THE MESSAGE NOW
Vol 1, No. 15 – Monday, 17th October 2016
Gen.25:7-10, 1 Sam.12:3, 2 Tim.4:7
Ever think of that comment that will summarize your life after you are gone?
An e-mail forwarded to me at about 2007 read as follows: ‘God determines who walks into your life. You determine whom you let stay or who you let go’. There are countable individuals in my path of destiny today. Their contribution is most cheering. My essay on them cannot but appear in the brightest colors of gold. But will the same comment summarize you and me from the lips of others?
One of the most astute English politicians of the 20th Century (and indeed the longest Premier in service so far in British history), the iconic iron lady, Margaret Thatcher was asked a most thoughtful question in what I consider a star question in a sensational interview a number of years ago. The seemingly ecstatic interviewer quipped: If you happen to reincarnate and find yourself back on planet earth, who would you like to become? The iconic Iron Lady’s response was such that would leave any deep-thinking, intelligent Nigerian in a mire of absolute shame.
The former Prime Minister satirically replied, ‘I would like to become a Nigerian politician in a country where any thing goes’. More recently, in 2016, another former British Prime Minister, David Cameron in a meeting with the Queen of England described Nigeria as a nation which is ‘fantastically corrupt’.
If this is what Nigeria and Nigerian politicians are noted for and remembered by, then an intelligent mind should pose the question, what is the worth of image and integrity to Nigerians in general, Nigerian Politicians in specificity and Nigerian Christians in some particular respects. If in our most conscious minds as Christians, ‘image is nothing’ (as a particular brand commonly advertises), and if in our opinion the value of integrity is equal to the memory of the meal eaten by us back in yesteryears, then we, the children of the Most High are not worth our salt before God our father.
It should therefore give us the greatest concern what comment will summarize our stay in this transitory life after our departure. Learn another lesson today from this: the most comforting joy of our departing moments in life are the regurgitating memories and thoughts about the mistakes we never made in our youthful days and in the periods of our prime.
There are many men whose feet have treaded the sands of time, leaving behind no single indelible mark. The same cannot be said of Mahatma Gandhi (the father of modern India). At his death in 1948, the then Indian Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru had this memorable comment to summarize an illustrious life so very well spent. Nehru solemnly opined: ‘the light is gone out of the world, and we are now in darkness. The father of the nation is no more’. What an admirable description of a man who was of the Hindu religion!
Hmmm! Am I a light to my world? Am I a fuel fanning divine fire into godly fervor and unquenchable heavenly furnace? Are the ‘cloud of witnesses’ beckoning from on high rejoicing because of my gallant effort here on earth? Humanity and divinity are watching you and me, steadfastly and speechlessly looking on as though there shan’t some day emerge an eternal comment. Their silence is only so loud for the moment. Their carol or condemning comment will soon be evidenced on the marble, be it by mortal humanity or the immortal fingerprints of the Great King.
I cannot draw the curtain on this episode of ‘The Message Now’ without reference to William Butler Yeats. In his very alluring poem: ‘when you are old’, originally addressed to his intended narcissistic lover, Maud Gonne, Yeats warns everyone to be most mindful of the twilight of our lives. He says:
‘When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars’.
I ask you dear child of God, what testamentary disposition otherwise called a will will be credited to your attitude after you are gone? (to be continued next Monday).
Hymn: ‘When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder’
Pray now:
O God, forgive me for the sins I have committed against you, against myself and against other people.
O God, let not the devil write the last chapter of my life.
O God my father, break me and remould me into your delight.
O dear father, I am in need and deficient in both spiritual, financial, physical, marital, etc, aspects of my life (list out those needs to the Lord and pray today by 12 noon, 3PM and 6PM).
Every power draining my virtues die in Jesus name.
Pastor Mike
