Now That I'm a Graduate...

Source: www.busigence.com

I'm glad. I'm happy. I'm elated. By God's grace and mercy, I have bagged my first degree. I can't forget the feeling of satisfaction that pervaded my heart the moment our University Chancellor uttered the sentence "I accept you into your first degree" and our Registrar said "You may turn your tassels." Two days after my graduation (convocation), reality has slowly began to dawn on me. From this time henceforth, I am on my own. It's every man for himself now.

From what I've observed and what I have been told, this life I am about to commence is made up of countless people running a rat race. However, if there's anything I have come to learn from school in the last four years, it is that people who are walking in the center of God's plan for their lives do not run a rat race; albeit, they are running the marathon race of life. The night before we were released as 'Eagles' (as the graduates from my school, Covenant University, are always referred to), our Chancellor gave us 5 Perspectives for an Ever-Winning Life. I'd like to share these perspectives with you guys, hoping that you learn from and imbibe them as part of your life. Whether you are just graduating, you have just graduated, you graduated long ago or you're still an undergraduate, these five perspectives will be important to you if you must live a fulfilled life, and make heaven. They are:

When the Trumpet Sounds

Something funny happened recently. At about 6:30 pm on Thursday, 27^th of March, the weather suddenly changed. The clouds became thicker than I have ever seen in a long time. They were extremely dark and seemed like it was going to rain heavily. I was out that day, walking back to my hostel when I heard a sound and then it was followed by people screaming. A fellow was walking at my back and he made a joke. He said that the trumpet just sounded. At that time, I looked up coincidentally trying to decide if I should continue my journey or look for shelter before the rain started pelting. My friend who was with me on the walk started laughing at me. He claimed I was scared I had missed the rapture, I found this funny so I started laughing with him. But frankly, it wasn’t funny. I started thinking: “what if that was actually the rapture? What if it actually happened?” I looked around me at that moment and I saw a large number of people walking around. I thought to myself: “what if all these people, all of us, had actually missed the rapture? What would life be like?”

They're Leaving God Out of Everything! (The God Omission by Tobi Ogunfusika -@cutendpetite)

When I got home last year after school for the Christmas break, I was watching TV one random day. We were flipping through channels trying to look for something entertaining to watch. We stumbled on African Magic and then for a few minutes we were watching the movie. I noticed that some words were censored and I remembered that they started censoring swear words and curse words a while back and I shrugged my head and continued watching the movie. Something very interesting happened there and then, I noticed that the actress whose present words were being censored wasn’t cursing or saying anything wrong, she was not even angry or pissed with anybody in the movie. She was shocked and she said “Jesus” and after a while she said “oh My God”. It was so hard to read her lips considering the fact that it was a Nollywood movie and those words are the usual things we expect when a situation like that comes up in the course of watching a Nigerian movie.

Praying to a God I Don't Trust

So I woke up this morning to the darkness of my room. The darkness that has characterized my life for quite a while now. I stared into nothingness for a while before turning on to my right side to stare at the wall I could not see. Immediately, my brain alerted me that it was time to pray. I sighed. Not again. But by reflex I got up, put my t-shirt on and stepped outside to the corridor and before I could say Jack Robinson, my personal prayer session had begun. I knew I didn't want to but I just felt I should. I had no reason to, I thought. I'm tired of doing this every morning and still nothing has changed. Last I checked, none of my prayers had been answered. Could it be that all this was just fake? That religion is all but a blatant lie? I mean, I had read somewhere that someone said that religion is just man's excuse to explain what he can't comprehend. Nevertheless, I had this scratching feeling deep down that I should banish that thought.

THE TEST OF FAITH

People are funny. When all is going fine, they are absolutely in love with God. The moment something negative come their way they begin to doubt God’s credibility and question His goodness. I can say this because I once was like that. Few years ago, I would blame God for all my demise because I felt it was His responsibility to see that nothing goes wrong with me and that all works out well perfectly. I never once considered the fact that God knew what He was doing. Every time something bad happened to me (especially financially) I would quote the Bible and ask God why He did not “provide for my needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus”. This used to be my own major attack point. I was not wise enough to understand the rules of life.

Lost- A Poem by Ibukun Awosika (@Aunty_Hotstuff)

I'm lost,

Not the kind I used to be;

Lost and hopeless,

My future bleak.

Blinded by the world's lusts,

Sinful desires; my everyday muse.

Torn between light and dark,

The dark taking over.

I could not see it,

I did not know.

Ignorance lay in bed with me at night,

Regrets sat at the table with me by day.

I was lost and I didn't even know it.

Let's Talk About The Conscience...Your Conscience

I heard the story of a married couple who lived somewhere in town (obviously). They trusted each other so much. They had 2 cars and both of them possessed keys to the 2 cars. So one day the wife was driving by a hotel- a very notorious hotel.- and she saw her husband's car. That hotel was so notorious that anyone who lodged in did so to commit wrong. That's how bad it was. So the wife drove home, took a cab, came back to the hotel. Then she drove her husbands car and went on to hide it somewhere. When the husband returned late in the night her lied that he was involved in a robbery attack and his car was snatched. Unknown to him was that his wife knew the whole truth. He was cheating on her. His wife just pulled him by the nose and showed him where she had hid the car. He felt so ashamed and embarrassed. That's the world as we have it today. People lack good moral compass and their consciences are weak or even dead.

One More Thing To Note About Porn Addiction

While in my prayer time, I was mulling over the series I started on 'How to Overcome Porn Addiction' and the Holy Spirit reminded me of the most vital step towards recovering from this addiction. Earlier in the day I had seen two different videos on this topic as a form of research and in order to improve my content. What I noticed is that I have neglected the most important step. This step trumps any of the 7 steps to recovery and it is quite easy to remember. It is that you can never achieve freedom without understanding the place of Christ and the Grace He provides us.

Furthermore, the comment on the most recent step made me realize this. We can never achieve freedom from the addiction to porn if we do not even understand that it was what Christ died for. Christ died to set us free from the works of Satan and and sin. Pornography is still just the same sin as lying. There's no need to sugar-coat it. God sees the liar, the murderer, the adulterer and the porn addict as all the same: sinners. but the good thing is that God doesn't condemn them. He loves them as much as He loves those who are already sin-free.

LET'S TALK ABOUT INTEGRITY

This topic of integrity is one topic that we definitely do not hear much about anymore or so it seems. This morning in our university chapel, our Pro-Chancellor talked about it. Listening to him made me realize how much of this virtue we are lacking nowadays. Few people can actually stand as persons of integrity when we look at it in the real sense of what that word means. And please don't tell me that it is hard to judge a book by it's cover, it ain't. In this present times it has become a norm for people to tell lies and cover up the evil happening around them. It's so sad. Furthermore, integrity should not be limited by situation. This means that holding on to your integrity should not be as occasion serves you. Rather, it should be constant. Integrity should be embedded in your personality and not your actions.
In case you have doubts on what integrity is, let me give you some definitions of integrity:

IS RELIGION KILLING US?

I AM ANGRY! I AM PISSED OFF! I am disappointed that I didn’t realize this earlier. Our religiosity is killing us. We have put too much emphasis on fate, the supernatural, predestination and all that stuff and we have forgotten that whatever becomes of us is ultimately determined by what we do.

I do not deny the impact that the unknown has on life but rather, I believe that the reason some people are where they are- in the dust- is because they have left too much to religious beliefs...