Devotionals

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“As much as possible, always let people have good impression of you”. Those were my father’s last words of advise to me as life slowly ebbed out of him.
Few hours to his death, I had the uncommon privilege of sharing the thoughts of this wonderful man as he opened leaf after leaf, the pages of his eventful life. “You can’t live in isolation, son! Your movement along life’s highway will always depend on the contribution of somebody else”, he said.

Life is so interconnected that we hardly can survive without the input of others in our lives. From the handyman, to our mechanic, the insurance man, our pastor, bosses, colleagues and subordinates, everyone and everything in life is so interrelated and we need to learn how to master the act of managing our day-to-day relationships. In a world characterized by open and distinct division among its people, several a people have lost a whole lot of privileges due to their inability to appreciate the value of their neighbour.

I often wonder whether it is really possible to have a classless society? A society where no man is victimized by the virtue of his/her background, a place where we appreciate ourselves despite the position we occupy on success ladder. I remembered the story my father used to conclude his admonition. In the late fifties, he was a young village teacher in one of Lagos’ suburbs. He was highly revered and respected in the whole of that village, as there were very few educated people in that small town. While other colleagues were unapproachable and haughty, he was very close to the people, helpful to the aged and ready to lend a hand to the young ones. He was the willing village letter writer, who helped the uneducated to write their children in the cities. In all the time he spent there, he sowed the seed of kindness to everyone, both young and old, not minding the class they belonged to. Eventually, he left for the city to look for a better paying job in one of the city’s companies. At the interview, the Managing Director, while interviewing him, discovered that he had lived and worked at his village and as a matter of fact, he had been of tremendous help to his aged mother while he stayed there. He was given his letter of employment that same day and instead of attending three to four stages of interviews, he attended only one.

“ Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap,” says Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians. We need to be mindful of the type of seeds we sow daily. Let us not be respecter of persons but lover of all men. Never look down on any man but give them their respect and value for the world is a small place, you might still need that same man at the next bus stop.

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