Saturday, May 20, 2023, I was set to attend a dearly beloved couple’s wedding in Lagos.

When I got into the car, the driver asked me where we were headed. I had looked at IV before and I simply told him, Shomolu Street, Victoria Island. Upon consulting the oracular Google Map, it revealed that there was no such Street in Victoria Island but only in Dolphin, Ikoyi. I took a look at the IV again and told the driver, this oracle called Google Map do sometimes miss the mark and insisted we were headed VI.

The driver obeyed the boss. But since the Shomolu address was already inputted into Google Map, the more we drove towards VI the more the Map rerouted us to go to Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi. 

When the Google Map would not budge, I took another look at the IV and still told the driver to head towards VI, then he suggested, ‘sir, why not call other people you are attending this wedding with to confirm this address?’ Good idea! I called and my fellow guest read the address to me, “Barri, it is not Shomolu. It is Senrolu, Victoria Island. 

I immediately apologised to the driver. He inputted Senrolu Street, VI and the Map  and led us to destination.

From this moment till, I go into an exercise of deep introspection. Why was I reading Senrolu as Shomolu despite the insistence of the Map and my driver and my claim to being a meticulous fellow? Why do we have to call another before we were delivered from our voyage of discovery when our deliverance was right in our hands and has been for days when I received the IV?

Then Eureka, it was a battle between what I was used to, Shomolu and the new, Senrolu. It was a firce battle between known knowledge and what could be known. It was a battle of a mindset so accustomed to the old and it is blinded from seeing and receiving the new, even when it was conspicuously placed before me. It is a battle between the seemingly incomparable comfort of the presence and the awesome opportunities that lie in a future I was afraid to unwrap.

Another lesson I think occurred to me is that when we are so blinded by the old, we may need a jolting to see the new. It may be a very costly experience, an expert advice, sometimes sought when we are at our wit’s end, like in my case yesterday or after suffering for a while and seeking knowledge.

Could this incident have revealed my instinctive disposition to the new? Am I probably enslaved in my mind to what I am used, that the entrance of the new is almost doomed, except for divine intervention? How many new may be knocking on my door now for my own good and that of those around me, but it is at the mercy of the deep deafness of what I am used to? Well, I am still on the journey of unpacking this experience and the deep revelations thereof.

This is my Homily from the Pew of things which happened to me as examples and are written for your warning.

Do have an INSPIRED week ahead. 

I am Taiwo AKINLAMI