the musings of this nigerian gal

I’ve had this post idea for a long while, and yet, for the life of me, I just couldn’t bring myself to write.

In between NYSC and another job of mine, I am almost always frazzled out. So much so that when faced with choosing between writing or escaping into a novel, escape always win. The Holy Spirit has been at me to just start but sheesh, it was just so hard. Until he finally sent somebody to subtly yab me.

And so, here I am.

Now, the inspiration behind this post came to me when my roommate was watching this movie. It was about a kid who wanted to kill his father because the man is an abusive man who beats him and his mother. What broke the camel’s back however was when the father wanted the mother to abort the baby in her stomach.

However that wasn’t what inspired this post. What caused me to crave my pen with vengeance was when I was discussing the movie with my roommate and I was like both parents were also in the wrong. I do not support the vengeful spirit of the guy, but for the man to buy pizza and suya and just expect the guy to forget the times he had broken his bones? That is delirious And when the kid confronted the mom that how could she just accept the man back, she was like shut up, you don’t understand, blah blah blah.

My roommate was supporting the standpoint of the mother that the boy does not understand. Me on the other hand was like, what the father needs to do is to apologize to the son for all the things he has done to him and his mother. My roommate looked at me incredulously and was like how can the father apologize?

All my explanation didn’t make her understand, because to her it was not normal. A Nigerian father apologizing for all his vices was like expecting a white Christmas in ever state in Nigeria. To that I replied, “just because it is normal does not make it right.”

Now this is the thing, most of us have gotten used to a certain kind of normal, it doesn’t occur to us to take a closer look.

By the law of general consensus, what is normal has become right to us.

But what does Jesus have to say about it?

I’ll use the example of where the Pharisees asked him about divorce. They were all like since everyone has been going along with it since the time of Moses, God must be cool with it.  But what did Jesus say? It was not so in the beginning.

As children of God, our stance on a matter should not be if it is a norm but rather what God says about it.

You might ask, “how do we know God’s heart on every matter?”

First of all, he has given us his word. Trust me when I say you can find the answers to all your questions there.

Secondly, he gave us the Holy Spirit.

First John says, “but you have the anointing and you know all things.”

Paul also told us that the Spirit of God knows the heart of God.

If we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus on earth, our perception of right and wrong needs to be recalibrated.

Recently, a man of God told me that if you look at the letters to the churches in Revelation, Jesus response was always same: “repent.”

Repentance — as used in the Bible — is a call to change your mind, to make a 360 degree turn in the way of thinking.

This is why Romans 12 says that the only way we can prove the good, perfect will of God is by renewing our minds.

So yeah, just because it is the norm doesn’t mean you should be okay with it.

God calls us to shine his light — and truth — not blend in with darkness.