God And The Weirdos

“No matter how glorious your January was, how lovely your February was, how joyous your March had been, surely your April shall be a perfection of your heart's desire by the resurrection power. Happy Easter!”.

That was an honest SMS sent in by my wonderful landlady, Mrs. Jones Akpan (a white woman with a white heart). The woman's motherly care and understanding took me far into our tumultuous world and made me make so many comparisons. Those roaming thoughts gave birth to this write-up. It is not Concord Gospel (apologies to Pastor Ettentia):
I have a GeePee, not the water reservoir you know. It is an acronym for God and People “G” for God and “ P” for people of this school of thought called world. The former is that primordial power, captain of hosts and personal father who is everything and owns everything, the later His subjects. We are what we are because of who He is. The Rastafarians define the Gee O Dee to stand for Generator, Operator and Director. Is He not? GOD!

Formerly I used to believe that God is one big personage clothed in ineffable glory who resides somewhere in a beautiful region in the sky called heaven. Sometimes I used to view Him as a certain stern, angry Judge only awaiting opportunity somewhere to punish bad people who have failed to live a perfect life on earth. Even broader and more-learned minds are always cramped by the thought of God as a person, for personality limits to place and time. No, God is not as we might have felt or been taught to believe. Physical optics are not the instruments to perceive God. God is spirit, an “unusual” spirit. He baffles grammar and syntax. God is the creative energy that is the cause of all existence. He is unchangeable, inexorable. This uncreated creator, with His undisputable characteristics or qualities of all-seeing, all sufficient, all powerful and all-benevolent, is not that father who wound up the world with a key and went away to let it run by itself. He is that God who stays at the center of everywhere sleeplessly and cares for all that He created, including you and I. Without Him, life is a monotonous repetition of weeks, months, seasons and generations. On our own, we can do nothing unless He gives the grace. And to us who have nothing He gives the best. So, I am trusting not in my family and friends but Him, the owner of all the worlds. Its very difficult to prove God's existence, not even in the Bible had He Himself attempted to do that. But have you ever considered how much more difficult it is to disprove His existence? Scientists have tried, but no dice.

Human nature! It is the most recondite of mysteries. It is on the basis of this experience that I name my two sons Mankind and Mystery. No wonder it is said that men are the most difficult living things to manage. But, without God, what do these so-called men(or people) think they are? It is lamentably crude, mad, sad, shameful and utter disappointing that we, God's people, do not realize who God is. Aren't daily blessings daily reminders of who or what God is? Oh! Jehovah God and the weirdos called people! That God made man in His own image doesn't mean that God is any foolish as man. The God I believe in is that God to whom everything belongs although we use it as if it belonged to us, the stewards. This omnipotent God has no limit, boundary or edge to His ability and power, and He is not affected by changes.

Where God has put a period or full-stop none of us can change it to a question mark. Good news is that He is the Being that specializes in the cure of impossibilities. This God sometimes puts us into deep sea with the purpose not to drown us but to develop us. He even uses a setback to move us ahead. He allows us get into trouble because that is the only time we ever think of Him. Yet He is the fountainhead of every good thing. He makes our despairing situations governable and opportunities unlockable. It is God alone and only He who has the divine tablets to our worldly ills. With such wonderful father we could tread even where angels fear. This kind God o! He is general and generous. He could make us rich without making others poor. I am not preaching as someone who has born again or the umpteenth time, after all you can't get holy in a hurry or through pretence, but I am telling you by conviction that our problem today is that we are all lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. We have so engaged ourselves sidewardly, forwardly and backwardly that we forget there is an Above and a Below. If men's hearts could be distracted by the charm of this diamond-clothed gambler and trickster called this world, I think men wouldn't forget the essence of living. Although we are living in a sinful world, we do not have to make it more sinful than we met it, must we? This world unchangeably in its originally created place would be so wonderfully good but for men and women themselves, yet we say this is a bad world. Greed and blind imitations have brought us to doom and left even our hearts desertly barren. Despite this the owner of the universe is always a kind and forgiving God unto those that believe in Him, even “churchlessly”. His love is unchanging, not arbitrary or conditional. Yes, it will take eternity to measure the love of God and His son's. “For God so loved the world…”. “ Greater love hath no man….”.

A couple of days ago we commemorated the deathday of the best friend in Christendom that guy who lost His life in order to save ours, that mediator, advocate and redeemer who towers over even the best of counselors, psychologists and therapists, that spiritual phenomenon whom we should catch fresh because He paid the ransom sacrifice (our redemptive price). You know who I am referring to none other than the Justman of Galilee, that only son of God who is the lifeline of our deadline. May that man alone who changes hearts that fine guy who can change the foulest sinner into a saint come into all our hearts so that we could make this world a better place to live in. He is the greatest warrior of righteousness, the supreme commander of the forces of light. He is the answer for this our wicked world. In him is our rest and victory. No boy nor girl, no man nor woman, no cultist nor kidnapper, can get away from God although we can ignore Him. Where are you going to run to while there is no other universe. In short, we have all laughed God out of our schools, books, even our lives, but none of us can laugh Him out of our deaths. He holds the keys.

If we leave God out of our reckoning, all that we hate difficulties, sins, even death come to us. But if we recognize Him as the Limitless One who undertakes for us, He would be big enough for our lives, problems, needs and heartaches. God's grace to us, His weird and derailed people, is a certainty even amidst the tumult of today's world. He wants us to be victors not vanquished, to overcome not to be overwhelmed by any powers and principalities. He likes to see us show the way instead of going with the crowd. I am one of God's made people who have forgotten the lasting and unalterable key to happiness, which is righteousness. Well, it's my prayer that God directs and considers His sinful Aniefiok on the knees before the self acclaimed righteous brethrens and sistrens on tiptoes.

Hide and skin for leather works, cotton for clothes, wheat for bread, what do we use life to get? God provides us with the raw materials and expects us to make finished products with them. Lord God, I have personally fallen short of your expectations, my personal relationship with you is naught, despite the countless churches I have flirted with. With a humble heart on bended knees, I am pleading with you, whither thou pleaseth, kindly have our lives and our times in your hands for you can do more with them than we can. You know what my sick country seeks, equally my sick state and L.G.A. I remember when my state governor, Chief Dr. Godswill Akpabio, knelt before Akwa Ibom people to pray for the cleansing and growth of the state. I am doing same, but first and foremostly denouncing my deliberately and undeliberately committed sins. Oh! Our father, who art in heaven, please guide and direct thy people. With you, we rest assured we can dwell secured. In case I wont be able to repeat this prayer time and again, I say “ditto”