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life is the deepest, greatest, sweetest gift ever. It is given gratis, unawares, unsolicited. It is spent freely, that is, without the Giver meddling. It is only accounted for after it.
Nothing can be better, greater, sweeter than being gifted something so fantastically good and being allowed to spend it unteleguided. And being expected to render accounts only after the end. Take it, have it, live it, return afterwards to present your scorecard, and, thereafter, live with the result.
In all humanity, no other gift is a good second to life. Nothing comes close, nothing compares let alone outweighs. Above all, life is given divinely: that is, no man can give it. Only God.
A damn good Being, the Big Man who sits high up there. He gifts us life, sits back to provide everything we need, to protect or watch over us, sans any form of interference. Who does that? None other: Satan who thinks himself a god meddles like a hater; monitors like a suspect; seeks daily reports and instant returns.
Man too is like that. Most human gifts come with attachments, with conditions. In most cases, givees are expected to become forever slaves. Human givers are mostly as satanic as Shylock: far less than a tiny minority are like God.
Thankfully, neither Satan nor man is or can be God. Both are limited in capacity, in knowledge, in power; in everything. God is, always has been and shall forever be the greatest: Almighty, Alpha and Omega. That, there, is man’s greatest assurance, abiding comfort, saving grace.
Alas, an alarming majority of some men, women, boys, girls, children play life like pigs. They attach no importance, no value, no worth to something this expensive, this invaluable, this priceless. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught a classic: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” Matthew 7:6.
Did God, ever so generous, give the pearl that life is to some human swines? That might sound hard, harsh, even inhuman but it is a fair question in the circumstance. I mean, in the context of what man makes of life in the 21st century, no question should be off the table. Even God Himself is interested in all questions and answers.
Because of space or time or the lack of both, as well as to ensure clarity, let us try unpacking a few case studies, systematically and stylishly interrogating in the process the misery that some human beings have made of life. One, the adult who is a professional usee (read pawn): how on earth do they see themselves in the mirror? How on earth do family and friends rate them? How on earth do they sleep at night?
Imagine being hired permanently to do the dirty jobs of another human being. Like being a kept attack dog. You have a political appointment or so they call it. You have the ad hoc letter.
But, you have no terms of reference; no job description, because what is expected of you is too despicable to be written down. But, you have no office space because the appointer believes you neither deserve nor need one. But, you only have a WhatsApp group, because that is the channel where the big man or his agent churns out battle cry or instruction of target, approach, etc. per time. But, you are also expected to be on call 25 hours daily, monitoring the WhatsApp page the exact same way Israel watches over Iran.
Two, another miserable life is the adult who depends on another for subsistence. That is, relying a hundred percent on someone else for something you are supposed to do for yourself. Like, when a grown man or woman is tied to the apron strings of a scoundrel or of immorality or of shame because it is the only way to survive. When they are naked say in their bathroom, how do they stand their emptiness?
You know, everyone can lie successfully to everyone. You can lie to all and get away with it. However, you cannot lie to self. And, if you do, you cannot get away with it.
Once you activate that mode, your conscience, an open wound, never lets you rest. It constantly gesticulates to you and you alone, a natural way to remind you of that one unfinished business. If you stubbornly ignore it, that small void gradually develops into a well of anger or bitterness or resentment. Most of the very bad people in this world started off like that.
People believe they are useless because there is something they hold against themselves. It might have started out the way someone used them or the way they agreed to be used. Then, it all drew blank in that at the end they were left hanging -or they found themselves so. Many never recover from the resultant frustrating cloud, much like nimbostratus, that covers their being.
This is why political leadership in developing countries, and even in the West, is tainted by so much bile. Too many angry, arrogant, hateful, mean, petty pretenders to the throne. They mis(lead), mis(use), mis(rule) our people who unfortunately -thinking they have no choice- only grumble behind, throughout. Our society has for years now been on the descendancy!
Three, the human being who has to seek and obtain permission to commit crime is a horrendously miserable life. Because this is too up close and personal, I am unable to expatiate. So, we move to four: the life who does not believe in God or who does so in parts is a waste. Nothing to add to or subtract from this.
Which now takes us to gear five, the last kind of life that this entry can accommodate: a set of twins, really. One of them ends on a low, the other a high. The one who used and the other who was used both end and dwell forever in regret. An adult who spent years in political servitude one day comes into power or wealth or both and finds it impossible to forget or forgive own past.
Likewise the one who squandered the years of advantage, which were meant to add value to humanity. Such a one suddenly finds themselves disadvantaged and alone. It is pure misery to realise that you wasted your chance when you no longer have it and can never rehave it. This is the reason you find too many sad ex-this and ex-that.
Today is your nick of time opportunity. Take a seat, sit down, look at your life, calmly, dispassionately. If you have not led or lived a miserable life yourself, have you directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, brought misery upon others? Remember, the liar who does not spare self is like the foolish murderer who also turned on himself.
God bless Nigeria!
