MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY!!!

Hello Beautiful People!

Y'all have been great, right?
I'm sure you have...

I just wanna share a lil' something with you...excerpts from a conversation i had with a friend a few nights ago...interesting stuff, i tell you.

She was telling me about a classmate of ours from University whom she recently reconnected with on Facebook. Back then in school, she was this really pretty, really tall girl that got married and started having kids in our first year or so. 

Now, that was a phenomenon i couldn't wrap my head around at the time. For crying out loud, i was 16 years old in first year and this girl would have either been my age or tops 2 years older. We were all a bunch of kids then. i just couldn't figure out how a girl that young would wanna get married. Back then, i was young, bright-eyed, curious, adventurous and ambitious(still am). It didn't make sense to be married then with so many opportunities, adventures and options littered everywhere ahead. So, i tried to explain it away and chucked it up to the traditional ibo culture where a young girl is married away to a wealthy old man.

My University years was the longest period i ever spent in the east even though that is my ethnicity. I am the stereotypical ibo girl born, bred and buttered in the city of Lagos so it was a huge culture shock to see and experience this way of living. 

Anyways, so a couple of nights ago, my friend was telling me that she found out our married classmate was widowed... apparently, her husband passed away about a year ago because she saw a memorial photo of him. i was deeply saddened by that information...for a host of reasons. First off, the obvious fact that she lost someone so dear to her which alone is a painful tragedy. But then again, i thought about her age. Wait a minute! so she's a widow at 30? Oh.Our.Collective.God!!!...yea, now she's got 4 kids to look after but...Sheesh! a widow at 30? Wow!!!

This conversation developed a hydra-head that led to so many other topics of discussion one of which was the good, acceptable/permissive and perfect will of God. You see, so many times in life we have craved, desired and obsessed about some-THING or some-ONE that we resort to arm twisting God to give us that which our heart pants for either through the means of prayer, fasting, sowing... or emotional blackmail/manipulations. The writer is not without guilt. I remember times when i threw temper tantrums at God because i wanted some guy and he didn't seem to want me back. I'm pretty sure God must have been looking down at me from the balcony of heaven, laughing and saying to Himself " See this brat o!".

Truth be told, we hardly stop and check to see if that thing we desire so much is actually God's "Perfect" will for us. I've heard so many stories of people that God restrained from getting what they wanted at the time and years later, they realize how God saved them from something. Let me share one with you.

Pastor Bimbo Odukoya of blessed memory was going to marry someone else whom she felt was more "spiritual" and "ministry inclined" than Pastor Taiwo Odukoya whom she eventually married because at the time, he had just gotten saved while she was already a pastor and into full time ministry. But God restrained her. Years later, she was counselling a woman in her office who was constantly battered by her husband...(i'm sure you already figured it out by now)... the Wife-Beater was none other than her former flame. As the woman walked out the door, God spoke to Pastor Bimbo saying "That could have been you!"... gasp!...the horror!

Now you ask me, how does this connect with my story at the beginning? Maybe it connects, maybe it doesn't... but we found out that the late husband of our classmate wasn't actually a wealthy old man...he was a very wealthy, very young man who was involved in a lot of shady businesses, contrary to my initial conclusion. Of course, we are not ones to say what truly happened...BUT what if..just what if she married him because of his money? What if that wasn't God's plan for her? What was the hurry? Could God's plan have possibly included becoming widowed at such a burgeoning age? Hmmm....
I obviously have a lot of questions that can't be answered but this one thing i know...

   "I know what i'm doing. I have it all planned out- plans to take care of you, 
          not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for"
                                                                                                 _ Jer. 29:11(MSG)

Don't you think its better to just take a chill pill and follow God? I know that sometimes it may seem like He's a little too slow for you... but hey... He knows what He's doing! And He's got the absolute best plans for you. Nothing you could wish for yourself can ever hold a candle to the thoughts that He thinks towards you. 

You've never lived this life before. You have no assurance of the next minute...just the one you're living in right now. Like they say, we don't know what tomorrow holds...but isn't it such a huge relief that we know the One who holds tomorrow?