THE EXPRESSION

Whenever I sing the lines of Hezekiah Walker’s ' I Need You to Survive', I find myself reflecting deeply. That song doesn’t just stir emotions; it provokes thoughts. I don’t know if it’s just me, but every time I hear or sing those lyrics, I begin to ask myself: Do I really love the people I claim to love? Do I see them as part of God’s body, or am I trying to play the role of the entire body? Do I truly stand with them when they need me the most? Do I even listen to their opinions, or do I always insist on having the final say? Do the words I speak to them not cut deeply like a butcher's knife? Do my words instigate suicidal thoughts or help heal their wounds? Do I honestly pray for them, or are my silent thoughts toward them laced with bitterness or competition? The truth is, they may not be oxygen, but you still need people to do life. You need shoulders to lean on. Ears to listen. Hands to hold. You need presence. Fellowship. Unity. So let me ask you: Whenever you s...

  As rightly said by C.S. Lewis in The Case for Christianity : “We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then going forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road…” This quote resonated with me. Because progress isn’t just about moving forward; it’s about moving in the right direction. And sometimes, that means stopping. Turning around. Alighting from the wrong path to retrace your steps toward healing, wholeness, and truth. So today, I choose to alight . I alight from wrong decisions. I alight from abusive relationships. I alight from messy thoughts. I alight from people-pleasing. I alight from timidity. I alight from shyness. I alight from anything that belittles me. I alight from regrets, from my past. I alight from unforgiveness. I alight from hatred. I alight from guilt. I alight from low self-estee...

  The best thing you can do for yourself as the week unravels is to add value to your life, as much as you can. Because truthfully, it doesn’t take much for people to move on. They will forget you like you never existed; not because you died, but simply because you’re no longer in their sight. And once you're out of sight, you gradually become absent from their minds. But your value? Your good works? They linger. It’s no surprise when days, weeks, even months go by and no one checks in to ask, ‘How are you?’ People just move on as if you were never there, as if your presence never made a difference, as though your impact didn’t matter. But here’s the thing: every now and then, someone will remember. They’ll say, ‘Oh, there was someone who once did this or that…’ And that will be it. People may not remember your name or how long you were in their lives. But they will remember the value you brought, the energy you carried, the lives you touched, the good you did, the love you gave. T...

  Before I go straight to what I have to talk about today, I’d like to share a story with you. I had this buddy in secondary school. He was my senior in every sense of the word: age-wise, class-wise, and knowledge-wise, so I respected him like I would any senior. One day, while we were studying together, he asked me to stop calling his name with any title, just plain ‘Paul’. It didn’t sit well with me, so I asked again to be sure I heard him right, and he confirmed it. The African child in me, specifically the Nigerian child, couldn’t come to terms with that because we treat respect for elders as a big deal, even if it’s just a one-year gap. And here I was, before a senior, asking me not to call him ‘Senior’ or ‘Uncle’. It sounded weird. I tried calling the name without any title, and it felt so awkward. I felt this heaviness in my mouth whenever I tried to pronounce just the name. Mind you, that’s also my dad’s name, so you get the awkward feeling, right? As if I were calling my d...

  I want to talk about another common statement: ‘Do unto others what you want them to do unto you.’ As much as this is believed to be a Biblical principle, it often ends up being used as a tool for emotional blackmail, especially when the person it's being used on is not outspoken or expressive. You'll just hear: ‘Do unto others what you want them to do unto you.’ But let’s flip the page for a moment. Do you do unto others what you want them to do to you? Can you take what you give? I’m asking because the way some people treat others, they wouldn’t tolerate half of it if the roles were reversed. That’s when you start hearing things like: ‘I don’t take nonsense.’ ‘I have zero tolerance for disrespect.’ Yada yada... Calm down! You’re reacting this way because now, it's happening to you. But given the same conditions, at that exact moment, Time T, what would the outcome have been if the tables were turned? Would you have done better, or worse? Here’s the thing: You want peopl...

Do You Truly Love Yourself?   I’m sure most of us are familiar with the saying, ‘...love your neighbour as yourself’.  A lot of us make use of it regularly without actually having an understanding of what it is. It’s a beautiful instruction, but often quoted without a true understanding of what it really means. There may be other views on it, but today, I want to share my view with you, and I hope it gets you thinking. Before you go all ‘love your neighbour as yourself’, ask the big question: ‘Do I love myself?’ It is important to ask that because you can’t give what you don’t have. You must love yourself enough to be able to love someone else right. It is the amount of love you have for yourself that will reflect on how you treat yourself and the people around you, just like a mirror image of yourself.  What Does Self-love Mean to You?  Self-love is beyond feeling ecstatic or having butterflies in one’s tummy. Self-love does not always mean comfort or pleasure; it i...