DEXTER NJUKA
SOMETIMES the night can be so creepy. Especially so if one is awoken because of a nightmare. More scary is if one is home alone.
A few days ago I woke up from this dream about a good friend having a bad time with this superior at work. Suffice to say that I have been feeling for him about his predicament because when he had gone on study leave, his good superior that had practically mentored him had died.
So there came a Pharaoh who didn’t know him and instead of leveraging his input, the new “boss” started frustrating him. Worse still both his superior and himself are young and are pursuing their post graduate studies. Typical of any competitive organisation, isn’t it? And so he won’t be allowed to go on study leave.
Maybe I thought too much about his predicament that I ended up with a creepy night. There and then I whispered a prayer, petitioning God to interpose in his plight. And I had to text this friend to remind him that I was hoping thing worked well for him.
This indeed made me reflect on life and realize that sometimes life can indeed be unfair. The very following day a pupil at the school I work as chaplain came with tears all over her cheeks crying that life is unfair. Consoling her, I agreed that indeed life can be unfair at times.
Yes life can be unfair when a man has kept his chastity until he married this woman not knowing that she had lived a careless life, only to discover that actually she has had been on Anti-Retroviral drugs all along
Life can be unfair to discover that your spouse is cheating on you and more especially of all people if it’s with your friend or worse still if it’s with your colleague at work. And when the marriage is dissolved in court, you become the fall guy.
Life can be unfair when for so many years you have waited on a promotion, only to watch such an opportunity slip off and only giving to the newer employee and you go to the bathroom and sitting on the pan, you cry like a baby and ask God, “why me?”
Life can be unfair at times when you discover you have not been given a bursary and only to learn that it has instead been given to someone who doesn’t even qualify for it. Do you write a suicide note that life is not fair before you head that direction?
Life is unfair to be born not knowing who your father is, only to be told so when you are grown up and that in fact your father denied responsibility and that he was busy with other women when your mother was busy fending for you.
Life can be unfair when you wake up from a coma and fail to feel your legs only to be told that you were hit by a careless driver and both your legs have since been amputated, and you gonna be stuck on a wheelchair for the rest of your life.
Life can be unfair when you are told by your boyfriend that your relationship is over. He has since moved on and he is actually marrying someone else the next weekend.
Just in this same week of wring this piece, my pupil has lost both her guardians in a road accident and a colleague’s wife has lost the twins just after delivery.
But do you go on grouching and wailing that you are just a victim of circumstances? Do you go about the street with placard for all to read about your sad story?
Do you go about seeking attention and when not finding it, you contemplate on suicide?
Yes you can cry. Sometimes I have put Obama’s face in tears on my WhatsApp profile and when one or two ask me what is wrong, I explain that even powerful people cry. But after crying, whether the person sitting next to me offers their hankie or not, I have to pick myself up and move on.
Mozegetta sung and I can say it here again, ‘Ala guys ni time.’
If you don’t get that job or marriage or whatever and you feel life ‘sucks’, remember that it’s just a matter of time.
The Bible tells it all: Jesus Himself as the Son of God was unfairly treated. Joseph was unfairly treated. When he was thrown into the pit and gripping the rope provided, instead that same rope led him into slavery and many years in jail in Egypt. And it was all about time.
Time heals. It heals all wounds.
The author is a freelancing Christian Apologist.