Is he able?

maybe the question should be, "Are you willing?"

March 1, I had a conversation for approximately two-hour with a friend – well, he is just a next-door neighbor. A causal talk, "this one you are smiling this evening" he asked as he climbed the stairs behind me, led us to sitting down for hours dabbling into various subjects.

"The fastest two hours" that's what he called it.

"How are you doing?" He started formally
"Well, I'm still alive" I replied laughing.
This was the second tangible conversation we ever had, the first occurred on Valentine's Day.

In that first conversation that started with "thank you for sweeping my corridor last Saturday". I was standing at my door while he stood across with a sweeping brush, reciprocating what I did last Saturday. It was in that standing position that we discovered we both have interest in history, reading books, and the most admirable is that we think alike on certain issues. I take my last statement back; the most admirable thing was the discovery that we both are the only child of our parents.

I wanted to go further to detail how my dresses have become larger than me by a few inches, but I stuff that thought back into the deepest recesses of my brain.

Photo by Etienne Boulanger on Unsplash

"I'm doing pretty well" I explained.

After a few banters about my always-staying-indoors attitude, we initialized the conversation by brushing through a book I was currently reading, Da Vinci code. I reviewed of the book, and he was fascinated.

"You mean Leonardo Da Vinci, the great artist, was a grand master of a fraternity!" He exclaimed.
"I didn't say so, the book did"

"I find it difficult to believe, I have always held Da Vinci in high esteem" he said with disappointment, "this is why I'm often skeptical about men held in high regard”
Still with disappointment, he pointed out how a good number of such fraternities have been running for generations.

From that, he raised the issue of religion. "I hate religion" he declared. First off, he explained what he meant, then he went on to explain how as a child his mother took him along to various churches. "I was just a child; I didn't have much power.

Next, we talked about materialism; how our generation have sworn to do anything, literally anything to amass richness.

"In certain part of Nigeria, 12-year-old boys are already into rituals or fraud, and most times, they have their parents’ consent. We are just digging our own graves," he explained with a straight face while looking through the iron bars that shielded the corridor, "most of us have forgotten that patience is a virtue needed to navigate through life."

We talked about our childhood, it was a natural thing for we both, and we love referring to the past most often.
I was growing up normally until we relocated to an entirely different neighborhood, where I joined the street boys to do all manner of stuff. I was at the top of the food chain at the expense of my academics in high school. However, I underwent a deep transformation while waiting for admission into the university. It was then I told myself I couldn’t continue living this way.

In summary, “I grew up in the streets,” he emphasized, rubbing his goatee.

"Well for me” I started, I grew up either playing outside, watching the movie Julius Caesar or hearing the story of Alexander the great"

"You can't be serious, you mean you didn't watch cartoons?"

"Of course I did, but not under my parent’s roof" I explained, and we both laughed hard.

I asked him, "Do you believe God exist?"

"I do" he answered immediately and went ahead to elaborate on different incidence where he literally saw God come through for him. "I just knew it was God"

"Wow, your story is profound," Let me ask you, "do you think allowing God to direct your life would retard you"

With a deadpan face, he replied, "Yes, many instructions in the Bible no longer serve a purpose in this wicked and selfish world. How do you expect me to scale through life as a man if I'm a Jesus’ boy?”
People will just deliberately hurt me and go scot-free, No way!! In fact, I'm closer to the flesh than to the spirit" he confessed with a complacent smile, “I will endeavor to journey with God deeply in my later years, not now.”

Photo by Slav Romanov on Unsplash

I was smiling and looking directly at his fair face; inside of me I was glad to have heard his perspective, but I was also having a rethink. "Can I truly navigate life if I remain a follower of Jesus Christ?"
We went on to comb through how selfish and cruel the world is, and it was here we drew the curtain, at exactly 9:52 PM

"You are quite an interesting person" he said.
"I'm very sure of that part of me" I chipped in, smiling as I took my chair inside my room, and we called it a day.
After I did the needful—a cold bath—I felt refreshed. On my bed, I struggled with the thought that was stirred up from the conversation, “can I truly navigate through life as a true follower of Jesus?” it looked impossible, how can I defend myself when I’m accused wrongly without letting hell lose?

How can I stand for the truth when it’s a taboo in most workplace? How can I earn an honest living that glorifies God?

How can I find my soulmate without dabbling into numerous ungodly relationships in search of the one, or how can he find me when my dressing doesn’t wrap tightly around my body?
I felt distraught, and the midst of all that struggle, his words rang a bell in my heart, “I’m closer to the flesh than to the spirit.” A scripture followed immediately,

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 1 Corinth 2:14 (NIV)

Even with the scripture, I was still in doubt. The next day, I woke up quite early. “I needed to find my way to church as quickly as possible before I lost it all,” I thought to myself as I walked to church. The neighborhood was serene with a few persons on the pathway; it was just a few minutes after seven.

I got to church and joined the pre-service prayers, but I couldn’t even pray. “God help my heart and reveal your truth to me” was all I managed to say for the entire forty minutes. The young man standing beside me in the circle was really praying out loud with all intensity, maybe he has found a way to navigate life with God.
From the bible study to the sermon, the only phrase that stuck in my tumultuous mind was this:
“For long, you have allowed the world to dictate to you how to live that it seems like that’s the only way, you have followed the traditions of men, every other thing now sound Gibberish”

Gradually, it dawned on me that the problem was lack of trust and shortsightedness. Many of us Young Christians are earnestly pursuing our ambitions forgetting that earth is a temporary place, we find it difficult to yield our human desires for fame and visibility at his feet. But imagine what pain it would be to achieve this wonderful stuff and still lose your soul.

On the other hand, God created the heavens and the earth, he knows the heart of all men and most the comforting of all is that he has conquered principalities and powers and have given us his spirit to lead us into all truth.

This doesn't mean that trails won't knock us hard in the face, it will, and because you are a Christian it will be harder simply because the Devil have come to steal, kill and destroy. However, we fight all these from a point of victory.

Times may have changed, the world may have become engrossed in thicker darkness, but Jesus is still very much able to guide as many who trust totally in him.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make plans; however, we should do that with an open heart knowing that God is sovereign.

Remember:
If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Romans 14:8 (NIV)