Christmas...

Merry Christmas in arrears to y'all! I just wanted to put up some pics of what I and my family were up to this period... There is also proof here for Tahir that I do drink!

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The Fifth Sparrow

 

Currently I am reading a book by Max Lucado, Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear. I first came across the book in my friend, Funsho’s house some months ago, and ever since then, after reading just the first two pages, I was sure I was going to own a copy of the said book. While reading, I came across some scripture passages that gave me some exposition I hadn’t seen before, hence I thought I’d build on that and share with anyone who comes across this blog.

In Matthew 10:29, the Bible says that two sparrows are sold for a farthing, yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Heavenly Father’s knowledge and protection; it goes on in verse 31 to say that we should not fear because we are of more value than many sparrows. This passage is a reassurance of God’s watchful protection over us and His keen eye for the details in our lives.

There is a similar passage in Luke 12:6, similar but with an interesting twist/addition to it. It says that are not five sparrows sold for 2 farthings, and yet not one of them is forgotten by God? Simple math: 2 sparrows would cost 1 farthing, so 4 sparrows should cost 2 farthings, but then in this recent passage, 5, and not 4 sparrows cost 2 farthings, from which we can freely suggest that there is a bonus sparrow, one which has no cost, no real value, but is thrown in there for being such a magnanimous customer. (It kinda makes you wonder how many free sparrows you would get if you were buying 10 farthings worth – might not even be legal to do so). This Fifth Sparrow is the crux of the matter.

There are a lot of ‘fifth sparrow(s)’ in our contemporary world today, people who don’t think they are worth anything to anyone except those whom nature has enforced the responsibility on; who get easily lost in any crowd, those who think they have no showcase-able talent, those who believe that if they stay in their houses for three months, only their landlords will come to visit them, and even that is to collect the month’s rent; those whose parents never call them and the only time they talk to each other is when they are asking for money, and their parents non-comittally give it to them; those who believe life has not dealt them a fair hand or given them a fair chance, while bestowing multiple talents and opportunities on others.

The problem with this line of thinking is that, the Bible has said that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he: whoever thinks that he/she is nobody will be nobody. This means that the individual will not amount to much in life, he will always despise other people, and will live in a constant state of depression, useless to himself and his society. He always sees himself as less than average. He will constantly pass up opportunities to progress and grow, thinking that such are only meant  for those who have been ‘well-endowed’ with skill and potential. He will also doubt the fact that God loves him, or has any interest in him, or might even accuse God of creating him as a defective product. The individual may not exhibit all the described features, but that individual is definitely looking at a lower quality of life.

Now, on a personal note, after hearing how much those sparrows cost, I’m not sure I want to be referred to as such, but at least the first four had some value. Imagine being the fifth sparrow, the one with no value among those with so little value in themselves.

God said in Matt. 10 that even the hairs of your head are counted (v. 30). Who counts hair? No one does, but to know that God has, that adds a sense of worth. If God knows detail as minute as how many strands of hair I have on my head, if He cares and knows about things that I don’t even regard in the first place, then He definitely knows about what I am going through in my life, about my weaknesses, my short-comings, my strengths, my social life, my academics, my workplace, everything. He also goes on to say that nothing happens to any one of these birds without His knowledge, and then He says that I am worth more than many sparrows. If God pays so much attention to these little birds, and I am worth more, it means, without any doubt in my mind, that I am special.

If I realize that God values me so dearly, then I would claim everything He has said about me; He has made so many promises to me, and I believe every single one for myself. I have no reason to be depressed about anything because the joy of the Lord is my strength; I have no reason to dread an empty pocket because God gives me power to create wealth. I am not concerned about how people perceive me or observe me because I am created in God’s image.

Unwittingly, many people have been called, and have referred to themselves as a ‘Fifth Sparrow’; but even then, God loves you, and He cares for you to pin-point perfection, taking note of the things you don’t and constantly looking out for you. God sees you as worth something; you should too.

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CHASING THE NIGERIAN DREAM

The American Dream, sometimes in the phrase "Chasing the American Dream," is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of prosperity and success. Historian James Truslow Adams coined the phrase "American Dream" in his 1931 book Epic of America. Excerpts include 'The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement…' The ethos simply indicates the ability, through participation in the society and economy, for everyone to achieve prosperity. According to the dream, this includes the opportunity for one's children to grow up and receive a good education and career without artificial barriers. It is the opportunity to make individual choices without the prior restrictions that limit people according to their class, caste, religion, race, or ethnicity. This coinage was meant to promote the United States of America as a land to be regarded as a beacon of liberty and prosperity (Wikipedia).

On the heels of this, I was challenged, especially in light of the fact that Nigeria would, on the 1^st of October this year be commemorating 50 years of its existence, to explore what this phrase could possibly mean for the Nigerian, to compare it with the concept of the American dream and see what similarities and differences there are with the 'Nigerian Dream.'

If I were to address an average, random group of people concerning this subject, having enlightened them on the American Dream, they would almost, always be unanimous in their voicing of the fact that Nigeria has no such dream. Sometimes it feels like God gave a different instruction to the developed world and gave a separate set to the developing world, telling the developed nations to take dominion over the Earth, while telling the developing countries to do their best to stay alive, and He would give a handful of them a lucky break every now and then. The first group has continually developed their spirit of adventure while the latter has learned to finely hone its instinct for survival.

If I were to phrase what I have observed to be the Nigerian Dream, it would go thus:

'The Nigerian Dream is the dream of a land in which every man and woman would strive with all the means at their disposal to get a tertiary education in a professional course (medicine, law, engineering, accountancy), get a job in either Abuja or Lagos, either work in government for the job security, or work in the private sector with some deep contacts in government, know at least one politician, one high-ranking police officer, and one immigration/customs officer; be affiliated to some spiritual leaders that would assist with spiritual attacks on your person/family because they will come, marry someone from your geopolitical zone to avoid any pressure from immediate family members, have children including AT LEAST one boy to avoid insult from extended family, rent a respectable looking house with the aim to buy yours one day, buy a generator to generate your own light, drill your own borehole to provide yourself with continuous water, buy a car that can handle random pot-holes and speed bumps, send your children to private schools run by people from any nationality except Nigeria, and then afterwards send them to any country outside Africa to further their studies; a land where survival is the keyword, with prosperity, education and security all in place to ensure this fact.'

Reading this, I can't help but suppress a slight chill, because even though everyone would have their own take on what the Nigerian dream is, we can all agree this is not far from the truth at all. This explains why we do not create, and we suppress creativity, because as far as we appreciate, a creative mind has lost its primary instinct – survival; this is of course, unless the point of such creativity is to enhance survival by providing financial compensation. I really wish I could get my hands on the documents showing what the founding fathers of this country dreamed for it, because I am sure this wasn't it. Even though the American Dream has been criticized for being too idealist and setting a bar too high, they haven't deviated much from it today.

I belong to the minority of people that strongly believe that Nigeria can and will be better than what we can see now. Many people seeing the preparations being made for this silver jubilee celebration have said Nigeria is celebrating 50 years of leadership failure, waste of potential and resources, as well as endorsing deeply entrenched corruption. My Bible tells me that I will have whatever I say, so I say that Nigeria is blessed, that God's plans for this country will be achieved, that this country will reach its full potential, and make all of us proud to belong to it. It also tells me that we should pray for those in authority, so I commit my President and his cabinet into God's hands that He will lead, guide and direct in the best interests of the population of the country, and may their hearts be yielding to his prodding, that they may put aside all pride, greed and self-gratification to serve the purpose for which God has put them in place.

I believe in and love my country. God bless Nigeria. God bless Nigerians.

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Been A While

Hmmm... I haven't done any writing ever since I got back home for this summer break. I have some titles in my head, but no strength in my hands yet. Oh well, I'll get to it - eventually. I look forward to my next most likely write-up: The Nigerian Dream. See you guys soon!

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A SENSE OF DEFINITION

Humanism is a worldview and a moral philosophy that considers humans to be of primary importance. It is a perspective common to a wide range of ethical stances that attaches importance to human dignity, concerns, and capabilities, particularly rationality. I lifted that particular definition from Wikipedia. To break it down, a humanist is someone who believes that anyone can do whatever they want, however they want, provided the means and end would satisfy the individual involved, and lives by their own set of rules. This implies that institutions like the written rule of law, the Bible, and even other people’s feelings are secondary to the individual’s whims. Based on this, humanists define and defend themselves based on characteristics and features which more often than not are not justified, logical or considerate. This theory is not a necessarily domineering one, just one that sees an individual the way he or she is, accepts that what the person is cannot change, and will not change, so the rest of the world should either deal with them that way, or look in another direction.

It sounds interesting, and senseless too when you hear someone say, I am the way I am because I was born that way, and there is nothing I can do about it. Less appreciated is when they are referring to such characteristics like being lazy, careless, anger-prone, over-indulgent, or even homosexual. To further compound this problem, notable icons and celebrities whenever they are interviewed make such claims, and when such admissions are made, the listening public are enamoured by their openness and honesty, that it becomes a personality trait to emulate. While there is no argument against honesty, the problem with such an argument is that people stop trying to be better than they already are; they stop growing because they have gotten a definition for themselves based on where and what they are, and are open about it. The Bible says, As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

When one stops growing, he starts dying. When you feel you have reached your peak, your final definition of yourself, nothing will ever give you a different sense of whom you are. The truth, as I see it is that while I have painted a very unappreciable picture of humanism, most people without actually acknowledging their subscription to this school of thought, are humanistic in nature. Why, because they share a common trait with humanists – they are lazy, they are non-achievers, they have no true sense of self-worth. A man would only develop to the extent to which he gives himself room to do so. So many of us, either because we resist change, or are too comfortable with where we have found ourselves have come to define ourselves with specific tags that have become our limits, because if we do change or grow, we would have to get new definitions, and new identities for each change we make.

I think the best stance we can take is that we are continuous works in progress. Interestingly enough, most people who exhibit such humanistic views are within the age ranges of 18 and 45 years of age, which should be the most progressive years of life. We keep growing, we keep setting higher standards, seeking greater challenges, striving to be better than we were before. There is so much we can do, so much we can be. Why stop now because it is convenient?

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Champion.

In 2001, it was no secret knowledge that Agbani Darego was crowned as the 50^th Miss World, an award for a young woman publicly acknowledged to have the perfect blend of beauty and brains. Little known fact was that when she won that award, she was a student of the University of Port Harcourt. A less known fact is that I was in that institution at that point in time. An even lesser known fact is that I was personally acknowledged by the reigning Miss World at that time, Miss Darego. After she had won the award, she promised to visit UNIPORT being her alma mater, so to speak, and the whole school, plus some people from town turned up to see her. We waited for over 5 hours. She didn’t show, neither was there any concrete word about her arrival or not. One of my friends, impatient with waiting asked me to walk him to the school gate from where he would get a vehicle to go home. It was a long walk from the Arena to the main gate, so after seeing him off, I started my walk back. I had walked more than halfway when I heard a lot of vehicles coming behind me. I looked back, and saw a convoy of vehicles, vehicles of class, definitely carrying someone important. I knew she had finally arrived. Then I saw her, standing out of the roof of one of the limousines, and she looked beautiful. I stopped walking to watch the convoy go by, and when the vehicle carrying her was driving by, she looked directly at me, smiled and waved. I was the only one along the entire road, so I was sure it was me she was referring to with that gesture. Now, stopping the convoy, coming down from the vehicle, planting a peck on my face, and taking a picture with me would have left me with a permanent blush, but the smile and wave were just perfect – it was, and is my only private moment with a world renowned celebrity.

Watching her as she reached the Arena and it filled to overflowing with people, I couldn’t help but wonder about success and achievement. The whole school and its complete hierarchy, and later that evening, the whole town along with its leadership would acknowledge her, not just because she had won the title, or because she had schooled in UNIPORT, or because she was a celebrity, but more because she was one of them, and she had brought them happiness and pride by being successful, and being globally acknowledged for it.

I would love to be in that position. I will be in that position. I am going to attain something profitable for myself and as many people as it would affect, and I am going to be publicly and globally recognized for it. When Agbani was in UNIPORT, no one acknowledged her. There are a lot of beautiful, model-types in the school, so except for the cursory observation, no one paid her any special attention. Even when she won Miss Nigeria to qualify for the bigger tournament, most people didn’t even know. But when she attained, the whole world took notice. That’s where I am referring to. That’s where I will be.

It will take hard work. It will take perseverance. It would take depending on God to direct me, and not lean on my own wisdom, but it can, and it will be done. This should be everyone’s desire, not necessarily for the public fanfare, but for the widespread impact. Everyone should be challenged to affect positively as many people as possible, and if you are publicly acknowledged in the process, to do so with grace. I was challenged by her that day, and I am constantly challenged by people not too far from me. I will work to prove myself. I will prove myself to be a champion.

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BEAUTIFUL BUDAPEST?

I just had a wonderful weekend at the Medikus Kupa  (Medical Cup) competition that took place in Budapest. It was fun, and rewarding for a number of reasons: firstly, my school were the best overall having claimed the gold medal in 2 out of 4 events, I travelled with Imoh and Tahir, both of which were awesome company, I stayed with two lovely young ladies who made me feel very at home with their cozy apartment and lovely meals; it was also a rest, a separation from the hustle and bustle that has characterized my town of Debrecen. Plus, a day before I left, I didn’t plan to go! Totally spur of the moment, but totally worth it.

Last year, when I attended the Medikus Kupa at Pecs, it was announced that the event would hold in Budapest this year, there were general groans all around, because everyone has been to Buda at one point, and it wasn’t something to look forward to, as we thought there was no way it would beat the Pecs trip in terms of excitement – it didn’t. But then, in all fairness, it wasn’t half bad at all. I have already mentioned the reasons why, so if you missed it, you might want to start reading from the beginning.

I am not a fan of big cities or crowds. I love less populated, self-sufficient cities, because more often than not, there is little noise, lower crime rates, and a comparative tranquil. That’s why I prefer Abuja to Lagos, and Debrecen to Budapest. Abuja is not exactly a small town, but when you compare it with Lagos… let’s leave it at that. In light of this admission, I had developed the same attitude towards Buda that I had developed towards Lagos – go in, shop, do what you have to do, and get out as quickly as possible. I had to travel alone, because I had failed to meet the registration deadline to travel with the rest of the school, a move that has profited me two years in a row; the journey was quiet and uneventful, just as I like it, I got in, met my host who was lovely, and I started looking around the town. Now Lagos and Budapest have in common that they are larger cities, highly populated, and crime rates higher than the rest of their respective countries combined (sue me, you Lagos people!), but there the similarities stop. Budapest is organized. Whoever planned that town took into cognizance the fact that it is a big town with a large population and put in a transportation system so efficient, you could plan weeks in advance, it has a variety of opportunities, as well as a variety of options, which I would admit is similar to a town like Lagos, but with beautiful organization. I found myself, for the first time in my life liking a big city.

Aside the fact that I had wonderful hosts, I could picture myself actually working and thriving in that town. Everyone goes about their own business, it is a rowdy town, but still very organized, and I was attracted to that. I no longer have any untoward reservations concerning Budapest – I still am not a fan of the typical cosmopolitan/metropolitan city, but as I travel back to my lovely Debrecen, I do so with an open mind, knowing that inasmuch as I would like to base in a small, self-sufficient town, I will leave my options open, and see how God will lead me. It was a lovely trip, I have no regrets, and I look forward to even more adventures of a similar and enlightening nature.

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I Want To Write...

I want to write something, but I can't put my hand on a single topic. I miss doing this. I have a new blog now, and I would like to show more dedication than I used to in the former one. Let's see how it goes. I might write in a specific direction, I might write as the wind blows, but I am going to write.

So why do I love writing? I guess it is my way of expressing my thoughts and emotions, most of which I never show externally. It is my medium of taking my thoughts and ideas and putting them down so that I and whoever else wants to could see and appreciate. I am my biggest fan. My write-ups have no poetical undertone, neither could it be accurately said to be a work of continuous prose, as much as I know. I would like to develop my own style, something unique to me - my own way. I want my articles to be as unique and intriguing as the person I am becoming (to all you haters, I must say I am surprised to see you here!)

With my style of writing, I always seek to reach an audience. More often than not, that audience is me, as I am not of general boldness to publish too much. I hope to express my thoughts with an aim to impact, to cause a rethink, to reveal an alternative, to elicit a decision to change for the better. I write to affect lives, because as a Christian, that is what I am alive to do. I am not alive for me alone, well mostly me and a few close people - I, without any desire for glory-seeking or canonization, want to reach out to people anyway I can, and writing affords me that opportunity.

I read books written by very prolific writers and I am challenged. I am challenged and motivated by their style, by their method of delivery, and even by the structure of their grammar. I am not a person with role models, but then I can't help but be intrigued by writers like John Maxwell and Ted Dekker (Ted is the man!), who use simple, non-complicated constructions to deliver some very profound knowledge. I am getting there.

I also like reading for some other reasons, minor though they are, like it makes me feel very smart, it's cool when someone (by someone, I mean a female) picks up one of my works and tells me she likes how I put it down, plus I am among very few Nigerians that knows what a blog is, let alone own one. But the main reasons are the ones that I have laid down in the preceding paragraphs. I enjoy writing, and I plan to be doing it for a while.

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New Beginning?

Hi. This is my second blog (not second post - just saying). I lost the first one, so I decided to start up another one, after all, I still love writing. My work might follow a different pattern, but in essence, it's still all me. I hope readers will be challenged and motivated by what they read here. Take care, guys.

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