After the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, the Almighty, out of anger, restructured the world and made it in such a way that before any thing can make sense it has to pass through the fiery furnace. “Nothing good comes easy”, became the order of Gods design and this was born out of anger. I imagine Him tell Adam “Since you saw beauty and preferred ashes, I will give you double of what you asked! “And in such, you cannot fault God.
Hear God’s proclamation, Adam because you have disobeyed me by eating the tree of life contrary to my injunction; you will till the ground under the hot sun to bring food on your table”. And to Eve he said; “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children”. I think this was the first time, the word pain surfaced. As far as God was concerned these punishments were not to last for months or years, rather they must rule man as long as his existence remains.
The serpent equally took a doze of his own punishment because God automatically stripped him of his legs and hands and declared that it was cursed forever more than any animal in the world Through your belly, you shall crawl all the days of your life”. God declared.
What a humiliation! One thing about God is that the word that goes out of his mouth does not return void, it must accomplish the purpose for which it was proclaimed and that has been the lot of man till date.
The pains begin even before birth. That is the reason the mother and the child both wail for the baby to see the world. As soon as he sets his eyes on the world, the unseen force he beholds makes him wail the more. The wailing is occasioned by the corruption he beholds or also if all he sees are goodies why wails at a beautiful sight? Of course beauties naturally attract smiles and laughter and not wailing. Right from the time of birth man’s struggle in life begin but one fundamental factor is that God’s grace is available for all who believe. As you toil and labour the good Lord is always waiting at the end of the tunnel to give you that which you desire. As you continue to believe and trust that you must see him at the end of the struggle you will see him because he has no business with failure.
One day while sharing this philosophy with someone, he asked me why God did not forgive Adam immediately; after all He is a good God. Well, in my own little understanding I made him to understand that it was God’s forgiveness that has kept the world in existence for surely He had the power to wipe the first couple Adam and Eve away because the sin they committed was a heavy one. It was the weight of their sin that changed a total wipe off of the world; the punishment He gave to Adam and Eve were lighter. But did God make the world in order to destroy it? I don’t really think so.
Amazingly, some people are living in a fool’s paradise thinking that issues of life are easy. Such human beings are not only lazy but full of greed. Others who understand that the only code to survival is through hard work coupled with God’s enabling grace are busy toiling day and night to make ends meet. This they do even without grudges, rather they earnestly look up to the heavens to crown their efforts with success and God in his infinite mercy have not failed them.
Contrary to this, the wicked ones are busy dissipating their energy on short cuts. Even the short cut route is not easy because you require energy and strength to pull through. So why not channel such energy on positive engagements? In the contemporary world, the making of a young man begins with good education. The reasonable ones begin early to pursue this course. This they do by taking their studies seriously even from primary schools till the tertiary institution. That hard work with all things being equal will see them to the top.
But the lazy ones have no business for studies. They prefer to move from one place to another in search of quick pleasure. That is why instead of engaging in meaningful ventures they prefer the vices that will ultimately land them in trouble. The man or woman who feels that carrying a gun will give him money should realize that even the courage to carry a gun comes at a cost – his life. I have never seen a thief who as he grows older invites friends and well wishers to a party to celebrate his retirement from the “noble” profession. The gift which such energy gives is a valueless one and that is why most people who got into robbery do not always go free. Many days may be for the thief but one day shall always be for the owner. That day for the owner usually marks the end for the thief. The thief may spend several times stealing from the owner but what loss the owner suffers do not land him in jail or get him killed. He surely will recover to tell the story. But the very day of the owner will jail the thief or have him killed. So why should one engage in a business that will definitely bring shame, disgrace and ultimate death one day. It is better to be a street beggar than to be a thief, the Igbo have always said.
Nigeria is crippled as regards the economy as a result of non- productivity borne out of the laziness of its citizens who prefer buttered bread to the heat of the baking of its process. The amazing thing is that while we indulge in laziness we still want to live in sky scrapers, ride on the moon and if possible pluck gold from the same moon. The process of getting to the moon requires energy. The issue is that some of us dissipate energy which unfortunately is channeled towards the wrong cause. Often times; I have asked what some civil servants do when they get to the office. As I have observed, some of them sit in all day long chatting till work time is over. Ask them what contributions they have made that day to the overall development of the economy, you will realize not totally unexpectedly that the score board is zero; worst still is the pronounced discovery that there are heaps and piles of files that are untreated yet such days have been wasted on frivolities.
Every lazy man should go to prov.6:6 where there is a big lesson to learn from a common ant Bui why will you wait for a common ant to be your teacher before you can learn? There is no food for a lazy man. As such you that will prefer to tie wrapper and sit down at home doing nothing, should you not rise and be on your feet? There can be no option to that because others are already gearing up to the challenges of making the day worth the while. The hard workers have slipped into their work clothes already and are sure to come back with great yield which is the result of their toil and of their hands and you who has done nothing today will sit down brooding all day. What will you eat this evening?
The book of Ecclesiastes has declared that there is time for everything. A time to plant and a time to pluck but what you should pluck is the one you have planted and not another person’s labour. It is actually laziness and lack of creative ability that lead one into plotting evil. The psalmist says: “Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight. There is enough battle to fight and conquer. Your ability to fight and fight well will free you from every entanglement of negativity.
As you read this piece, I want you to open your hands, look properly at those hands for there lies your destiny. You have great potentials deposited in those hands. You can rise today to discover those hidden treasures and effectively put them to use because that essentially is the reason God has blessed you with those talents. As our nation eagerly anticipates the messiah that will surely liberate us from the quagmires of destitution, corruption and bad leadership, who knows, you may actually be that long-awaited leader who shall put this country on the path of progress. As one of our country’s great writers once enthused in one of his titles, it is indeed morning yet on creation day. Arise from your self-inflicted stupor, destiny beckons, there should be no dull moments please.
