YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE
As a student in secondary school and in the university, I remember some lazy days when my teachers would give us assignments and I wouldn't do them. I would be uncomfortable with my failure to do my assignment, but too lazy to even try. So I would go around looking for people who hadn't done theirs.
'You don do your homework sef?'
'No o. Abeg e too hard. I no get strength. I no sure say she go mark am', my classmate would sometimes respond.
I would go around asking more and more students, and the more people who were in my gang, the happier I would be because 'atleast no be only me'. I would feel justified and secure somehow. The homework was really too hard to do. The teacher wouldn't bother to mark it, I would tell myself. If I got a 'yes' from a few people, I would feel a bit disturbed and guilty , but immediately brush it off my mind. They were ITKs and liars.
****************************
I have noticed that we humans don't like to be different. Naturally, we don't want to seem odd. We want to blend in. No matter what the other 'even numbers' are doing.
Again, I have realized that we humans will naturally do what we want to do, good or bad, and then search for reasons to support our actions later.
People around you are being dishonest, unfaithful to their spouses, engaging in sexual immorality, fornication, bribery, and all other evil stuff. Somehow you have fallen in with the crowd and are enjoying what you are doing. But as usual, your conscience still speaks to you from time to time. You are uncomfortable with your conscience's voice. You love what you are doing. Sometimes, it's not just your conscience that speaks against your actions. People who try to live right counsel you to stop what you are doing. You are uncomfortable with their counsel too. You hate how their words and your conscience prick your heart like a thousand needles. And so like a dying man or woman who will clutch at a straw you look for reasons to defend your actions, even though you know they are wrong.
'Abeg, everyone is doing it'
'there is no girl who has never slept with a married man'
'there is no man who doesn't cheat on his wife abeg'
'it is impossible to stay away from premarital Sex. There is no single youth from age 18 and above who can say he or she is a Virgin. ALL those who claim they are virgins or say they have been able to stay without Sex for years are liars. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE '.
The funny thing is, it's easy to see that you are not only trying to convince your counselor, or that man or woman whose upright life is a challenge and a source of envy to you that your actions are OK with all those excuses, you are trying to convince yourself as well. I can see it too. I know you don't even sound convincing to yourself. I can see you are trying desperately hard not to face your cowardice and lack of moral fiber. Yes. You know it.
Thousands of years ago, in Bible times, when Prophet Elijah was running away from Jezebel who had threatened to kill him for slaying her prophets of baal after the contest at Mount Camel between the God of heaven and earth and those demons, God met him where he was and asked him what he was doing there. At that time, idol worship and immorality were at its peak in Israel. He told God that the Israelites had destroyed all the prophets of God and there was no upright man in the land, that he was the only one. This was God's response:
'I have reserved seven thousand people in Israel who have not bowed the knee to baal, nor kissed him'. This statement still resounds in my heart and is such a delight to me, especially in moments when it feels like 'everybody is doing it' and I am holding on to archaic values.
7000 godly israelites was definitely a drop in the bucket in the face of millions of godless Israelites. It's however comforting to know that God recognized them. He didn't lump them together with the godless multitude.
To my fellow believers who are trying to live right, it may seem hard because it's as if you are the only one. It's understandable since no one likes to feel like the odd one out. The good news is 'YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE'. Just look around for believers like you, you will see them. It's the reason why we shouldn't forsake the gathering of believers. There you will find help, strength and support. You will find a family who will keep on encouraging you, challenging you even, to go on serving God with your life.
Ignore insults from unbelievers and ungodly 'believers'. The truth is that there will ALWAYS be a remnant. God NEVER leaves himself without a witness.
To all of us, we ALL know that when 9 out of 10 buckets are dirty, to say that all the buckets are dirty is not only illogical, it's a bloody lie.
Those of us who go around saying it's impossible to stay away from serial immorality, it is impossible to refuse bribes, it's impossible bla bla bla, SHUT UP! That you failed, or didn't even try doesn't mean it's impossible. The fact that you surrounded yourself with folks who have settled for the pit morally, who convinced you it was impossible to live right, the fact that you swallowed it all like a coward and didn't even bother trying to see if they were right or wrong, doesn't mean it's impossible.
Face up to your cowardice and failure and change. There's a God who can help you. Go to him with a willingness to change. I swear, you won't recognize yourself after meeting him.
'You don do your homework sef?'
'No o. Abeg e too hard. I no get strength. I no sure say she go mark am', my classmate would sometimes respond.
I would go around asking more and more students, and the more people who were in my gang, the happier I would be because 'atleast no be only me'. I would feel justified and secure somehow. The homework was really too hard to do. The teacher wouldn't bother to mark it, I would tell myself. If I got a 'yes' from a few people, I would feel a bit disturbed and guilty , but immediately brush it off my mind. They were ITKs and liars.
****************************
I have noticed that we humans don't like to be different. Naturally, we don't want to seem odd. We want to blend in. No matter what the other 'even numbers' are doing.
Again, I have realized that we humans will naturally do what we want to do, good or bad, and then search for reasons to support our actions later.
People around you are being dishonest, unfaithful to their spouses, engaging in sexual immorality, fornication, bribery, and all other evil stuff. Somehow you have fallen in with the crowd and are enjoying what you are doing. But as usual, your conscience still speaks to you from time to time. You are uncomfortable with your conscience's voice. You love what you are doing. Sometimes, it's not just your conscience that speaks against your actions. People who try to live right counsel you to stop what you are doing. You are uncomfortable with their counsel too. You hate how their words and your conscience prick your heart like a thousand needles. And so like a dying man or woman who will clutch at a straw you look for reasons to defend your actions, even though you know they are wrong.
'Abeg, everyone is doing it'
'there is no girl who has never slept with a married man'
'there is no man who doesn't cheat on his wife abeg'
'it is impossible to stay away from premarital Sex. There is no single youth from age 18 and above who can say he or she is a Virgin. ALL those who claim they are virgins or say they have been able to stay without Sex for years are liars. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE '.
The funny thing is, it's easy to see that you are not only trying to convince your counselor, or that man or woman whose upright life is a challenge and a source of envy to you that your actions are OK with all those excuses, you are trying to convince yourself as well. I can see it too. I know you don't even sound convincing to yourself. I can see you are trying desperately hard not to face your cowardice and lack of moral fiber. Yes. You know it.
Thousands of years ago, in Bible times, when Prophet Elijah was running away from Jezebel who had threatened to kill him for slaying her prophets of baal after the contest at Mount Camel between the God of heaven and earth and those demons, God met him where he was and asked him what he was doing there. At that time, idol worship and immorality were at its peak in Israel. He told God that the Israelites had destroyed all the prophets of God and there was no upright man in the land, that he was the only one. This was God's response:
'I have reserved seven thousand people in Israel who have not bowed the knee to baal, nor kissed him'. This statement still resounds in my heart and is such a delight to me, especially in moments when it feels like 'everybody is doing it' and I am holding on to archaic values.
7000 godly israelites was definitely a drop in the bucket in the face of millions of godless Israelites. It's however comforting to know that God recognized them. He didn't lump them together with the godless multitude.
To my fellow believers who are trying to live right, it may seem hard because it's as if you are the only one. It's understandable since no one likes to feel like the odd one out. The good news is 'YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE'. Just look around for believers like you, you will see them. It's the reason why we shouldn't forsake the gathering of believers. There you will find help, strength and support. You will find a family who will keep on encouraging you, challenging you even, to go on serving God with your life.
Ignore insults from unbelievers and ungodly 'believers'. The truth is that there will ALWAYS be a remnant. God NEVER leaves himself without a witness.
To all of us, we ALL know that when 9 out of 10 buckets are dirty, to say that all the buckets are dirty is not only illogical, it's a bloody lie.
Those of us who go around saying it's impossible to stay away from serial immorality, it is impossible to refuse bribes, it's impossible bla bla bla, SHUT UP! That you failed, or didn't even try doesn't mean it's impossible. The fact that you surrounded yourself with folks who have settled for the pit morally, who convinced you it was impossible to live right, the fact that you swallowed it all like a coward and didn't even bother trying to see if they were right or wrong, doesn't mean it's impossible.
Face up to your cowardice and failure and change. There's a God who can help you. Go to him with a willingness to change. I swear, you won't recognize yourself after meeting him.
''I have reserved seven thousand people in Israel who have not bowed the knee to baal, nor kissed him'. This statement still resounds in my heart and is such a delight to me, especially in moments when it feels like 'everybody is doing it' and I am holding on to archaic values."
ReplyDeleteThis is so true for me. Well done Nero