His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello. I hate to admit that an ear-ache and sinus congestion is enough to knock me off my feet for the day, but that’s exactly what happened few days ago over the death rumours. Since I couldn’t handle much else, I have watched more (detailed) news than I have in a while.
All of the headlines I saw were unsettling. As I watched many right thinking Kogites in distress, the confusion and tension of our nation’s political sphere,and the precarious international situations, I felt afraid. I felt frustrated that I have absolutely zero control in these crisis moments that could affect the economy. I can’t predict or stop the violence that shows up even in our communities, on our streets, and rocks the foundations of oneness across the state.
I had to take a breath ( and, um, turn off the news). And because I wandered if some of us might be feeling anxious about things too, I wanted to remind us- it’s time to look to our Heavenly Father.
I don’t know what your experience with a father-figure has been on this earth, but I know with absolute certainty that you are by your Father in Heaven. I know that He created you, fearfully and wonderfully, and I know that this planet spins and blows by His power. I know that nations have risen and fallen, but His Word has remained. I know that wars have come and gone, seasons and seasons passed by, the world has changed in so many ways but He is still the same. Yesterday, today and forever He knows exactly where we are going. The Beneficent and Merciful, Author and Finisher, the First and the Last – He is in control of every generation and ours is no exception.
So, no, we don’t know what can unfold even by the end of the night but our Father knows. And whatever the journey requires along the way, He will provide. He will give us the strength, the grace, and the peace to handle every pit-stop, every mountain, every flood, every treacherous terrain. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Do not worry about tomorrow, His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
Almighty Allah wants us to trust Him. To know that He is working things out for our best interests. To know that He can handle the car, the road, the navigation, the destination, and everything we need from beginning to end. He doesn’t want us to be afraid of the future. He doesn’t want us to sit and worry in fact, He wants us to have such peace in His power that we can kick back and rest in Him all along the way.
He wants us to know, without doubt, that nothing can separate us from His love. Nothing. ” For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8).
His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, we are secure in His love and so He will carry us from this chapter of our story to the next, the only He can see. And He will do so with the same love, the same compassion, and the same goodness that He has always shown to us, His children.
His Excellency, whatever happens in this world, He is looking out for you. He’s taking care of all things. And whenever you need Him, He is already right there with you.
Warmest regards!
CPS Sule K. Atawodi (Rtd)
Chairmanship aspirant, Igalamela-Odolu LGA
