Whispering Pain

David decided to pay his family a visit. He visited them once a during his annual leave. He normally requested for vacation during the month of August when children were around. This was June.This time, his boss ordered him to proceed on a compulsory leave with immediate effect . He wondered why. He had no choice . He took the opportunity to spend quality time together and reconnect with his children. The nature of his job made it necessary to shield his family from his official life. He was a no nonsence policeman. He disliked his job but it paid the bills. At times, he was at logger head with his rogue colleague. He knew the bad subordinate but could not tell who the bad bosses were. His job was to obey their orders. There were times he would be instructed to hands off a case he was do close to nailing.

His phone rang. It was the economic and Financial crime commission. He was being investigated for a diverting fund.He was forced to end his vacation prematuredly. He went to the commission and was presented with an arrest warrant. He was presented with series of documents with his signature endorsing transfer of fund. Dave was neither the head of his unit nor in a account unit.

There is only one explanation. He has been set up and some of his bossess were part of it. The evidence against him was strong. It took a powerful lawyer to minimize the jail term. He was convicted for five years.

In prison, he met a prison warder and they became friends. The prison warder doubles as a part time blogger. Just then, a thought entered his mind. He requested for a book and a pen . He wrote down every memory he could remember. At times, he would write a letter to specific person telling them how he felt. Other times he would write a song or a poem. He made his friend promise to publish them If he never made it out of prison alive. His write up made it easier to cope with horrible prison experience. He would write down his prison experience.

He didn’t know when five years elapsed. He was released. The prison warder gave him a mobile phone with a registered sim card. Dave realized the money was really helpful. His bank account were liquidated.No organization wants to employ an ex- convict. A convicted civil servant is not entitled to his gratuity and pension .His houses were taking away from him. All he had were his piece of writing. He would only go back to his family once he had gone back to his feet. He stayed in the community where no one recognized him doing menial job and sleeping in uncompleted building. As he walked one day, he noticed a music studio. He summoned courage and went in. He sang one of the songs he wrote in prison. An upcoming artist loved it and requested to pay him for the track. The song became one of the hit tracks in the album. David became his ghost writer. His phone rang. It was the prison warder. She has managed to convince a publishing firm to publish the book only If Dave would include her name as a co author. She had modified the work. That was the begining of a lucrative writing career .

David began to understand that his life has been converging for decades. Writing was what he was born to do. His soul has been whispering to him to write. He was busy in life activities that he failed to listen. It was during the period of incarceration, shut out from world activity did he listen to his heart whispers.He listened the hard way

Like Dave, many of us are on the wrong path of our career. We do not derive Joy from what we do. We do it to pay the bill. We need an event to disrupt our routine. The Covid 19 pandemic has provided the necessary shift. This is not a time to wail and blame God. It is an opportunity to take the leap. The opportunity could come in form of a message, or an activity a closed one is doing and we are invited to join. We get excited by the mere thought of it. The feeling is the guage.When we begin, assistance would come from unimaginable source. We will have the inspiration, motivation, courage and strength to overcome.

2020- A year of anger

Anger flows in the land. The people are walking like a ticking time bomb waiting for any little fuel to ignite the internal flame. . The citizen stayed at home in an empty stomach to comply with the COVID-19 lock down order. The government wants her citizen safe from the virus. The citizen is threatened by hunger. A hungry man is an angry man. After the lock down, the organization laid off her workers. The hungry citizen are jobless. Anger is doubled. Officers of the Nigerian police force continued to be brutal. A joyful person could tolerate a certain percentage of pain. An angry person already feels pain. He seeks to eliminate the pain on the stomach and the pain of joblessness. He needs no physical pain from the local authorities. One little trigger was sufficient to ignite the pain he has been repressing. The youth protest began. It spread from police brutality to bad governance and then looting of warehouses.

Some Christians diverted their anger to God. They felt a sense of betrayal for not being protected from the massive job loss despite obeying all his commandment, rules and ritual. They felt used and dumped by the creator. Staying at home without going to church did not end their lives. So why bother going? A gradual loss of faith.

Others diverted their grievance to the clergy. Few church leaders launched an online platform for tithe collection. A hungry and jobless Christian threatened with eternal punishment for not paying tithe is the last thing an angry person expects from the religious leaders. Members expected the church to feed them the way Christ fed the five thousand. Their disappointment led them to swear not to go to that church again.

Anger like Joy, hunger, or sadness is neither good nor bad. It is an emotion to be felt. Anger can be a fuel for transforming one’s life. We need to be angry at our present circumstance before we can act to change them. Righteous anger is when we feel the pain of the oppressed and try to stop it. when we are angry, we feel it calmly to understand its source. Impatient anger could lead to violence or Hasty decision when we lash out instantly.

Righteous anger is speaking against the religious practice that is harmful or religious leaders that abuse their trust. Jesus vented his anger at the religious leaders in his time. He called them hypocrite. He scattered the moneymakers in the temple. He stated that his life mission is to free the captive. That includes those in religious bondage. He was not operating from hurt targeted at him. It was not a revenge mission. He was interested in uplifting humanity. Examine your anger holistically.

We hope 2021 would be better