“Wow! It is a month until your 40th birthday,” says a friend on November 5, 2024. I hope you are planning to celebrate this one. “She said so because she knew I don’t care much about birthday celebrations. For me, birthdays are periods of reflection, an opportunity to carry out analepsis and paralepsis of my life pari passu my life goals, ambitions, and objectives. During birthdays I analyze my life journey, where I am coming from, where I am, and where I am going. I take stock of my blessings and my challenges. I carry out SWAT analysis on myself all over again, I appreciate myself where I need to, encourage myself where I should, criticize myself accordingly, and then draw strength from all these to move ahead for the new year, set goals, and be ready for the next year.
For my 40th birthday, I was meditating, in the mood for my analepsis and paralepsis when I felt the breath of God on my spirit, He said to me, “Forget your “analysis paralysis” for a second, this year, your analepsis and paralepsis should strictly be on God’s grace over your life. You are not just a reason some people believe God exists, you are also a symbol of His goodness and mercy. Remember God’s goodness over your life in the 40 years of your existence, document the specific times you have had these supernatural encounters, and share with the people in your contact sphere”. That is what this write-up is about.
In plot twists in movies, especially in Nollywood, there is a thing called “the hand of God.” This refers to a sudden change in fortune or anything miraculous that seems too good to happen in real life. Some people experience the “Hand of God” maybe once or twice in their lifetime, but for me, it is so common that it could have easily been taken for granted. But I am not a great fool; I am grateful.
In the bible Rebekah was pregnant with twins; Jacob and Esau, the bible says before they had done anything good or bad, God just chose to love Jacob, and He rejected Esau. God said to Moses, “I will show Mercy on anyone I choose, and I will show compassion on anyone I choose”. I am one of those people that God decides to have mercy and compassion on, we didn’t choose it nor work for it. So it is not of “me” who wills nor of “me” who runs but of God who shows mercy. Without consulting me or anyone for that matter, God just decided long before I was even born to make me a symbol of His goodness and mercy. I am going to share some of my grace stories with you in the next paragraph
I am the sixth of seven children, my parents had given birth five times before I was conceived, one died a few months after he was born, and they had a set of twins on one occasion, the point is, none of those pregnancies was complicated until it was my turn. My mom was pregnant with me for over 2 years. She said at one point, she was chased away from the maternity clinic she used to attend because there was nothing else they could do for her. According to her, the children that were supposed to be my age mate were already crawling, babbling, some taking steps to walk but she was still struggling to give birth to her child.
She and my dad gave up at some point, they were just waiting powerlessly to see how the whole thing would end. On the morning of December 5, 1984, my mom was alone in the house, she stood up to grab her toothbrush to brush her teeth when she suddenly felt the labor pain, and in less than 15 minutes, I was out. She was alone, no one was there with her physically. It was the cry of the champion she had just given birth to that notified neighbors that something was going on. Excuse me, how could she have done that alone with all the complications? To make matters worse, I came out with my placenta around my neck, medical people know that even for a normal pregnancy, a baby having their placenta around their neck during delivery is a complication on its own, not to talk of a complicated pregnancy like that. No one would doubt that the hand of God was involved here.
There are a lot of other stories that clearly show how my life has symbolized God’s goodness and mercy. I don’t know how my siblings would feel reading some of those stories so I won’t share them here. I would only share such stories on platforms that I know they can’t access but let me share more stories with you below:
I came back to Lagos after I completed my compulsory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) program in 2009. Of course, I had no one to go to, I had been catering for myself right from the time I gained admission into the university. I used to go on the street to hawk the book, “DESTROY YOUR FEAR BEFORE IT DESTROYS YOU” I wrote and published myself. I used to manage to live on the proceeds from the sales of this book which was meagre until I got fed up one day in 2010. I had not applied anywhere before this time because I didn’t want to do a “9 to 5” job, but later I was told of a job that was not the usual “9 to 5”. It was a pharmaceutical sales job.
One of the criteria was that the applicant must be able to drive, even a bicycle I couldn’t ride at that point but I applied anyway. I passed the first aptitude test so I was one of the 30 people invited for an interview. I got to the interview venue late; I was the last to get there. The interview was done on a first come first served basis, I was the last to enter for the interview. As I entered the room, one of the interviewers said, “Sorry, we have picked the five candidates we needed, no more slot, all the best”. I was about to turn back when the chairman of the company called me back and started interviewing me alone, right in the presence of others. After five minutes of talking to me, he said, “We have filled all our slots but I don’t know why something in me wants to employ you. We don’t plan to have a branch in Ilorin for now but since you schooled in Ilorin if you don’t mind going to work in Ilorin, consider yourself employed”. Of course, I didn’t mind. They gave me a brand-new car, they didn’t even ask if I could drive or not. I remember that I had to beg a friend to drive me to Ilorin where I kept battling with the car, bashing it, panel beating, and painting it almost every week, till I perfected my driving. That was nothing but mercy.
After one year of being on this job, I was in my apartment one day when I felt this breath in my spirit that my time in Ilorin was up. I was to resign and return to Lagos where my next level was. Resigning meant I was to drop their car, I quickly gathered the funds I had and bought a Tokunbo Honda Accord 1996 car. The day after I got the car, I returned all the properties of the company, packed all my stuff inside the car, and returned to Lagos with no particular destination in mind. I got to Lagos with just about twenty thousand naira cash. I moved into a hotel in Gbagada where I was paying three thousand naira per night. The owner of the hotel wasn’t an easy person, he was a “no-nonsense” man. I was in this hotel until one Friday when I realized I was left with just three thousand, five hundred naira. I would be left with nothing after paying for that day’s stay. How would I be able to pay for the weekend and if I didn’t manage to raise the money on that Friday, I would most likely not be able to do so during the weekend and I was afraid of what the hotel owner would do to me. I was thinking about what to do next when I saw an advert for a mini-flat for rent on the wall with a phone number, I called the number and booked an inspection, the agent said the total payment to be made was six hundred and twenty thousand for two year’s rent. While I was inspecting the apartment, a lady came to meet the agent right in my presence with a cheque of six hundred and twenty thousand naira, but the agent didn’t accept it. He told her (pointing at me) that I had paid. In my mind, I was like what? “I don’t have a dime” but I kept quiet. After inspection, it was time for decision-making. The realtor asked me if I liked the apartment, and I said, yes, but I don’t have funds at the moment, in fact I am not expecting funds in another two weeks but I needed that apartment. Then he said, “Why did you allow me to send the lady with the cheque away?” I said, “You never consulted me or asked me any questions”. I took him to the hotel room I was staying in, he saw all my loads, I explained to him how I had three thousand five hundred naira left. He said he wasn’t the owner of the property, he was just an agent, what did I want him to do? I said he should just take me to the landlord, and to my surprise, he agreed.
That same night I was introduced to the landlord, an Ibo man, Mr Irechukwu, I explained to him the same thing I told the agent. The landlord burst into laughter, “You expect me to allow you to move into my mini-flat apartment in Gbagada, Lagos, without giving me a dime, just promises, it can’t work. I have things I want to do with the money” I said, “thank you”. I turned back to start returning to my hotel room, the man said, “Wait, you wrote this book? (pointing to one of my books that I earlier gave to the agent)” I said, “Yes” then he said, “why do I feel burdened to help you?” If I give you this apartment, two weeks must be two weeks, I said, “yes”. I moved into the Miniflat apartment that same night. I didn’t pay the man two weeks later, I paid him after about 6 weeks and I had to pay for just one year and I went on to spend three good years in the house. I knew it was a miracle from the beginning, but I appreciated it better when I got to know more about the landlord. He was a nice man actually but he never joked with his money. The fact that he allowed me to move into the apartment the way I did was like when God used ravens to feed Elijah during a drought.
Perhaps one of my favorite testimonies was the one I had in 2012. For some reason, I wanted to move on from the apartment I mentioned in the above paragraph so I decided to look for another apartment. I was taken to an apartment at Anthony. It was supposed to be a miniflat but the rooms were standing alone, not linked the way a miniflat should be linked. I was asked to make payment and wait for two weeks so they could use that period to link the rooms and put the place in order. The whole thing was well planned, nothing suggested to me that I was about to be duped. I was told I had to meet with the lawyer in charge before I could make payment. According to them, the lawyer was a busy man, I had to block him in court. We fixed an appointment to meet with the lawyer at court 5, somewhere around Iyana Ipaja or so. It was a court indeed, that was the only time I have ever been to that place till now so I don’t know if that was the way it is usually but on that day, soldiers and police officers were going up and down with guns and a court session was going on. The lawyer came out and asked that we sit and talk quickly in my car. We finalized the whole thing, as I was about to send the money, I had this breath that whispered to me that I was about to be duped. I said to the lawyer who was an elderly man in his late 60’s that I didn’t know why I was having the feeling that I was about to be duped. The man replied in his fake American accent, “What an insult? What nonsense, I have a son in Chicago in the US, and I have a daughter in London, how much is this money we are talking about here?” I said, “I am sorry sir”. I gave them the money. The following morning, it was almost like someone tapped me and woke me up, telling me I had been duped but I was living alone and the doors were locked. I jumped out of bed and went straight to the house. I saw a banner of a lawyer in front of the house, I didn’t see it there before. I called the number on the banner telling them what happened before and they told me blatantly that they were not aware of any transaction. I called the numbers I used to call, they were all switched off. It dawned on me I had been duped. I was worried but as usual, I didn’t get overly disturbed, I didn’t even tell anyone around me what happened, I only consulted a friend who was working at Glo at that time to know if there was a way they could help track the owner of the number they used in calling me, my friend promised to get back to me. It wasn’t up to an hour after I spoke with my friend at glo that I got a strange call; “hello, my name is Douglas, you were duped yesterday abi, I am one of them that did the job. I don’t want to die o, they only gave me fifty-seven thousand naira out of the money”. I was speechless, according to the guy, something or someone appeared to him at night that he should return my money or he would die. To cut a long story short, the guy transferred the fifty-seven thousand naira to my account immediately and orchestrated how we caught everyone else involved in the deal and my money was returned to me. What or who was that something or someone that ordered him to return my money in his dream?
I can go on and on with “the hand of god” stories in my life. Ask yourself, how does a complete novice in real estate development execute and complete a three hundred-million-naira project within nine moments with just fifty-million-naira capital? This is why I don’t overthink anything. Whatever is mine, is mine. What God that has done all the wonders in my life doesn’t give me; I don’t need it.
I know there are success principles here and there, but if I want to be sincere, there are things I can’t explain. How can someone you are meeting for the first time buy into your project, and transfer seventy million naira into your account with no document except, “my spirit is comfortable with you”? Whatever little things I must have achieved are in order with Pareto’s principle, 80% grace, 20% effort. I live by godly principles and I try my best to always do the right things but some things are purely beyond explanation. When these things happen over and over again, it is easy for one to begin to see them as normal but they are not normal, others are not experiencing the same. I have a practical understanding of the bible verse, “Paul plants. Apollo waters, but it is God that gives the increase”
My workers wonder why I am so liberal in my deals, no money is too big to make me misbehave. I don’t do business with the mindset of taking advantage of anyone, greed is far from me, mostly I get cheated but there is always a way of escape. Someone once asked me boldly, why am I so altruistic?” I don’t know how not to be. The Bible says, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy” The reverse is also the case for me, blessed are those that receive mercy for they shall be merciful.
I don’t care about what the economy says even though I get affected by it too, I know there will always be a way out, this is because I operate from the understanding that I am not alone, someone has been beside me since I was in my mother’s womb and that someone has told me a long time ago never to leave me nor forsake me. Whichever way it goes, it will favor me. I cannot be disadvantaged. If I ever run into trouble, it is because there is a lesson to be learnt or something of greater value to derive from it. I am blessed, I am a symbol of God’s grace, goodness, and mercy. “Those people envying me are wasting their time, I am not better than them in any way, the glory they see in me is not mine, it is Christ’s” This statement has been my bio on Facebook since 2009 when things were rough for me, it didn’t make sense then, what was there in me to be envied but it is surely making sense now. I mean, someone who was angry with me, fighting me said, “sebi ki n sagbara e, aanu lori gba” (it is not by your power, it is just grace), you see it is so obvious that it is undeniable. It is not of me that wills, nor of me that runs but it is of God who shows me mercy. It is that God that this 40th birthday is dedicated to
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!