I woke up today and there was my scale calling.
I ascended and descended disappointed; how
Come good things make you gross? How come
Fat piles so fast yet melts so slow? And age seems
To have picked some personal vendetta against
Me lately, it has been working overtime, rumpling
My face, sagging my skin: acutely annoying!
The blades of time are scraping my hair,
Patronizing features I wish would nicely disappear,
Postponing dreams that are steering now toward
Desperation, and I am so so saddened that even
Good intention messed my manicure when I tried
To save my pedicure – all to waste, all to my waist
Not fair! Terribly unhappy about these unpleasant
Affairs, my eyes nearly popped out as I watched
Her drop, the gorgeous one I think had it all, still
Looking as hot as I wish, but lying cold and dead
Nonetheless: then I had a rethink and returned
Repentant: never to grey my hairs over small stuffs
Life is more than fats and oil; true life goes beyond
Gyms and dreams, tells nobler truths than scales
And holds better hopes than a body that sizzles
One minute and cold the next: life is more than me
Plus my worries and fancies. Living is for purpose
Life on earth is for a reason, for just a season.
© Glory C. Odemene, 2015

Early in the week, I attended the service of songs organized by the family of a colleague who passed away recently. He was a cool, vibrant guy, with a young family and flourishing career. Like every one of us, he so wanted to live! But no, that choice wasn’t his to make. He had to go and here we are alive, fretting over weight and hair gains and losses. He left behind family and friends who loved him dearly, who also prayed for him to live. Another no, that wasn’t their choice to make. He took no one and nothing with him as he progressed into eternity. And that, we often forget, is the lot of one and all: with nothing we came into this world. When departure time arrives, all our striving and savings will be left behind.

As I observed his grieving wife, his mournful siblings, and his children, one of whom is still too young to understand the impact of the loss, I wondered, “He could have stayed back and taken care of these; at least, until the little one is grown enough; at least, bury his parents; at least. . . .” Is there ever a right time to die? Any wonder that decision is not left to us. Much as I don’t dispute the claims to live for as long as you want, I have seen the young and old die, rich and poor also. I have seen the dying recover and the healthy slump. I have seen those upon whom death was awaited survive and those preferred, taken when least expected. The good and the bad, all go the same way.

I don’t like attending funerals because they trigger memories in me that are better left alone but I had to go pay my last respect and I took a few things away from that service: there are no guarantees in life. Tomorrows are promises but the wise live in constant readiness because death rarely sends alert. It just blows in and blows out and that is the end of the story. How should we then live?

We should find and live the true purpose of life. Every life has a purpose and it is only when we walk the path of that purpose in Christ that death loses its sting and victory. Outside that, the thought of dying is scary and death, a big loss to all affected. I learned that you cannot live some aspects of life and put others on hold, for the future. Why? There are no guarantees for the future. Who says you will be there or that things will be more convenient? We have watched global conditions grow more complicated as years go by. How can you, seeing that, wait for a better time? There will be no better time than now. Some call that hope but that is a false hope. I am yet to see anyone helped or saved by false hopes, popular as they appear.

True hope does not deceive. It rather empowers us with what we need to thrive irrespective of conditions. Hope doesn’t say disaster will cease and world peace will become the order of the day – that is deception. True hope declares that though you may have to walk through the valley of shadow of death, you don’t have to be afraid because you will not be walking alone. The One walking with you is greater than the one raving out there. True hope doesn’t claim that your life will be better because evil will cease. It affirms that you can make the best of bad weathers, that you can shine brighter though it grows darker. It does not promise the end of troubles. Instead, it lights the way out of dilemmas.

Yes, that is the message of hope: there is a way though there appears to be none right now. It encourages you to keep looking because there is a way out, and to keep giving your best because there is a way up. Hope says though what you dread persist, don’t give up. Not because of the certainty of its disappearance but because there are many ways out one of which is that you may acquire the abilities to live above and beyond it: it will lose its hold and power over you. You will grow stronger and turn out the overcomer. Hope does not preach escapism. It teaches ever increasing faith that conquers all.

Another take away from that encounter is the true purpose of life, which I understand is ministry. I grew through times when ministry meant turning your back on all worldly activities and dedicating yourself to serving God through church or missionary works. Some zealous fellows have thrown out opportunities for development and gone those ways only to realize that churches and missions have criteria for selection; that rejection and dejection are also active in that location; that serving God is no escape from the challenges of life. What disappointment?

Well, I was leaning in that direction too until God taught me that ministry is not affiliated or limited to a church or mission field. Ministry is service – finding what God wants you to do and engaging the gift of every new day that life offers you, to give all you can. That makes ministry a very limitless profession such that I could understand why we would all have to stand before God, to account for every moment spent wishing, waiting, or serving.

It dawned that God will not be requiring you and me to account for things that were not committed to us. God will not be requesting from my deceased colleague, how his children turns out ten years to come. No, He will require how the times he had with them were spent. Every moment spent, not what was saved for the future, and that is what majority are lost doing; saving for the future while today wastes away.

If you are married, your husband is your ministry. If you have children, your children are your ministry also. If you are working, your ministry is with your colleagues and those you come in contact with while executing your duties. Whoever you are, wherever you are, your ministry is not in the place you plan to relocate to. It is to those around you right now. At every point in time, your ministry is with those that God leads your way; not those you plan or hope to meet. Your ministry is not at the ends of the earth. You don’t have to go abroad to minister. Your ministry is right where you are, with what you have, to those around. And at whatever point death comes, God will not be asking about your lofty hope and far fetched plans. He will be requiring account of your stewardship, up to the point of your return.

That reminds me of Paul’s exhortation,
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12: 1. (NKJV)

Presenting our bodies to God, a sacrifice that is alive not dead, unblemished not rotting, and pleasing, is not only our reasonable sacrifice. It is also our daily and most noble calling. Wherever we are, we approach every service as to God, and we give it alive and well, not halfheartedly or grudgingly. Any wonder we are encouraged to do everything as unto the Lord: and whatever we do, to whosoever in His name, we do to and for Him.

The second part is similar:
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2. (NKJV)

The world has formulas one of which is to wait for the right time and in the process often miss it. Believers go for the God time. Whenever God stirs you is the right time. Every day that life wakes you up in the morning is the right time to do what you have to do. Not tomorrow when things get better. Not in the future when you have more time and your effort will be more appreciated. No! It is right now. You watch out for God and wherever He leads, you follow in the now. Not tomorrow. Not later. Not when it is convenient. Not when things improve. Right now is the time to serve God through the lives of those He has surrounded you with. That is your ministry, that is my ministry, that is our ministry. Every other is secondary, every other is just a means to the primary thing: service to God through those He places in our paths.

I remember growing up, my dad always asked, “How can you claim you love God whom you don’t see when you can’t stand your brother or sister that you see?” It turned out that was God’s Word, not just my dad’s. Unfortunately, those close to us are often despised or mistreated as we seek to minister to the world. Husbands take their wives for granted. Wives forsake families. Parents ignore children to focus more on what they assume will enable them save more to afford the neglected, better lives in future. Children disrespect parents today hoping to change tomorrow. Our quest for better life in the future is robbing us quality experiences in the present. We are all hoping to be better people tomorrow but the focus of this message is to wake you up: tomorrow is not guaranteed my friend.

All you have is today. Do whatever you have to do now, not the next minute. No more procrastination. Enough of postponements. My mum would say, “What you have to do, do quick!” Now is all you have. If you get the next minute, the next day, the next week, the next month, the next year and more, be grateful: they are but bonuses. Life is not an entitlement: life is rather a gift, every day a bonus.

I don’t mean to offend those who want to live for as long as they want to on earth. Wishes and dreams are okay but turning them into what they ought not to be leads only to deception. Such false hope encourages you to cultivate a slumberous lifestyle, confident in your assumption, that you have plenty of time. Those are the ones that death devastates because it comes unawares and they are far from ready. They are fighting and clawing to live because they have deferred too much in false hope. But those who know that no one knows the time, that God has a purpose for our lives, as well as the right to call us home anytime, live everyday as if it is their last.

I remember Keith Green, Myles Munroe, and their crew. I remember Bimbo Odukoya, and a couple of orders whose departure were labelled untimely. Who are we to put up such tags? Like God was asleep when it happened? Like He was taken unawares? Death struck before God realized it? Ha! It may be untimely to you and me because of our limitedness but God does not suffer from such. God is not shortsighted. He is never taken by surprise, not by anyone or anything.

Not a pin drops without His permission. If He watches over flowers and sparrows that are here today and tomorrow no more, how much more those who are fashioned in His image, crafted after His likeness? We miss it when we imagine God is likely to miss the beat like you and me. Nothing in heaven, on earth, and beneath, happens behind His back.

He has definite plans, which are neither hurriedly concocted nor are they subject to human whims and fancies. Before time began, He had everything laid out, each scheduled as it should go. He is not running helter skelter trying to keep the world under control. He is not prancing about, sweating it out to keep the earth spinning, the world going. No! He laid the foundations of the earth before time began and set everything in its right order. God finished His work long before you and I emerged on the scene. He has been and will continue in His rest. He is not like you and me that run back and forth, switching and changing to meet conditions. No, from eternity, His plans are established. Forever, He remains the same; unchanging, unflinching, unfailing.

As Jesus said concerning His second coming, so also I exhort us: no one knows the hour. The earlier we embraced this truth, the better we will live, discharging our duty wherever He calls, whenever He sends, however He wills. Like my God mother would say, “Obedience is perishable.” When God gives you life, use it. When day wakes you up, live it. When duty calls, don’t shy away. Ministry is not something waiting to happen. It is not a life you will live someday. Ministry is today; right where you are, with what you have, to those around you. I pray that when your time comes, you will be smiling home to the Father’s commendation, “Welcome Home thou good and faithful servant.” That is my desire in all I seek, in all I do, so help me God, amen.

Glory!