Moment With Betty

Some years ago, my friend and l travelled to Yola to visit a friend. We had the address but when we got to a point, we were not too clear of the description given to us by our friend thus, we needed someone to help us out. There were no sign posts nor network for us to ask google for direction. As we moved along, we came to a T- junction and we got confused as to which road to follow and also discouraged as we could not figure out how to navigate from that point.  So we stopped to ask for direction from the young man we saw sitting by the corner of the road and he went thus, pointing, take this road here, turn right at the next junction, take the 1^st street on the right, turn left at the end of the road and so on and so forth. As we followed his direction, we got to a point and we became more confused but decided to continue with his direction and eventually got to the village before sunset.

So, what ‘am l saying in effect. Perhaps, you may have encountered a similar experience on one of your travels and you needed some direction to take you through your journey. But looking at it from a spiritual point of view, there are two major roads which we can take in life. The road of Jesus or the road of Satan and the bible has given us a clear direction on which road to follow. It says “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it” (Mathew 7: 13-14). The road to Satan is wide and easy to follow and many people follow it in search of happiness. The reason why many people follow it is because they are still blind to Satan’s tricks.  What happens is that Satan entices people with sweet things, such as wealth, fame, position, flamboyant life style and what have you, he drops it little by little as his victims gladly and slowly follows him and enjoys the accolade without realizing that they are gradually digging their graves until it’s too late for them to get out because by then, the gate would have been closed and they become trapped. This is the tactics that Satan uses to get many people to travel on his road. He drops a seed of sin such as, women, cheating, jealousy, idolatry, lying, envy and he drops these things on our way and as he drops them we follow him yet, we do not find true happiness. We may be happy; we may be enjoying the glamour at that moment but it will get to a point where we will not be happy anymore nor enjoy the glamour because we couldn’t find true happiness.

Trust me, some prominent men have traveled on this road and ended up in blind pitch. A story was told of a king in the bible who was very successful during his time because he followed the road of Satan. He had all the money he wanted, he built the most beautiful palace made of stone. He rode the most expensive cars one can think of and listened to the most famous musicians of that time.  He had all the beautiful women around and he set a high standard that made other kings to travel distances to consult him for advice. In fact, these kings marveled at the works of his hands and this made him arrogant because he was seen as one the greatest king of his time and he felt so happy but was he really happy? See what he said in Ecclesiastes 2: 10 -15 “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; l refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when l surveyed all that my hands had done and what l had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun. Then l turned my thoughts to consider wisdom and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done? l saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness but l came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. Then l said to myself, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do l gain by being wise?” l said to myself, this too is meaningless” All the riches in the world could not bring this king happiness instead they brought him sorrow and sadness simply because he followed the wrong road.

Remember that what we are talking about “Road to Happiness: –  choosing the right road.  In John 14: 6, Jesus made a big claim. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. Unlike the young man that my friend and l asked for direction when we were going to Yola, who gave us direction on how to get to our destination. Though, we got to our destination after all, but it was not easy. The difference here is that Jesus, does not only give us direction, He takes us by the hand and takes us right to our destination. He does not only show us the way; He is the way to our happiness.

Many years ago there was a young African Named Saint Augustine, Augustine of Hippo, who looked everywhere for happiness. He prided himself with women, wine, made a big name for himself as a university professor but it was only after a great effort that he discovered the right road to happiness.  He gave us a load down of the result of all his searches for happiness in the immoral way but couldn’t find it and when he finally got it he said, “You have made us for yourself oh!  Lord and our hearts are restless and cannot find happiness until they find rest in You”.

So, which road have you chosen, are you on the right road or not? Is the devil trying to use his tactics on you by dropping the seed of sin: money, women, power etc. and you are being deceived? Where are you on your journey to holiness, are you on the right road? This is the time for you to ask yourself these questions. The church gives us the opportunity to always sit back and reflect and ask our self these questions so that we can make amends. It doesn’t matter where or how and when we started, what matters is how we will end. Let’s us take a cue from the parable of the talents in the bible, about a man who went out to hire some labourers. Some were hired in the morning, some at mid- day and others in the evening and at the end of the day, they were all paid one denarius each. This simply means that, it is never too late to find Jesus. Some people get their conversion at the early age of their life, some in their middle age while others even, on their sick bed. It is never too late to begin again, the bottom line is, did we find true happiness in Christ or not?  Our Lord calls us whenever He likes, He does not care when we got converted, all He wants is to get everyone into His father’s heavenly kingdom on the last day. So, we are called to persevere so that we will not miss out when the Lord comes.  Be alert.!