The journey of 2013 – Meka’s story

Guess the different stories have given you reasons to be thankful and to take a stock of the year as you plan for the new year. I bring you Meka and he Blogs at http://wordsmitch.wordpress.com

Intro: I consider myself the word smith, because I wield words at will. I’ve got a rich verbiage, and my diction is an acquired taste. I have these tall dreams, where my writing take me places my imaginations can’t. I used to be an Editor of some sorts, for the KNOW Magazine team, a Petroleum Engineer by discipline and presently, I am the public relations officer at a leading world class conglomerate – The Chrome Group.

This year I took the final steps in my rites of passage to becoming the man I always envisaged. I rounded up my yearlong National Youth Service and the icing on the cake was not just that my life was spared as against the norm of people losing their lives during the course of this service to our father land, but that I landed a lucrative job a week after service.

 Looking back at this past year, all I see are things to be thankful for.

Considering all the uncertainties as regards where I was headed and how my life would play out, coupled with the stiff economic situations and despicably low employment rate, the Lord has remained faithful all through it; I haven’t had to beg.

 Most hardworking folks at some point start to think all their good fortune and excellent results are of their own doing, but that’s absolutely wrong. There is nothing we have that wasn’t given to us by God and the sooner we understood that and thus are a lot more thankful, the more under His grace and provision we would abide.

 I’d call this my year of increase, because it is evident in how everything turned out. My mother just got promoted to the post of Director in the Federal Civil Service; the highest level any civil servant could attain, not forgetting the obvious pay rise. It’s a big deal because she has been denied this for so long, even when it was obvious she was well-deserving of it. She refused to run with the crowd who paid for theirs, instead trusting in the Lord who perfects all things in His time.

 In Church, the Senior Pastor brought to our notice that every time we entered a local flight in Nigeria and landed safely, the Lord had just dashed us 15 Million Naira; that is the money payable to your family in the event of a crash. So going by that calculation, I’ve been richly blessed to the tune of about a hundred Million Naira.

 Also I quit an addiction that has had a hold over my life for about 7 years. I don’t know where I picked up the smoking habit but I sure do know it was threatening to wreck me. I’m sure peer pressure had a hand in my starting it in the first place, but then my unrivalled dedication to things I’m passionate about helped fuel it for those long years. I tried quitting many times, but I always found myself going back to it with one logical reason that would suffice at the time. The devil had a lot of tactics; friends, my immediate environment and my low self-will. By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit was and is my readily available helper. I took my predicament to him and quitting was no longer as hard as it was. I won two battles that day, the fight against the habit and the strengthening of my resolve (resolution, firmness, determination).

I lost a close family friend, someone exactly like a sister but just like we are asked to, I give thanks to God for this and all things because He is worthy of our thanks regardless.

 That said, I’m thankful for the life I have lived and for the life I still have; for the warm heart that beats within me and for the lungs through which I breathe freely, for a family that can’t be compared to any other, for friends strategically placed in my life and for a chance to be a joint heir to His kingdom.