic, Be Magnified (Psalm 107:3-31).
All of us are guilty as charged. At one point or the other of our lives, we made God, our very Creator, our own Father, our one and only Sustainer, too small in our eyes. We believed conclusively that He could not and shall not help us. So, we looked away -shamelessly to lesser gods!
Those who are now swearing that they have never descended to this lowest and lowliest low should check if they are not doing so this instant. We should come back to that, presently. Meanwhile, are you the determiner of the future? Are you sure you shall tomorrow not make God too small in your eyes; you shall tomorrow not believe that God cannot and shall not help you?
Life is a giddy mystery, 25 hours daily, 24/7. Life swirls, life twirls, life whirls. No one is immune, no one is safe, no one is untouchable. Life happens to every one, everywhere, every time.
How you react every time you pass through “the valley of the shadow of death” either glorifies or insults God. Which, as we promised a moment ago, brings us back to the unfinished business of the lowest and lowliest low. Are you a person of character, of faith, of patience, of understanding and above all, of wisdom? This is a rhetorical question: every person’s answer is known by those who know them!
How do family and friends know or see you, honestly, behind you? Are your distinctive mental and moral qualities quantitative enough to compel them to unanimously agree that you have integrity? Or, the lack of them is your reality which leaves them no choice to asterisk you as their Achilles’ heel, their black sheep, their weak link? If family and friends (real family and friends) think you integrity-deficient, that does it.
What that means is simply that you have no character, no integrity and therefore nothing else of appreciable importance. In other words, we should either never have dealings with you or never trust you. In more other words, we should deploy a long pole in dealings with you or not at all. This particular life is not worth living; this is not life!
You are a great insulter of God if you show no character, if you have zero integrity, if every eddy of wind exposes your chameleonic tendencies. Be a man, my dear. Be man enough. Have some shame, even if you have never heard the word.
With some shame, also have faith. Faith that your Father is able and capable, no matter what: to protect you, to provide for you. It is insulting to a God as big as ours for you, created by Him: to fear for what you would eat. So, because of something as abstract and as ephemeral and as frivolous as food, you -a so-called child of God- are doing something that even a child of Satan thinks abominable!
Why would the desire for something as mere as inclusion coax you into engaging in a 180-degree volte-face? You said one thing just yesterday and today you are blowing a different grammar because of filthy lucre. Why would something as illusory as survival coerce you into doing or saying unbecoming things in defence or in praise of rubbish? Pray, which version of you do we believe?
Why would something as empty as the desperation to belong stupefy you to the ridiculous point of dancing to the drumbeats of the devil? Are you not aware that even your village people are covering their faces because of you? You mean, you are not aware of all the head-shaking once we hear your name or see you? If you did not know, please know now that your mannerisms insult God.
And, please, learn to be patient. Learn to wait, learn to ask your spirit man for courage, for direction, for satisfaction. Learn to be critical, learn to not be gullible, to not always put your stomach in front. Learn to be firm, learn to not always fall and rise with every tide of change.
And, learn from understanding complete with wisdom. Anytime, you find yourself characterless, faithless and impatient, ensure to never lack understanding and wisdom.
The understanding that you are just human (not God) and the understanding that nothing is permanent. The wisdom to revert to your divine source, per time.
Understanding and wisdom keep you from being anxious. That way, you never lose sleep over anybody nor over anything. You remain calm always, trusting your Father who is in charge, completely and totally. Be sure that all the rejection and all the sickness and all the storm shall end in praise.
Let those flying by ungodly means fly all they can. Let those running run all they want. Let those destroying and murdering and stealing to achieve success keep at it. But you, crawl in your godliness.
It is a magic wand, a talisman that never fails. Stop fretting, stop being envious of fools. They may seem as winners today, but tomorrow and overmorrow, you shall see that it was all a mirage. “The race (of life) is not for the swift nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
That is it, never forget those words. Never be moved or shaken by gains, even if it is your last resort or only alternative. Give way to the traffic of life always on the right. That is the understanding and wisdom you need to win in this life.
Nobody who has understanding and wisdom can toy with having character and faith and patience. Such a one can hardly insult God, knowing full well He is both the Author (that is, Starter and Controller) and Finisher of life and the afterlife. Welcome to the crux of the matter: the afterlife. What would it profit you to have characterlessly, faithlessly, impatiently, misunderstandingly and unwisely enjoyed life like a big man -or woman- only to find out in the afterlife that all you did was tantamount to insulting God?
God bless Nigeria!