"Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction." ~ Jude 1: 10, NLT
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"Did you pollute?"
That's the Nigerian English for "Did you just break the wind (break a fart)?"
Or, perhaps, the more interesting format, "Did you mess?"
It's not uncommon to hear: "Who mess?" in a family that has just eaten beans for dinner. Once you hear, "Who mess?" suspicious pairs of eyes zoom at the face of the most innocent looking member … because the most innocent looking is often the one who released the offending gas. I was with one such household who ate beans for dinner. Throughout the night, there were unbelievable anal conversations among all who ate beans. I even joined the wind trade. And to say the truth, if you didn't mind the stench, it was a pure symphony of gases the stomach could contain no longer, intermittently cooing and booing at the silence of the night.
Anyhow, so, that's how Nigeria came to define (or redefine) the word, "mess." Assigned meaning.
Imagine my conflict decades ago when I traveled to Lagos for the first time and came by a place around the Lagos Marina with a signboard that read: "Officers' Mess."
"Officers' mess?" I inquired, bewildered.
"Yes, that's where military officers go to eat." And what my brain heard was "where military officers go to mess." It was baffling. Why would esteemed officers of the Nigerian Army abdicate their noble military obligations just to congregate at a place and begin to mess? What value did that kind of joke add to their readiness for battle?
As you can see, a different kind of "mess" was going on in my head - the "mess" I was accustomed to. (Mark that killer word, "accustomed." I'll come back to it.) This leads me to a frightening prognosis: What the Englishman says is not as important as what your brain echoes back. Quote me on this: What goes on in that head of yours is more important than what goes on in Iraq, Ukraine, Abuja, and, dare I say, Chibok! Hold on …hold your fire first! Follow me …
= Your Head Matters More then the World =
No one is saying you should ignore Ukraine, Chibok or ISIS. But if you can't get your own head right you can't get the outside world right. Two weeks ago, I spent nearly two hours watching various documentaries on the late Idi Amin of Uganda. I haven't fully recovered from the shock of what one malfeasant head could do to the world outside him. Get your head right before attempting to get the world right. Priority, not sequence.
Your world will never be bigger or brighter than your mind's interpretation of it. Einstein was asked to state the most important question on earth. He said, "Is the universe a friendly place?" Each man's answer to that question will programme the entire course of his or her life. The answer, for some, will start them on a fall-and-die, enemy-hunting frenzy. Everything and everyone around them is an enemy.
I read an interesting piece in "The Guardian" of yesterday. The columnist praised Patrick Sawyer, the vilified Liberian conspirator and arrowhead of Ebola invasion in Nigeria! Everyone, including me, had been enraged by Sawyer's mindless medical arson. Could it indeed have been a sinister conspiracy of the giant pharmaceuticals to strike it big by hitting the most populous African nation? No one knows. But this writer called attention to what a holocaust Ebola would have inflicted on Nigeria if it had entered in any other way, say, through traders across our land borders. It would have been impossible to trace and contain the Ebola touchpoints as we did with Sawyer's entry.
Your external world can never be bigger than your personal mental envelope. Arthur Schopenhauer, German Philosopher (1788 – 1860) said: “Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.” As a younger man, I thought I understood everything. Until I start traveling around the world, meeting amazing people, reading biographies, listening to others. Everyday, I'm humbled by how so little I know! No matter how much you think you know, Scripture reminds you that "we know in part."
Many people worry so much about what's going on in the world, instead of first taking control of what's going on in their heads.
= Your Brain Can Be Upgraded =
I've visited a Nigerian prison, and I have seen pictures of the prisons of America. They are galaxies apart. When I saw an American prison, and the facilities therein, I exclaimed, "Good Lord! Is that a prison or a governor's residence!" Pardon my sauciness but the American prisons are more comfortable than the best houses in Abuja's Asokoro! Maybe that's why they keep committing those terrible crimes. If the conditions in the prison are better than in your own house, it makes perfect sense to go to prison. But, seriously, if you want to permanently reform a serial American murderer, bring him to a real prison … put him in the Abakaliki or Jos prison for only two weeks! He will accept Christ without any preaching!
Nevertheless, you're not a Nigerian prisoner. You're not an American prisoner. You are a prisoner of your own brain! You are a prisoner of what your head is accustomed to. And since you will live within the confines of your head for the rest of your life, common sense demands that you make it a beautiful head. How? Constant learning, unlearning and relearning. A disciplined day and night meditation on the Word of God will keep your head calm, accurate and effective. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" 2 Timothy 3:15.
Meditation on Scripture is indispensable. Constant learning is an adaptive survival skill in a world that is constantly changing. If you haven't learnt one new thing in the past 24 hours, you're dying slowly. And if you haven't unlearned any limiting beliefs in the past few months, your life might be heading toward an unsavory destination. If you haven't changed a negative opinion in ten years, you are simple a piece of igneous rock!
Upgrade your brain! Read, observe, think! Don't mess!
I love you. I wish you a pleasant week ahead. And always be healthy, wealthy and wise!
Source: My mentor- Ogbo Awoke Ogbo Facebook Post
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