There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice, there could be no Hell.
I had this old friend who grew up with his family down the street from our house. I was twelve when we became friends. He was born into a rich family. His father was a regional manager with a Nigerian bank. The man had assets all over the country.
This friend of mine is two years older than I am. This friend of mine had always been a bit strange for a guy. He was a voracious reader who was full of wisdom, but he never let on to anyone that he was intelligent. He would rather skip school than prove himself in the classroom.
He would rather be led than lead. He was extremely laid back but hardworking at the same time. By this, I mean that he would rather pick a cutlass and cut grass rather than employ someone to cut the grass for him. He would rather clean the pig’s pen (They had a piggery) than allow a paid laborer to do it. He would rather kill pigeons for lunch than spend a dime on a proper meal in a fast-food restaurant.
When it comes to ladies, I realized he was very timid while we were growing up. He would lie about the number of ladies he had spoken to, befriended, or dated but I knew he had nobody. While we were young, it was sort of cool to have a young man who was chaste like him as a friend in hindsight however I have come to realize that it was a developmental failure on the part of his parent and society.
Parents should learn to pay attention to their children. Everything is not about getting a formal education and letting life take care of the other aspects of evolution. You must ensure that the other aspects of growth and development of your children, including their social life and general well-being, get some attention too.
I was younger than him and I knew there was something wrong with him. He spoke normally and acted sensibly but there was something off.
Towards the end of our secondary school days, life happened. I was shipped off to a boarding school while he remained at home under his parents’ roof. By the time we reconnected later in life, I was an undergraduate and so was he. Even as an undergraduate, he was still a bit off. He had too much of an “I don’t want to be seen” mindset.
Too many failures in life become so by getting accustomed to the shadows while their mates walked in the light. He also had this belief about successful people all around us that I find to be a bit diabolical. He believed they all had some dark forces, backing them to success. This made him scorn success while embracing hard work
The illogicality of it was obvious, a hardworking person would inevitably become successful over time, especially if he was hard working in the right way and at the right level.
A hard-working labourer may never become a success in life but he would most likely be able to feed himself and his family, a hard-working doctor, lawyer, accountant, engineer, teacher, pilot and so on will inevitably become successful.
My friend’s disdain for success, despite his apparent brilliance, was almost demonic. He was thrown out of the University in his final year, he claimed he had a fake admission. His mother did everything to get him into another university, he eventually gained admission into the university, and he chose to study diploma in physical health education.
When he told me what he was studying, I asked him what he hoped to get out of that. He said he was majoring in swimming, and he would start a swimming class and make maga money.
He graduated and miraculously got a job through his father’s connections with the Nigerian Customs Service. It was the breakthrough we had all been praying and waiting for because the trajectory of his life seemed to be perpetually nosediving. He took the job, moved to Lagos and we all wished him the best.
Two years later, I got a message from him that he was back in Ibadan and would like to see me. Fortunately, I was planning a trip to Ibadan that weekend. I visited him at home, and he told me the craziest story I have ever heard. He said he resigned from his job.
I asked him why?
He said “The kind of money I was making got me scared, I kept telling myself this is not the kind of life I want to live. I do not want to be rich; I do not want to make the kind of money I don’t feel I have earned or deserved. My conscience couldn’t take it, it felt like I was selling out my convictions and conscience. One way or the other, money would come in. When I go to the office, money rushes in. Even when I didn’t go to the office, money was waiting for me or being transferred into my account. I couldn’t even explain how the money came in or what was done for the money to come in. I woke up one day and I saw millions in my account. As you know, I don’t like living large or spending so much, so the money just kept accumulating until it became a source of concern to me. What do I do with all that money?
So, one Friday, I went to a mosque and spoke with an Imam about my troubles and how much the money I had was stressing me out. The Imam spoke to me about my life and calling. He even showed me some metaphysical things he could do and told me he could teach them to me so that I would become an imam too.
I transferred all the money to him that day. I felt he deserved it more than I because he knew so much and was so poor. He then gave me the phone number of his childhood friend in Ibadan and told me to return to Ibadan to learn from his friends.
So, I am back in Ibadan now, I am learning “Kewu and Traditional Herbal medicine with a touch of jujuism”
I almost fainted. I listened to him and left quietly afterward with a resolve not to have anything to do with him again.
He had always been strange, but that was fine. What was not fine would be getting me involved in his stupidity out of emotion or empathy.
He said he got a lady pregnant when he still had money and had to leave her and his child in Lagos when he decided to become poor. He said the mother of his child considered him accursed and had kept his son far away from him because he couldn’t provide for the child anymore.
He said he had received messages from one old woman who told him there were some forces against his progress in life. He was back to laboring on farms for daily wages.
I stayed far away from him for two years, hoping he would in that time come to his senses and aspire to do better with his life.
His siblings tried rallying around him to get him back on his feet. His younger sister who lives in Canada sent him some money to enroll in a truck driving school so that he can get the license and move to Canada to work in Logistics. He realized doing that could lead to success again and he abandoned it halfway.
His mother reached out to me last year crying because she was worried about him
I told her not to worry, he is living the life he chose or the life he felt comfortable living, and that is not a bad thing. He cannot say it was one enemy from the village or one curse or one enchantment or spell that made him what he is.
His oldest brother is a bank manager, he is married with children. His older brother is a bank manager too, he is married with children. His younger sister is a successful chef and businesswoman. His other younger sister is a nurse, she is married with children, and she lives in Canada. His younger brother, his mother’s last child is married with children and he lives in the USA. He was the only one who still had no roof over his head and nothing of value to his name, and this was by choice.
You can pray all you want and fast all you want for him as a mother but there are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice, there could be no Hell.
PS: After almost two years of silence, I reached out to this friend of mine again on his birthday earlier this year. I explained to him why I had to distance myself from him. He was not the only friend of mine from the past who strayed into darkness and fetishism for one reason or the other. The other one had an encounter with me at Ibadan one Wednesday about two years ago and his life changed forever.
Optasia https://gbengawemimo.com/post/optasia (I shared his testimony here)
He read my messages and responded almost immediately. He said he understood why I cut him off but he still used the opportunity to ask for financial support.
This is something I do not really understand. Your traditional religion has not profited you in the last five years, you are still begging for help, and you still disdain success.
How someone’s life can be so confused is a puzzle to me.
He said he met a woman who told him some witches were the ones behind his failure in life
He said the woman told him to get collect dew water for as long as he could every morning until he got enough to bathe with. This friend of mine said it took him seven months to gather enough dew to do what the woman told him but the very day he got enough dew the woman died.
I laughed so much reading his message. He actually believed he was being afflicted by a witch to the point of gathering dew daily for months.
The mind can be a very complex thing.
He said he met another man who took an interest in him and told him to get some kola nut and dry gin for a special prayer for him to bless his head. He said by the very day he got the dry gin and kola, the man died.
This convinced him beyond any doubt that some spirits somewhere were really after him. I just laughed and shook my head.
You immerse yourself into the world of darkness and you expect to see the light? I had to tell myself the truth. You can only save someone who desires to be saved. You can force a donkey to the river, but you cannot force it to drink water. You can pray and fast asking God to make your friend, family member, mother, father or child a success in life. If the individual does not want it, you would have labored in vain.
Reference: click to read on OPTASIA
Announcement
PS: PSSBC school 25 is now open, this will be my first official invitation to you to join our free classes for the next few days so you can decide if the school is for you or not.
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FAZNXNSOKruJ5LYVqXRcQi
–GSW–