being Grateful for a near death experience.

*Today's blog will probably read like rambling. It is a collection of thoughts and may not flow logically. I beg your pardon. :)*

Four years back, I had been facing some challenges at work and talking about it to people that cared to listen and was hoping to get some advice on the best approach to solve those problems. Little did I know that a bigger and more immediate challenge was waiting for me at the close of work. At about 6pm, I left the office, mentally preparing for the long drive that awaited me. I used to work in ikeja and reside in festac and so i just had to use the apapa oshodi expressway. It had been a long hard week, and I was looking forward to having a bath and getting straight into bed.

This was not going to be so easy...

All of a sudden at ilasamaja there was this heavy traffic jam. At a point all cars including mine were at a standstill. What happened?! There was a petrol tanker that had exploded up front, I could see the fire from my seat and the glow coming from that direction. It appeared to be one of those abandoned trucks left on the highway, and luckily no car was in its immediate vicinity.
It was very busy burning up all the petrol in it so we just had to wait
...and wait
....and wait..

After about 5hours, we heard continuous gun shots. In panic, I couldnt help but be cyncical "Very opportunistic,very typical". Armed Robbers took the opportunity of a traffic jam to rob motorist and other weary travellers!
Ah, well those on foot and public transport took to flight but motorist like me had no where to run to.I then wondered whether it will be my last day on earth. One has to be familiar with cities like Lagos,Portharcourt etc to know that life could be lost at any time,anywhere in those areas. I decided to contact three people by text and let them know about my current dilemma. One of them was my mum. My mum and the other friend (who has since effectively chosen not to be a friend anymore)replied with prayers,but the third person replied philosophically. He said "Death should not be feared but accepted but God,your tongue and faith can decide for you when it is time to go..."

The prayers strengthened my faith, the advice was somewhat soothing and I thank God am alive today. I ran away from the car with other weary workers, until they armed robbers looted to their fill and drove away, shooting sporadically. Then we waited till the petrol burnt to the ground (fire fighters were nowhere to be seen) and finally got back to the car and drove home.

I got in really late but at least I was safe. I remembered those words "Death should not be feared but accepted but God,your tongue and faith can decide for you when it is time to go..." and it got me thinking; if you thought it was your last hour and you had a mobile phone,and could contact anyone on earth who will you call?

I thanked my God for everything that happened.. YES EVERYTHING!, for my managers who were putting all sorts of pressure on me, because it shows that I am tougher than I think, for the payroll staff who 'mistakenly' took 90% of my income as tax deductions, because it shows that I can handle scarce resources, for spending close to 7hours stuck on a road, watching helplessly as a tanker burnt to the ground, then hiding behind a kiosk so armed robbers could loot as much as they wanted. Because it shows that I am healthy enough to run, lucid and creative enough to survive and matured enough to see the lessons in all of it. YES, I really praised His Name.
I mean..really, really REALLY! My thoughts turn to praises!!
I think some of us underestimate the power of praise!
For instance, I was hailing(slang for a type of praising) one of my female colleagues at work the day and saw how she glowed with pride and accepted the compliments. It was genuine and was from inside of her. It made me realise just how important praise should be to every Christian.

God inhabits the praises of His people. Praises can and do work wonders in our lives. Imagine how proud we feel when people praise us,whether through periodical job appraisals and I am guessing for the married ones amongst us,when our spouses are so appreciative of some thing we did. We, literally, feel high, we feel like we can take on the universe and we end up working harder at the service we rendered...its a lovely feeling.

Now it stands to reason that if we were created in the image and likeness of our Heavenly father, I mean the One who sent His only beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to come in the flesh and die for our sins, and to rise up from death to heaven where He is till He returns for the eternal judgement, (just wanted to be clear on Who am writing about), then He will love our praises.

Praises brought down the walls of Jericho, praises added 15 years to Hezekiahs life, praises are still working miracles today. So why dont we stop right now, forget our worries, ignore the day we have had and just...Praise Him..........Think about it. :)

Have a smashtastic week!