Guest post

I met my learned colleague, Sopuru Christian, while in the Nigerian Law School, Kano and did he make an impression? I was elated when I received his message saying he had a post for us. I'm sorry I'm just putting this up. Thanks Sopuru. Yes, you can also send in your posts, i'll be glad to put them up. Continue to read his story.

BIBLE CHALLENGE
Today I just dragged myself off the bed. The morning dew was still dripping down the glass windows. Today was one of those days you just didn’t feel like stepping off the bed. The birds gave that soft coo-coo that made you want to sleep more. My roommate was still deep in sleep and I didn’t want him to  out-sleep me.  But I knew I had lectures by 8am. If I didn’t stand up now to read the Bible, now that it was still 6am in the morning, I was going to drift back to sleep and wake up by 7, by which time, I will be in a rush to eat, bath and go to school.

I made for the Bible that was sitting quite comfortably on the plastic table on the corner of the room. As I reached for the Bible, my phone rang. Immediately I was done with the call, I dumped my Bible back on the table where I had picked it up from and immediately picked up my books. My friend had just informed me that he had confirmed that what we had this morning was no lecture, but that the lecturer was going to give us a surprise test too. It was understandable that I had to dump my Bible today. I had hardly read anything on that course.  By the way I can read my Bible this evening when I came back from all of today’s running around.
The next day.

I really cannot account for all that happened yesterday. Today I was a little determined to read the Bible. I made my way to the table but I could not find my Bible. I remembered then that my friend next door had called me to request permission to carry my Bible to a night vigil. The other translation around was a King James Bible, and trust me, you don’t want to start your day with some King James! My roommate had a newer translation, but then I had to wait until he was awake to borrow it from him. Some ideas bumped into my head. Some of the ideas suggested I just walk around to ‘hail’ my neighbors, but I would have none of that.

As these things were going through my head, my friend from next door bumped into my room. The unique thing about this my friend was that he always didn’t have time to cook, but he had ample time to eat with anyone who had the time to cook. He wanted to know if I had fetched water from the tap yesterday. Our house tap does not run every morning. Sometimes it just pretty much runs in the evening and that was it. Those who were wise enough always got enough water for the next day during those evening spurts. Clearly my friend needed water and I obliged him.  I guessed it was not just water that my friend wanted. His next statement was to affirm that my position.
“Are you making food this morning?” he asked.
I told him that the fact that I had no lectures this morning did not translate into fasting and prayer.
“Ok o,” he said between chuckles, “I will ‘show’ when you’re done cooking.”

As he left, my roommate opened his eyes. Evidently the noise my ‘visitor’ was making had disturbed him. He asked to know if it was ‘bluetooth’-for that was the name we had given the young man, that just came in. I laughed and told him that it was surely him.
He then told me that the room next door had collected our kerosene container together with the kerosene inside and had not even returned the container. I was angry. In fact angry was a word too mild to reflect how I felt.  I jumped off the chair I had been sitting on and stormed in to the next room.
“Who dared use up my kerosene without letting me know?” I thundered at the people I met in the room. They rose to defend themselves and before long, altercations began.

At the end, I did not read any Bible that day. Who even reads the Bible on the day he and his neighbour just finished shouting at each other?

The next morning, when I opened my eyes I was face to face with the Bible as I had rolled over to the edge of the bed with my back to the ceiling and my face to the floor. It looked like my friend had returned my Bible, but had now dumped it beside the bed for me. My roommate was still soundly asleep. I picked it up and dusted off the little dust that had settled on it. I opened the pages I saw a devotional inside it. Somehow my friend who had borrowed the Bible had forgotten the devotional inside it. I opened the devotional for that particular day in the calendar. The devotional spoke to me. It referred me to Philippians Chapter four as the passage for the day. On second thoughts I picked up my phone and switched it off. I got up and shut the door firmly; surely the devil would be away today. I read Philippians chapter four, the message from the passages was touching. Soon I was to wander off in thoughts. I remembered that although we had exams in two weeks time, I still hadn’t paid the fees. My thoughts wandered but my eyes were still on the passage I was reading. This continued for a while until my eyes fell on the verse fourteen of the passage. It read
 “But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Tears came to my eyes as I saw God’s word come alive to me. When I was done, my spirit was doubly exhilarated. God has through the Bible given me hope.

That afternoon my mother called me. She told me that my aunty had phoned in from Lagos. My mother told her that I needed money for my school fees. She had promised to transfer the money and actually did transfer the money later in the afternoon. I was just full of praise to God.

Today unlike yesterday and the day before, I had won the challenge over the devil. I had finally read my Bible.

Thanks for reading bloghearts. Love, Anuoluwapo.