#HomilyfromthePew

I was in Kano from Monday, May 4, 2026, to Thursday, May 7, 2026, for the All Northern Schools Conference. It was a great and meaningful event, but the full story will be told another day.

From Kano, I travelled to Abuja for the first stop of our three-city tour of The Culture Edge Legal and Child Safeguarding Clinic, scheduled for Friday, May 8, 2026, at Nile University. Abuja was the first host city, with Lagos and Port Harcourt to follow. The programme was to start at 8:00 a.m.

I left Kano on the evening of May 7. The flight was delayed, and I arrived in Abuja very late. Then I waited for my bag.

The bag did not come.

The airline had sent it to another location.

That same night, there was also an issue with the hotel booking. It was one of those nights when everything appeared to be going south. Many critical materials for the training were in that bag. I had lost a bag before while travelling outside Nigeria, and that bag was never found. So, naturally, many thoughts began to run through my mind.

What if this bag was not found? What if I disappointed the participants, many of whom I would be meeting for the first time? What if the programme did not hold?

Then the question came: Why me?

But immediately, another question rose within me: Why not me?

Who should it be, if not me?

Why should I expect life to arrange itself perfectly around my plans? Why should I assume that because the assignment is important, there will be no delay, no crisis, no inconvenience, and no resistance?

The Bible says, “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” Proverbs 24:10. Adversity comes to test strength. It reveals what is inside a person.

So, I asked myself a practical question: what exactly can I do tonight?

There was no point building castles of worry. The much I could do that night was to find a place to lay my head, reach the airline, lodge a complaint, and wait for the next step.

Then I changed my perspective. What was the worst that could have happened? My flight could have been cancelled in Kano. The plane could have crashed. But I arrived safely. I was on ground. The lead facilitator was present. Even if the materials were missing, I could still show up, address the participants, and do what had to be done.

At that point, I told myself: I am too grateful to complain.

The programme itself was already a testimony. God had raised people who met me on this assignment not too long ago and, without being compelled, decided to carry the burden of organising the programme. They functioned like a local organising committee: they secured the hall, arranged breakfast, tea break, and lunch, and put the entire event together at their own expense, even though it was a premium paid programme.

What was originally designed as a clinic for 12 people grew far beyond that. We eventually had 29 people in the room.

I had every reason to be grateful.

Jesus said, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Matthew 6:34. So, I refused to let tomorrow’s fear destroy that night’s rest. I slept.

The next morning, the airline informed me that the bag had been found. It had been taken to Lagos. Because I needed some materials in it, I had to go to the airport to retrieve it. I reached out to my colleague, Olabisi Afolabi, who stood in for me at the venue while I went after the bag.

Even that morning, while waiting to send some things ahead for the training, another incident happened. As I came down from the car, a motorcycle rider came from nowhere, hit my hand, and my phone fell and smashed.

Still, I kept my eyes on what was going right.

Eventually, we held the programme. We started later than planned, but the day was successful. The hosts were happy. The participants were blessed. The time we lost, we agreed to recover online. We were not stranded. There was still a way.

That is the moral for me: when things do not go as planned, find something to be grateful for.

I have had to learn this over and over again. I got married at 36, watching my own clock, not another person’s clock. I am grateful God reserved the woman He had for me. We waited 15 years to have a child. I am grateful God was preparing us for the child that was coming. It took me 13 years to see a major breakthrough in business. I am grateful God cooked me, trained me, and prepared me for what He had ahead.

I am a grateful soul. I am too grateful to complain.

This same posture helped me when we lost something far bigger than a bag. We built a YouTube channel for 15 years: over 700 broadcasts, sweat, labour, sacrifice, and about 99,800 subscribers. Then one day, the channel was taken down.

I felt bad. I also knew I had not backed up the content properly, and that was my own failure. But I refused to host a pity party. The loss of that channel did not mean the end of my voice, my work, my assignment, or my life. We are still pursuing recovery, but while we pursue recovery, we continue the assignment.

Then, two weeks later, our Children Infobank channel was also taken down.

What were we supposed to do? Stop living? Stop building? Stop serving? Stop speaking?

No.

The Bible says, “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:4. Paul also said, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair… cast down, but not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4:8–9.

That is the posture: troubled, but not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; cast down, but not destroyed.

So, when life asks, “Why me?” I answer, “Why not me?”

I am too grateful to complain.

So what are you grateful for?