"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." ~ 2 Corinthians 3:18, NASB
"Are you mad?" the two otherwise polished women shrieked at each other, nose to nose, as the manner of women is.
The next moment, they were on each other like angry cats, clawing, tearing, biting. The next thing, they had torn each other's clothes and stripped themselves fully naked! The incident I just described was not a shoot at a Nollywood porn movie location. It was not a sickly Jerry Springer Show. It happened live at the ever busy Mile 12 market! And it happened at the time I was fighting mortal battles with porn! The devil, indeed, is a bad devil!
For those who have never been to Lagos, Nigeria, the Mile 12 Market is the most public place, not just in Nigeria, but in the universe. At the Mile 12 Market, men and spirits gather to buy and sell and sell and buy.
= How about you? Are you mad? =
If you want to find out, try this simple experiment next time you enter the bathroom. Lock the bathroom door behind you and look in the mirror. Say to the man or woman in the mirror, say it slowly, purposefully, preferably with your medicated glasses or sunglasses hanging at the tip of your nose … say it in a monotone, robotic voice: "Are you mad?"
... If that doesn't work, push out a squirt of toothpaste, put it on the tip of your nose; say again to the person in the mirror, "Are you mad?" Your answer will come in seconds and it will surprise you! I hope you do lock your bathroom door before you do, otherwise you would have a lot of explaining to do when you come face-to-face with the shrink (the Psychiatrist) after your family members have bundled you over to "Yaba Left." "Ogbo the Great told me to do it" will complicate your already bad situation.
Jokes apart, you can be insane without knowing it. Those two mums didn't know they would strip each other in the public when they left home that morning. But the germ of madness was already in them. It just needed a willing pore in their skin to sneak out.
... There's a kind of anger that takes hold of people at home, in the office, on the streets, everywhere. In Lagos, anger is always one yellow bus driver away from you. Anger is commonly clothed in LASTMA and police uniforms. Domestic anger is the saddest type. It must be hell for a woman under the same roof with an angry man - a man who had once assured her, "You're the sugar in my tea. You're everything I have."
Anger is madness. That's why you'll usually hear people ask, "Are you mad at me?" The question is particularly popular with girlfriends, or safer to say, wives. She'll tilt her head slightly to the left, lower her eyelids just a little and look directly into the man's eyes from the corner of her eyes, and ask, "Are you mad at me?" - overly stressing the "you" and "mad," suggesting how unkind and shameful of you to be mad at her. The disarmed, hypnotized, "mumu-fied" man smiles sheepishly and says, "Not really, darling." But he's lying, he was! Women have unusual powers!
There are 7 or 8 things that cause personal madness; I'll mention three:
√ Your beliefs can make you mad.
When Shekau's followers slit a pastor's throat in the presence of the pastor's wife and children, you would think they are insane. No, they believe they are serving the cause of a certain blood-thirsty deity whose praise they deliriously shout as the pastor bleeds to his death. With them, it is right to rape for their deity, steal from, confiscate property, and slit the throats of "infidels." Moreover, they would be generously rewarded in the afterlife for the raping and killing! Belief!
... For reason of belief, Obama's Airforce One would sooner fly through the eye of a needle than for America's prescription of "democracy" to succeed in the Middle East. We thought Saddam Hussein was evil; now ISIS! We thought Gaddafi was a problem, now Libya! And Egypt!
Belief is a strange thing, the more you try to kill it, the more life and power you grant it! How much taxpayer dollars did it take to eliminate one terrorist by the name of bin Laden? $25 billion, perhaps! And yet, a thousand bin Ladens have sprung up to replace the one. Send laborers to the vineyard, Obama, if you can, not soldiers. You can never shoot down one belief with the most powerful drone!
... And coming closer home, after reading a certain Lugard document of about 1914, I was amazed by the grasp the Colonists had on the power of belief! Do not underestimate the power of the born-to-rule belief - that nefarious seed that the British planted in the 1950s and vividly echoed by the Sarduana in a blood-chilling declaration on October 12, 1960. That belief has spilled the blood of at least 12 million Nigerians and counting. That belief has wrecked what would have been a beautiful nation "where peace and justice shall reign." That belief has generated a Rottweiler that even the owners can no longer rein in. And that belief hasn't finished its work …
... You, too, are governed by your beliefs, from the sun's rising, to its going down. You have beliefs about everything - God, money, marriage, morality, social justice, etc. - that are either ruining your life, or making it better.
√ Superstitions make you mad too
A few months ago, an acclaimed homosexual in his forties died of a dreaded disease that goes with the lifestyle. His family members were irate. "They have killed our son, our family's enemies have done it!" they wailed! This was no joke. They had their suspicions about who was responsible for the death.
Last week, the wooden platform of a PDP rally collapsed. Someone picked up the microphone and declared, "The enemies of Jonathan have done this!" So, when you build an inferior stage for your rally and it collapses, then your enemy had done it, not your cheap construction. Genius!
"Christian" superstitions are no less stupid and dangerous as the superstitions of the illiterate villagers or of the Nigerian politicians and their platforms. Our churches, these days, reek with superstitions. Superstitious sermons sound more mysterious and mind-grabbing than the simple message of the Kingdom of God as proclaimed by Christ Jesus. High sounding, mind numbing superstitions make the preacher appear more mystical and powerful to foolish church goers who, out of mental laziness, wouldn't read their Bibles by themselves.
... Hear this: A group of believers were praying somewhere, not long ago, and a wall gecko going about its business showed up on the wall. The prayer leader instantly directed the prayer "warfare" at the poor creature - because "wall geckos come to collect the prayers" of the saints! Ah, how did Satan succeed in making us this mad?
√ Substituting your brain with "jazz" ... thanks to Africa Magic and Nollywood!
Substituting your God-given "sound mind" with juju is a common form of madness in Nigeria, even among educated professionals. Students use "jazz' to pass exams, parents give their children "anointed" pencils and rulers to enter the exam hall, husband-hunting women take pictures of the men they want to a juju priest to tie his soul to hers, politicians rely on deadly rituals to win elections, workers hide talisman under their desks at the office, traders are favorite jazz clients … jazz, jazz everywhere!
... Last week, a young man stunned everyone when he jumped over the cash counter at a bank in Lagos and started packing cash! When the bank security men jumped on him, he explained that he was supposed to be invisible. A "native doctor" had given him a ring to that was to make him invisible while robbing a bank. He was therefore surprised that the security people saw him. Wow!
Consulting a witch doctor for your business strategy, promotion or success , is like using palm oil for blood transfusion. My best advise to you: Use your brain! God gave you a brain for a reason!
For some reason, majority of Christians find it hard to understand that you are the "captain of your soul" and "master of your fate." Yet, from Genesis to Revelation of the Bible they carry, God makes it clear that your personal choices will always have personal consequences, and that a man would reap what he sows.
... Grace does not nullify personal responsibility. "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" asked St. Paul. If you do not work on your marriage, it will collapse, whether you are "Man of God" or Assistant Jesus Christ. If you don't work on your business, it will die. Faith is great, but so is work! Faith is not greater than work! Your faith is useless without work.
(Part 2 of "Are You Mad" continues Next Week with how I measure my insanity using Albert Einstein's Insanitometer ... and how I cure it!)
In the meantime, I love you. Be healthy, wealthy and wise!
Source: Ogbo Awoke Ogbo Facebook Post
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