Now I know you will want to know if the illness ceased after I was released from captivity. Well all the sensations stopped. The fluttering flies stopped stinging my head and the right side of my body. However, I had to continue taking the medications and trusting God completely for my healing from the amnesia which reoccured (though not frequent) three times in the space of eight years. This was a significant improvement from the past where it had occurred virtually every other year. I saw it as part of the harm that had been metered on me as a result of the captivity. Nonetheless, I knew deep down that there was nothing too big for God to handle and when he was ready like other times, he would show up.

In my previous post I mentioned how God always saw me through every trial that came my way. The bible talks about how as believers we go through different trials and testing of our faith. “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” 2Cor4V8-12

So to continue from where I stopped the last time, I was finally redeployed to Lagos state on health grounds and was recruited by a good firm for my service year. After my NYSC, the same firm retained me in its employment. Along the line, I braced up and told myself that it was time for me to take the big step and live on my own reason being that I was much older and I believed that I needed to become independent and to prove that I could take care of me. It wasn’t easy to say the least, because immediately I ventured out on my own, the stock market crashed and many firms started to downsize and I was asked to leave my first job.
Could life be any worse? But as usual God had gone ahead of me and two weeks after that, I got another job. But this didn’t end my trials because very soon, after almost a year of working in this new place, my health started to suffer once more. I started having frequent crises and shortness of breath. After a while it became obvious that the job was taking a toll on my health. My boss being so kind offered me the opportunity to work three times a week but I refused and resigned. Oh! I learnt such a good lesson after my decision. Yes, I call it a good lesson, because it was the one of the best disciplines the lord gave me in a long time. How? I’ll explain.

You see, sometimes when you get something on a platter of gold, you usually do not value it until you lose it. How many people can boast of firms giving them the opportunity to work three times a week, but I had walked away thinking that the savings I had made would be sufficient to see me until my next job. Would you like to know what happened to the said savings? It was gone in an instant. Wild spending you say? Oh no! very different from that.
A month after my resignation, the landlord of my house decided that he no longer wanted to live in the house and asked me to move. Perfect timing. This was the last thing I expected. I had to dip my hand into my savings and bring out two years rent (which was the minimum payment then) to get another house. In a space of a two months, the so called savings was gone. As if this was not enough, I had another relapse. Don’t get me wrong please, the relapse was not from the Lord but the issue with my landlord taught me a vital lesson.

Whilst I was recovering from the relapse, it suddenly dawned on me that I had no job. I’m sure my folks had thought that I would pack and move back home, but I was relentless. The devil could break my body but definitely not my spirit. Soon enough, I took up a job as a temporary assistant to a school teacher. It could barely pay a quarter of my rent but I kept at it and soon enough, this same teacher recommended me as a special needs teacher to a special needs student and my salary increased.
The pay coming from my previous job was no where near what I had now become used to but it was sufficient. Along the line, beads making in Nigeria became prevalent, so I ventured into it and not too long after, I started making beads in form of ladies jewelry to augment my income. I did this job for a complete session and just when the session was over and I was wondering where the next job would come from, God showed up but by this time I had learnt my lesson.

To say the truth, the entire process was not easy because I remember several times I went back to God in prayer pleading earnestly for his forgiveness for walking away from my previous job (which he had given me on a platter of gold) and asking him to remember me once more.
The lesson I learnt? that jobs were not easy to come by and one must be grateful because it is the Lord that gives a man the ability to gain wealth.The Lord had been gracious to me but I had taken it for granted and so had to wait for a complete year and a half before he finally showed up with the next job. Nonetheless, the year and half was not in vain because I impacted on a child’s life and this would go a very long way. This special needs child I had sat by throughout the session was now able to school on his own and no longer required assistance.

This is who the lord is, not only did I learn a lesson, he ensured that it was also a blessing in the process. Despite the fact that the discipline did not seem pleasant because of the various ways I had to live within a very stringent budget, he ensured that he had made the provision – a roof over my head, transportation and an income to keep me going. This was all I needed. I look back now and I’m grateful.

So my closing words to you today is… “In whatever situation you find yourself, give thanks”. Yes your situation may be one painful ride, see the good in it and give thanks to God for the mercies he showers on you each day. It may be the opposite case for you if your situation is a seamless ride, still give him thanks because it’s by his grace that you are alive to enjoy whatever blessings he’s showered on you. In so doing, he’ll change your perspective and open your eyes to the endless possibilities he’s made available to you which you cannot see by complaining or being high minded.
Take care.