On Saturday, December 10, 2016, The Preacher was about to take the microphone at the Annual Parents Conference of a leading Institution of Learning when I noticed a WhatsApp message on our Child Protection Network Platform…Mrs. Kehinde IDOWU, the immediate past Child Protection Officer with the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development(MYSD) has departed this sinful world…Since I couldn’t bring myself to accept the reality of the news, I excused myself from the hall and placed some calls…The news was confirmed as the present reality of her status: DECEASED…

Hmmm…As humans, DEATH is a reality, we know could manifest itself at any time, in most cases without KNOCKING or WARNING signs…Yet we are often shocked when it strikes…

I wonder why it is like that with us…Mortality was drummed to us from childhood, yet the lessons are not at home with many of us…

When I hear or read about people’s departure, it is for me a constant reminder that one I will one day keep my own date with DEATH…This reality became more advanced for me when on November 25, 2015 my life flashed before me in what would have been reported as a typical case of SUDDEN DEATH…This minute, I instructed our Graphic Artist in the office, the next minute, I was been hopped into the car as an emergency case…

Apart from the faith of those with me, everything, including how I was feeling, eloquently suggested that I was on the final phase of the termination of my MORALITY, according to the irreversible dictates of FATE…At that point, when it seemed my departure was near, the VANITY of this present world became very clear to me…At that point, nothing mattered…Maybe what mattered was a question in my mind: have I lived my life in a way that the generations after me will be PROUD and GRATEFUL…But again that also was not a very dominant thought…For the better part of this unforgettable experience I was blank…
Somehow, I survived…I guess there was a DIVINE intervention predicated upon the fact that there are more grounds for me to cover here…

Since then I know what it means first hand that, ‘your life is like a vapour…It appear for a while then, it vanishes…’ I also travel very light, holding no grudge big or small with no man living…Knowing that the journey is a short one and you need not pack anything you do not need and traveling heavy slows you down…

Nothing guarantees life or its longevity except God…Our times are truly in His hands…He is the only ONE, WHO knows when we have completed our assignment here on earth….Yesterday is in the TOMB, gone and buried…Tomorrow is in the WOMB and it may never be born…Therefore TODAY is our opportunity, which all of its juice we much squeeze fully for our benefits and that of our world.

I am fascinated by the subject of DEATH, I mean the departure of the human spirit to eternity…I am fascinated because it is the definition of the reality that we are only here for a very short time…Therefore whatever we have to do we must do quickly…Like Pastor Bimbo ODUKOYA of the most BLESSED MEMORY said, ‘Life is SHORT, DEATH is SURE, It is ONLY what you do for GOD that will LAST.’

Flowing from this WISDOM, I number my LIFE in DAYS and not YEARS and everyday I hold my WATCH NIGHT SERVICE and when I have the PRIVILEGE of BREATH in a new dawn, I shout on top of my LUNGS, Happy NEW DAY…For my shout is not for the BREATH alone…The BREATH is simply, the VISA or the LICENSE to make one’s LIFE COUNT for GOD and HIS PRECIOUS HUMANITY…Breath is like a VISA, what good does it do if you don’t plan to travel to the country you have been granted VISA to travel to? BREATH is a GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY for you to AUTHOR your OWN IMMORTALITY…

You see, no man or institutions can IMMORTALIZE you after you are gone…Thus a sage said if you don’t want to be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things, worth reading or do things worth writing about.’ Your LEGACY is not you material WEALTH but your WEALTH of VALUES DELIBERATELY DEPOSITED in the LIVES of men and women, first those closest to you, then those afar, to stir up a TRANSFORMATION determined by GOD before the world began…

For me, no matter how long a man lives, he dies young if he never show up in life to do the the best he can for as many people he can at all the times he can…A man lives long, no matter how short he lives if he shows up in life to do the best he can for as many people he can at all the times he can…I guess, I paraphrasing the words of sage here…

The last reason, I think I am fascinated about the subject of DEATH is that DEATH for me is GAIN and life for me is CHRIST’s…I have made my peace with my FATHER in HEAVEN and therefore I am GUARANTEED to spend ETERNITY in HIS BLISSFUL BOSOM…No man, who does business is afraid of GAIN…So if DEATH is GAIN, like PAUL said why should I be afraid…I think the only FEAR is to live without making PEACE with GOD through HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON…

I am fascinated that as my outward man perishes daily, my inward man is being renewed…Therefore my life doesn’t consist in the abundance of my physical possessions but in the abundance of the WEALTH of my INNER MAN…For if only in this WORLD I have hope, then I am the most miserable of all men…

I rejoice with Mrs. Kehinde IDOWU, who departed this sinful world to join the saints in the cloud of witness, after fighting a good fight of faith and FINISHED the race gallantly…I met her in 2010 and I testify that she was not a perfunctory civil servant…She was upbeat and always CONCERNED…She defended the protection of the precious children of Lagos State not to impress her employers but to serve God and HIS HUMANITY…May her GREAT Soul rest in PEACE…

I write this piece PREPARED to meet my GOD…But are you? I write this piece from the DEPARTURE LOUNGE of LIFE ready to take my flight when it comes, confident that in all things I will not be ASHAMED when I meet the ONE sent me here…I write with no FEAR inside of me of the UNKNOWN, knowing that if CHRIST ROSE, I will RISE ALSO and REIGN with HIM…I console myself DAILY with these WORDS in this TEMPORARY WORLD…The WORLD is a MARKETPLACE, SACRIFICES are its INVALUABLE REWARDS…
Adieu Mrs. Kehinde IDOWU…May your SACRIFICIAL SOUL REST IN THE PEACE and REWARDS of the MASTER…
Do have an INSPIRED week
I remain Sober on my Knees THIS DAY.
(C) 2016 by Taiwo ‘ODINAKACHUKWU’ AKINLAMI…All Rights Reserved
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