I was recently given some money to buy a car. With a little addition of ‘shikini money’ from my own pocket, I could have bought a nice, head turning Camry or another affordable SUV, but I told my wife, “I’m not going to spend more than this……(amount)……on a car at this moment of my life.”
Getting to the auto market, I discovered that my pegged figure could only buy a small, run-of-the-mill vehicles like Micra and other kinds of vehicles you wouldn’t expect someone like ‘me’ to drive. But I told my wife, and mechanic, ‘Kini big deal in driving a Micra. I’ll buy one if I can’t find any other car within my predetermined range.”
When my mechanic and I stopped at the Auto Mart to price some neat Micras that were on display, the fellow said to me, “Sir, you’re not serious about buying this car. Are you? This car is too small for you sir! How can someone who has been driving this kind of SUV go and buy something like this?!” He said it all in Yoruba, which made it even more dramatic.
But, like Paul said in Acts 20:24 “None of these things move me…..” And, I also subscribe to his words in Philippians 4:12-13, “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me.”
I honestly don’t count this flesh that important, concerning what to wear, what to drive or where to live. For me, of utmost importance is WHAT TO EAT and DRINK (within the confines of daily existential necessities), GOOD SCHOOLS (not necessarily popular and classy ones) for my children, and a NICE HOME in a SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD for my family. That’s all! I have a deep aversion for the idiocy called ‘Class.’ And, I’m further miffed by Christians who subscribe to such arrant nonsense, and even preach it on pulpits. We’re nothing but what GOD has made us, and we have nothing other than what He has given us. If He’s blessed, or allowed you to have good, luxurious things, don’t ever think you’re better or higher than anyone just because of those ‘perishables’ you possess. O no! JESUS said that our lives do not consist in the abundance of our possessions.
Many things we’ve been taught in ‘church’ about prosperity are dead wrong! We’re NOT blessed/prospered for ourselves! O no! Essentially, we’re BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING TO OTHERS! You’re NOT blessed to consume it on your lust for cars, jewelries, travels, tours, mansions, and all the other nonsense you’ve been ‘pumped’ with by lascivious preachers of accumulations and greed. O no! If you think you’re ‘somebody’ because of your position, possessions and pocket size, you’re very dull upstairs and know nothing about JESUS CHRIST, Who left ALL to live with mere mortals on earth.
Finally, like my mom, and zillions of human beings down history, you will die! When you die, people you know not will bath you, see your naked butt and all the other things that make you think you’re ‘somebody.’ In certain cases, we’ve heard reports of some unscrupulous mortuary keepers sleeping with beautiful lady corpses, saying, “Sebi, when you were alive you wouldn’t go out with someone like me! Am I not on top of you now?!!!” Point is, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: DO NOT THINK OF YOURSELF MORE HIGHLY THAN YOU OUGHT, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith GOD has distributed to each of you.” – Romans 12:3.
GOD, seeing my heart, that I counted myself as ‘nothing’, right where we were to price the Micra, showed us another car (bigger, better and more befitting, and with AC too) that was even cheaper than some Micras I’d priced elsewhere. I can say that GOD gave me a better bargain than I had envisaged. I conclude with what Pastor Yinka Ojo said at our convention some 4 to 5 years ago. He said, thanking my pastor and the church for the accommodation secured for him, “Thank you sir for the lovely accommodation you’ve put us in. This is one of the finest hotels I’ve been lodged in. It’s during times, and in places, like this, that GOD compensates us for the other places we’ve had to sleep on benches and other hard surfaces when we’ve gone on missions.”
There are ‘ministers’ who can’t sleep on benches for JESUS, who would upgrade themselves from single rooms booked for them to deluxe suites, (at the expense of their hosts, without telling them o) because they serve a ‘Big God’, and they have minimum ‘standard.’ ‘Awon carnal men/women of their own stomachs lasanlasan. Shio!’ Whatever GOD has done in, through, and for you, in the secular or spiritual, remain SMALL/HUMBLE in your own eyes, and NEVER exalt yourself in any man-made class, especially if you call yourself a Christian.
JESUS walked and interacted with everyone/all classes; He rode a colt, and not a horse or chariot (even though He could have afforded anything He desired); and was hardly differentiable from His disciples. He refused to be boxed into any stupid ‘class’ of His day. He was the indescribable GIFT of GOD, Who Gave Himself for the LIFTING/SALVATION of humanity. That’s the kind of HUMBLE/SACRIFICIAL LIVING/GIVING that every CHRISTIAN is called to. We’re prospered to prosper others! Stop investing in the flesh and self-aggrandizement! You’re not that important, none of us is!
Selah!
DA