The picture on the left is of my son on my knees, Olu-funsho (I love to call him Funshito). Whenever I return from work, and I'm welcomed by his toothless smile, my heart leaps for joy and every hard time I've had in the day just evaporates. Just today I listened to something a respected worship leader said. He said, and let me try and paraphrase, Help us Lord not to cringe away when You raise Your hand thinking You want to hit us but help us see that You want to put Your arms around us. When I heard this, my heart leaped in me because I have been meditating on the fatherhood of God.

We are so quick to assume God is the strict disciplinarian who flares into a rage every time we do something bad. We think He's like our earthly fathers that exude fear. I don't know about you but when I was growing up I remember that anytime my dad returned from work, we all ran for cover. We only welcomed him and then we all went into hiding. Interestingly we all think our Heavenly Father is like that.

Before you jump to the other end of the ditch, let me first state that God's love does not give room to loose living and God will always punish sin but God is not quick to punish. He does not like to clobber His own. He doesn't delight in our suffering. Why do you think the "prodigal" son was not even chastised by his father? Was it because he had done all things well? Definitely not!

We must break away from the African mentality that sees fathers as fire-breathing dragons that would eat us up at the slightest appearance and enter the culture of God's kingdom that encourages cordial relationship between God, our Father and we his sons. Our experiences with our earthly fathers have shaped our thinking and made us so afraid to approach our Father when we miss it. That shouldn't be. Where else should we go when we miss it and make a mess of things? Into the arms of our dear loving Father, who will chastise us BUT in love.

'nuff said!

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NEGLIGENT DRIVER

August 3rd, 2007 began as it usually does for my family- wake up, bathe the baby, take our baths, get dressed and leave for church. The difference this time was that we would be going to church in our car, with me on the wheels (I'm grinning from ear to ear).

We got ready and soon we were in the car, my (beautiful) wife Mojisola, our chubby baby boy, Olu-funsho and I. We had to buy fuel and pick a friend, who happens to be my instructor and a member of our church along the way, so the real test of my driving had not really started. When we had picked him and bought fuel, we started the next phase of our journey to Gbagada, where our church is located.

Being very new at driving on the roads of Nigeria, I had to drive slowly and carefully so while other drivers are speeding off, I'm just crawling along, with my Learner's Certificate, obvious to the all the other road users. Are you wandering what the certificate is? You must have guessed by now, right?

Well the distance between me and the car ahead of me was about a hundred metres so there was enough room for a policeman to stop right in front of me and wave me down. I must tell you that I donot like Nigerian policemen, even though I have an uncle who's an ASP in Osun State. Well I had to stop, didn't I? At least here's a representative of the law asking me to pull over. I pulled over to my right and stopped. Then the policeman asked for my vehicle insurance. I was wondering what his business with that was but I reached into the glove compartment of the car and pulled out the photocopies of my vehicle particulars.

At this point I would like to back up to about twenty hours before this time (about 7.30 in the morning), where my friend/instructor showed me that the declaration for change of ownership document I had was not signed by the declarant, in this case me. I had asked someone to help me sort out the vehicle particulars and he had left the part where I was supposed to sign empty. My friend/instructor had told me to sign the document, because the Police had stopped him too on Friday on the same issue. Well, to cut a long story short, I forgot to sign the document.

So lets fast foward to Sunday, 7.30am at Bolade junction, Oshodi Expressway. As I pulled the particulars out, it was opened to the part where the declarator's signature was supposed to be. The policeman, since most of them are looking for something to implicate drivers with, spotted it at once. I knew there was trouble immediately. After a lot of pleading from my end, he got into my car and asked me to drive to the police station. We never got into the police station and after much pleading (and another 15 minutes), I parted with three hundred naira!

However that isn't my point. When we got to church, I made a comment. "Maybe," I said "it was because we didn't pray well in the morning that we got into the qualms with the police?" My wife immediately rebuked me. She told me it was my NEGLIGENCE that caused the episode. I immediately repented. As I meditated on what happened, it occurred to me that many times we are negligent in doing the right things and we expect God to just supernaturally cover up for our negligence.(Right now I have decided to watch out for areas of my life where I need to be more careful and diligent).

It is clear from scripture that God only assists us in our WEAKNESS not our NEGLIGENCE. It is interesting that many of the believers of today think like I do. We leave out the things we should do and expect the divine to just make up for us. The truth is that when we are negligent, we will pay for our errors. God, in His mercy, can come in but when we are negligent, we open ourselves to harrasment from opportunists. When we are negligent, the devil has a case against us and we can only appeal to God's mercy when judgement comes.

Remember, if you break the hedge, the serpent will bite.

'nuff said.

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Expand, Extend, Enlarge

On Wednesday, August 1st, I did something I had always dreamed of doing: I drove in Lagos traffic! For many of you reading this, you probably don't think its a big deal. But when you consider that I am close to thirty years old, own a car and haven't been able to put it on the road for more than two months now, simply because I don't know how to drive, then you may begin to appreciate my breakthrough.

The question I asked myself, as I hit the Agege Motor Road was this, "Why has it taken me so long to do this?" It was a question that I knew the answers to even before I asked. I wasn't daring enough and I must say that it was not that I had not tried to learn to drive but I had received a lot of setbacks that have made that area of my life a no-go area. As I told one of my friends of this landmark achievement in my life, she expressed some alarm, knowing the madness of Lagos traffic and wondering how I coped. At this point what came to my mind was how driving in Lagos is very much like going through this life.

One of the things that scare many budding drivers from hitting the road in Lagos is the fear of failing in the sight of everyone and that phobia had simply stopped me from putting my car on the road. For many of us in this life, we are so scared of falling face flat in the sight of people. Not knowing what their reactions would be, we don't want to do what we really love to do.

I read a letter recently that highlighted the major difference between the generation of Israel that entered the Promised land and the one that dies in the wilderness. One always waited till God parted the Red Sea before they moved while the other stepped into the Jordan WHILE it was flooded. This marked the difference in their experiences and ultimate destinations and this same attitude has put a dividing line between those that make any impact in life and those that don't.

Now is the time for you to expand, extend and enlarge your horizon. Many times what limits us is nothing but our minds, our perception of events, our projections of possibilities or impossibilities. We focus so much on what mistakes we would make if we step out into new grounds, how people will react to our actions, the limitations and challenges we will experience on our journey into the new position we want to move into and so on. The truth is most of these challenges and responses from people will be there whether we move or don't move so why do we keep stalling? I heard from one person a few years ago and it has stuck with me. He said, talking about the church he pastors, "We are on a sliding platform trying to hit a moving target so we require a high level of accuracy and must live on the cutting edge."

I have discovered that man can do impossible things when under pressure to perform. It is obvious that we all need pressure but the issue is where will the pressure come from? You can wait for it to come from circumstances (and I guarantee that wont be pleasurable) or create the pressure around yourself. I'll go for the other option any day. So how do you put pressure on yourself to get out of that comfort zone into a better place?

One thing you can do is learn something new. How to play a musical instrument, how to ride a bike, a new computer program, speaking before a crowd or just think of something new. Another thing that you can do is meet new people, go to places you've never been to, watch a movie you haven't watched before. Then you can research into topics you've never read about or even improve your knowledge on the ones you think you already have grasped. Use the internet, use libraries, read books, talk to experts. Whatever you do, expand your context and update your content.

Here's another thing you can do, dream. Take some time out of your very busy schedule and ist in an open field and just enjoy the scenery. Or you could go to a mall and just lounge. Stretch your imagination to limits beyond you.

Now is the time to expand your capacity, extend your reach and enlarge your vision. if you don't its likely you'll be here reading this same post in 2012. I hope not.

'nuff said!

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