​Rooster in the Shadows

Here’s  a poem from a while back when despair dealt me some. Anytime I read this, I’m reminded that just as the night seemed darkest, dawn is announced! 

Enjoy! 

About the time I took a peek

At the pitch dark wonder; so bleak

Of the mystery shielding the morning after

And what lurked behind in the greyish scatter

Just as a prelude to the Sun’s shine

The feeling of despair was mine.

Yes, mine it was, I’ll tell you.

I was to be in a state of ‘so fly’

Dreaming and recuperating

Totally oblivious to what was happening

But here I was, breaking nature’s code

And taking up this unfamiliar nature; the nocturnal mode.

It’s true; I had so much to do

I’d set my watch to suit me too

And right there in the deeply shadowed darkness

A mixture of cold foggy despair and starkness

Hit me like a bumpless beam

Happening without the slightest seam

And I recognised the frailty written into my body’s program, all miry bloody.

Without announcing, my soul began to sink

Stealthily into the reality rising slowly to the brink

That this uncanny night would last forever

And my forlorn state will never ebb, ever

It’s what and how my eyes saw, really

All my senses bore witness to the loud silence, ever so eerie.

As I could begin to taste bitter surrender to irrelevance

My eyes, in perhaps the final attempt to seek deliverance

Caught a movement beneath my calf

Fear initially sought to tear me in half

But Reason made me wait and seek to know

What assailed my perpetual misery flow

With a fluster and a disruption of my self-acclaimed final blows

A rooster leapt from its keep, the shadows

And proceeded in its life-long task of keeping time

And making a loud proclamation bereft of a mime.

So, I chided my faithless self, in this forsaken place

Which I created for myself in my face

Lay a little thing, maybe minute

That could come and excise my self-imposed pity right to the root

Though the night seemed so dreary

And nothing seemed to make me cheery

Just as darkness seemed to deal the last of its blows

Leapt a rooster from the shadows

Ready to proclaim a new dawn

And yes, misery’s sordid-tie lies undone!

‘But at midnight, there was a cry … ‘ (Matt 25:6 ASV)

​Some things I wish I knew when I was younger.

Sometimes this week, God added another year to my life and for this, I am so grateful. I am not just happy that I am getting closer to being a senior citizen but I am happy that with every breaking dawn, another opportunity is given me by God to become more like Him and further represent him. I look back over the years, how short it has been and I see so many mistakes I had made and pitfalls I’d fallen into. But I am so blessed to see more than that. I see the victories and the triumphs. And for this, my heart is exultant and joyous. I am so blessed!
However, there are a few things I wished my younger self knew and paid attention to as I grew up. I am coming to know with each passing moment that the slip-ups and blunders are not to my destruction but to my rising. As Chingtok Ishaku once said “Every other day before the Day is in preparation for the Day and thus, not in vain. The time spent waiting is a worthy time adding up to our accuracy. In little mistakes, we might learn that solid food is for the mature that by the reason of use have their senses made accurately.  God doesn’t discard our mistakes but uses them to teach us maturity. On the day of the Lord, ONLY mature men will stand with Him.” But if I had the opportunity to engage my younger self and share a few life lessons with him, here are a few things I’d have loved Will Remi to know when he was younger. I have found out that these lessons are vital for everyone.

1. As much as your earthly father loves and adores you, he is an earthly representation of the real Father: God. So, trust God; He is your Father. Chris Tomlin’s song Good Good Father is a song that describes this relationship. He is perfect and just. And He deeply loves you. Jesus said earthly fathers attempt not to default in performing their duties in providing for their children and so, God, who is much more the heavenly Father makes good of His Fatherhood and looks out for His own (Matt. 7:9). So, surrender without caution to Him. Chris Delvan’s song, Guiding Me Safely paints a vivid picture of how God sees his children and guides them in the Way.

2. Salvation (of the spirit) is where our walk with God attains a significant start in the life-long process of salvation (of the soul). The words of Jesus Christ in Luke 21:19 say “by patience, possess ye your souls. (KJV) So, be patient. It is the only way that wants can be sufficiently met. “But let the patience have its perfect work and make you perfect that you may be perfect and complete wanting nothing.” James 1:4 (KJV). The Bible further says that it is only by patience that God’s promises can be inherited (Heb. 2:12). And, trust me, if you know the promises, you will do everything to get them: they are always good! (Jer. 29:11)

3. Have you ever wondered why God did not take us up to heaven immediately after we got born again? I have. In fact, I have attempted to “rapture” myself from this sinful world severally by closing my eyes and jumping up! But I remained here, in the world. Why? Because the world is the game turf; the arena on which I compete as an athlete (1Cor.9:24). It is also the battleground on which I am not concerned with civilian affairs but with pleasing my commanding officer (2Tim.2:4). And all the people we meet and interact with are actually what make up the world. Jesus prayed in the Garden that we should not be taken from the world but be kept from the evil in the world (John 17:15). So, as God has His own people in the world too, take advantage of godly relationships around you. God places solitaries in families (Ps 68:6). The families are not just the physical ones but also the spiritual ones: people that share the same Blood with you, so, take advantage of the good relationships around you. God placed them there to keep you safe. As my pastor, Busuyi Olabode of Eternal Life Embassy says, “The essence of the light is to guide our walk. Don’t hedge corruption… expose it, let the light shine on it.” Do not run from the light, run towards it.

4. O’Tunmise Ajani’s song, Jolly (Safe in His Hands) always reminds me that I am safe in His hands. So, do not fear; He’s got you. He sings over you songs of love and deliverance and holds you within the hollows of His hands, cradling you to his chest. Fear, as I said in Conversations with Jeff, most times is the default reaction we have to live. But He has rather given us the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind (2Tim 1:7). God’s word severally states in simple terms “do not fear”.

5. Live every day with a decision to live with and for God. As Hillsong Y&F’s This is Living always suggests to me, God is colorful, spontaneous, deliberate, and a lot of fun. Be ready for an adventure with God; He is not boring. The Psalmist says He owns cattle on a thousand hills(Psalm 50:10). Most people use that verse to describe God’s riches but I also from this see Him as a rancher. And doesn’t that thought greatly suggest adventure!

6. LivelyMusic sang in their 2013 album, I Believe “Truth has taken its turn over evil…we now sing ‘salvation to our God.” Jesus came to set the work of truth in motion and by that, He abolished the Law that had hitherto ruled tyrannically and its default condemnation (John 1:17). So, no matter what happens, truth prevails always! This is not just about a disagreement or an argument. But also about how and what you think and intend to do. Truth has a way of coming out as the standard of reasoning and of life.

These points have come to be cardinal points in my life processes and I wish I had known them when I was younger. It is better late than never, they say, and as much as I would recommend this post to the younger me, in the same breath, I commend it to me presently and those who believe God did all He did in Christ thinking particularly about them.