A STORY TO TELL

Lamentations 3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

I could not ,but   ask  him. Why would he not encourage the boy to find his niche, why he keeps pushing him to football, why he thinks his son is missing it,why he thinks he has the best way for him and i know it will only be a repetition of the flood gate of answers i have always received, but i just can not stop asking the same question  :  "why do you want him to play football," You know he   has  a flair and interest   in  other things? the boy has shown interest from the time he was just a tiny tot. Why on earth would he have interest in that? of all the games and profession in the world how does it expect to go far with a profession like that? it is nothing, but a misnomer to call that a profession, i can not imagine my own son choosing such a ridiculous thing as a profession. That will keep him in the back burner while his peers go to become  him famous, will that bring food on our table and give us a good respite from all these struggles am facing round the clock?. My father failed to impress on me what to do and what line to follow ,but am not going to fail my son. he was still talking when my good old phone rang up and what a welcome distraction it was.
These days i have often watched  some of my peers in surprise take it upon themselves to led their kids and wards as to what they must do to make it in life. it does not matter the kind of interest the boy may   have developed, it does  not matter what the teachers says nor, the grades nor scores he may be making from such display of talents, no, he must follow their dream for him, which, is mainly one that will bring in the money in large sums and from a very youthful age. I live in an area where virtually all parents seems to go the same way for their kids: must play football and be the next Ronaldo or Messi.
Their sole desire is for the poor blighter to get in the big dollar and get it big and young, not when you are above thirty or even older. Today's mood is that of having it in your twenties and early thirties.  Do we choose to have it early and learn what life have to offer late? Do we forgo wisdom and understanding now and only to regret it later. Do we forgo endurance, patience, virtues and tolerance  only to choose to stand with the sinners and sit with the scorner? only to Crave for S virtues   later in life? Do we learn to run from infancy only to learn how to crawl when in our adulthood?  Do we despise biblical instructions  and write it off as a fairly tales for the not-too-smart-ones? We live in a generation that believe in instant gratification and rewards. A generation that believes in having all now and at a tender age . A generation that believes in less work and more money; get it now and flaunt it for all to see. The money wine and women must come before our thirties. Who the hell needs experience? As we grow older we want to learn from our mistakes as long as no one punishes us for the mistakes and the mistakes does not slow us down, but life, it seems, does not always answer us that way.
The truth in life is that it wants us to have a story to tell our children and wards. And this story is only told through our pain, lack, setback, suffering, deprivations grits and handwork. A man is so built to have an encounter and an experience  with these obstacles otherwise, his story is not complete: he is living while he is dead. A man lacking such can not say anything worthy of wisdom in old age: he is better left to remain in silence and oblivion while others speaks. Let us learn to embrace setbacks, deprivations even sometimes, incarcerations: they all make our Adulthood a better one. armed with these we can teach one or two lessons to our gran kids, if we have some. Our autobiography becomes a sell out, our stories always attracts the young and restless to sit and hear us relate them. Our autobiographies is only interesting because of our encounter with pain, gain, setbacks, promotions truth, lies, seeming failures and triumphs, betrayals and trusts. that is the beauty of aging gracefully, you have been there done that, you have seeing it all, by design or accidents, but you know better with this new age. you can predict even without being a prophet or having the gift of clairvoyance. Now you can make better choices even when suddenly awoken from sleep to make one. Most importantly, we just realize that God never left us in all this journey: he has always been there, making a way where they seems to be  no way- using the ashes from our pain to beautify us and to bring us closer where we can truly say like the psalmist, in Psalms 37:25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
Then we can truly experience lamentation 3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
Then we are not quick to ask the all too familiar question, 'why me lord? That we are all not gifted to be a millionaire in our twenties, we can rest assured we can still make our contribution to the betterment of our world if only we look inward- to our abilities . The conclusion  of the matter is, Proverbs 22:1 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold. At the end of the day, i would rather pick a book by a man who rose from the bottom and pass  it all, than one who inherited his millions. The former has a story the latter has none.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MYSELF.

Be seeing you,

 Pastor Godwin Guobadia writes from Amsterdam.