John Aduma

YOUR LIFE’S ODYSSEY

“This is a big order,

But see what you can do…

He is such a fine little fellow,

My son.”

Abraham Lincoln’s letter to his son’s teacher (Stanza 9).

My Dear Young Peoples of the world,

Today without much ado, I want to tell you that in this your life’s odyssey, it’s never going to be easy.

And I bet that that time will never, ever come when it is ever going to be easy for you – although I am without an iota of the doubt aware that to make you feel high and great temporarily and momentarily, the gospel merchants – those kingdom robbers, popularly known as PPROSPERITY PREACHERS, who have “turned my father’s house into a den of robbers” have filled your hearts with such falsehood as, if you bribe God by paying your tithes and giving offerings, you will immediately experience your ELDORADO in the here and scream out: EUREKA!

Also, it is not unlikely that they have sweet-tongued you by handing you with life’s simplification formula – the ABC OF LIFE, making you think that life is that as easy as one would memorise the English Alphabets and verbalise the first three of such – A, B, C (!) – THE ABC FORMULA OF LIFE.

But mark my word today, never ever will come such a time nor is life meant to be a bed of roses for any human beings.

However, one thing is certain, and in accordance with my definition of life: “that that is smooth and rough, rough and smooth” – here and there, and occasionally, you shall have some respite – a sort of temporary relief, but it will not always be a paradise here, if you want to grow and be strong!

And I must let you know straight away that in the here, the WILDERNESS UNIVERSITY is for everybody – and you are enrolled whether you like it or not – kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, generals, field marshals, companies execs, pastors, sheiks, imams, alfas, emirs, children, young people, the elderly – men and women, boys and girls are all meant to undergo training at one time or another in life’s WILDERNESS UNIVERSITY, but unlike the conventional universities, no one ever graduates therefrom as all humanity perpetually remain its students until they are translated.

Life sometimes operates like a deceptive fraudster:

It starts you with liquid foods such as milk, pap, custard, then begins to feed you with bones, stones, thereafter with rocks, boulders, hills, and the mountains.

Therefore, you should never have to retreat or give up in your life’s first shipwreck, missteps or fall, for as the sayings go: NO CROSS, NO CROWN and “the downfall of a man is not the end of his life.”

Also, the holy book is right when it says: “if you faint in times of adversity, your strength is small (Proverbs 24:10).”

I personally grew up with such dicta/philosophies as below:

“Suffer before pleasure.”
“Perseverance.”
“Slow and steady wins the race.”
“It shall be well.”
It is well.
“Let us be patient”
“No condition is permanent.”
“Who knows tomorrow?”

All these wise and philosophical, inspirational, and motivational sayings were inscribed on the bodies of trucks plying Yahe/Ebo-Wanikande route in the present Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State of Nigeria. Yala was formerly under Ogoja Province of the former Eastern Nigeria, later South Eastern State of Nigeria and now Cross River State of Nigeria.

What is more, I can tell you that in life, what matters at the end of the day is that life, this life, will eventually be kind to you if you endure till the end without retreating, without giving up or committing suicide and ending it very abruptly without getting to the finished line.

But on the other hand, if you get to the FINISHED LINE of your life unblemished, you will be celebrated, immortalised, and held up as a role model for others.

And above all else, do ensure your arrival at your point of destination is at God’s own time, which without doubt, is the longest time there is on the planet earth.

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