GINGERED GINGER

Hello there!

How are you doing today? I'm hoping you're doing fine and if you aren't, I pray that God fixes whatever it is that ails you. 

Welcome to today's gist.

I read a really interesting story a couple of days ago and I thought to share. I've heard that the British use the word "interesting" when they do not want to outrightly say something is good or bad; it is in the similitude of that reasoning that I call this story "interesting." 

So this man, Hezekiah, had walked in obedience to God for almost the entire time he had been living especially since he became king. One day he became ill and of course, like you and me, began to pray for God to heal him.

What does Jehovah Rapha do? He sends word to him that 'guy just ready yourself, na die be dis.' When Hezekiah got the message, he didn't get ready, he went to God in earnest prayer, the guy brought his entire arsenal, reminding God of the journey they've had together and then asked God to have mercy on him. 

He moved God so much and so quickly that the messenger hadn't even left Hezekiah's palace before God sent him back with a revised decision: Hezekiah would now live for 15 extra years! When I got to this part of the story, I thought to myself "people dey pray sha!"

So Hezekiah is given medication as directed by God's messenger and He becomes well. When a 'colleague-in-kingship' heard of Hezekiah's illness and recovery, he sent his son to Hezekiah, to 'greet' him and wish him well. 

Na from here Hezekiah start to confuse me.

This person came to greet you because you were ill, wetin concern am with wetin dey your palace? In a rare show of unmitigated pride, Hezekiah escorts this man, at least I assume he'd have had to be a man for his father to send him on such an errand, called Merodach-baladan and all his attendants throughout his palace, showing them all of his riches, his armory… there was absolutely nothing that could be shown that Hezekiah didn't show these people. And he didn't stop in his palace; he began to take them through his domain, showing them all of his wealth, I imagine he'd said something along the lines of "see all that the Lord has given me", you know those words we put together when we want to wear our pride the cloak of humility, make e be like say we humble when in actual fact we reek of pride. 

I kept asking myself, "why did he show them all he had?" It didn't make sense to me! Like guy, you be tap? Don't you know how to keep things private? As I wondered about his behavior, I realized something really unsettling: I've pulled a 'Hezekiah behaviour' before! In fact, I've pulled it more than once. And why did I do it each time? I was suffering from a bout of inferiority complex and I wanted to do something to make me feel like these people have increased their esteem of me and so I told them things that ordinarily should not concern them. These things weren't lies so it wasn't false advertising, but it was unnecessary information that I said to make me feel good about myself. 

Make I shock you? It backfired almost every time; I'd finish passing the unnecessary information and the recipients would look so unimpressed  and, in one particularly hurtful case, use it against me in the future. So my pride didn't earn me any favours, it merely made me feel even more foolish and vulnerable to attack. I'm trying to do better these days and I'm very careful about the kind of information I put out and tell people especially when e no really concern dem. 

After Hezekiah finished his exposition, he sent his guests on their merry way. But of course it wouldn't end there!

God sent His messenger again to Hezekiah. "Who goes?" He probably asked Hezekiah and Hezekiah, still on his 'show say I get capacity' roll told him "They're from a far away land oo! A kingdom called Babylon." In my head again, I imagine he's saying this in a condescending tone, trying to show his popularity and the good will he enjoyed. 

The messenger asks him, "wetin you show dem?" I appreciate Hezekiah's honesty, if na my man Saul, e for first lie, then when e no work, e go come find who to blame; Hezekiah replied honestly "e no get wetin I no show dem for my house and everywhere wey I get wetin I fit show." 

For my mind again, I asked "guy you no hear how foolish dis tin wey you talk sound?" Then God's messenger told him that because of what he had done, a time would come when Babylonians would invade Judah and that they would plunder, and cart away, all the riches in the land, nothing that Hezekiah had shown to his visitors would remain.

When the message was delivered, Hezekiah blew my mind one last time; he said and I quote "The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good" (Isaiah 39:8a, Amplified Version), because he thought to himself, "at least we will enjoy peace in my time."

E no shock you?

When I read it, I thought to myself, "no be the man wey when God say e go die, e pray till God reconsider?! Wetin stop am wey e no pray this time around?" I imagine that maybe God would have reconsidered the punishment if Hezekiah had prayed, after all He did that with David in 2 Samuel 24. But no, Hezekiah said the word of the Lord that was spoken was good! It was easy for him to beseech God to reconsider when the matter at stake involved him personally, but when it was something that would happen after his death, he didn't care, such selfishness and wickedness!

And as I was very swiftly throwing stones at Hezekiah, God asked me how much better I was. I realized that it was very easy to get me gingered to pray on and on when the subject of the prayer concerned my wellbeing: but when it involved someone else, I would typically not be as pumped about praying. Sometimes it's not even that I won't pray oo, it'll be that I'm praying because I have to pray.

And God told me that it goes beyond prayer; how invested am I in things that offer no obvious benefit to me? Am I as invested as I would have been if I stood to gain something? Would I go the distance if I didn't stand to gain anything? And, this one really caused me to pause, what about those things He asks me to do in such secrecy that no one, including the beneficiary, will ever know it was me that did it? As He asked me these questions, God showed me again just how subtle selfishness could manifest in my life, and yours too I dare say. 

It's very easy to see selfishness as merely wanting it all for yourself or refusing to give. But selfishness is so much more than that, and until we become conscious of the subtle ways it manifests in our lives, we'll continue to live selfishly, albeit unknowingly. 

God has been calling me recently to do things that have no obvious benefit to me and I'm learning to obey Him and to do it with as much ginger as I would have if I was benefitting. It's not easy, time and again I've had to go to Him and ask Him to steady me and give me the ginger to continue and each time I've asked, He has always obliged me and given me enablement –day after day, hour after hour.

So, I'm inviting you to join me in this journey of renouncing selfishness and doing what God will have us do for someone else with as much gusto as we would have done if it was for us; it's not easy, but it's very rewarding! So please come join me. 

I pray that God will help us.

See you next week. 

Love,

Achenyo. 

PS. The gratitude challenge is still ongoing, join us; just three things you're grateful for each day.