Life without perfection

And at the end I will say to myself, 'there is a dream I never dreamt, a thought I never think of, someone I never knew, a goal I never achieved and that was...?
No man achieved it 100%. What is life without perfection?

#NoNegativity #ThinkingGoodTheOtherWay

Aguri M. C.

A helpful night

It was not funny when he got to the front of the barracks gate after visiting his sister and her family. There was no bus outside that night, buses were scarce and it was about some minutes past 8’o clock. He decided to trek down home. On his way home he jogged like those militia. He couldn’t hold the joy he felt while trekking. It was fun for him.

And suddenly, a man called him from behind. He turned his back and saw someone whose eyes was full of frustration. The man was busy fixing his car’s tyre. It wasn’t funny at all. At that time he called him in low tones for help saying “Abeg bros nah inside school gate you dey go? Abeg come help me. This tyre no dey gree enter.” At his tone it showed that the car owner himself was afraid of assistance but he had no choice. He just couldn’t help calling the boy for help. Though according to him he was afraid at first because he had once had a funny experience when he called for help some time ago. He got robbed by a man o’ war guy instead of being helped. So he prayed as he called for help this time that he would not have similar experience. The car broke down at the front of main gate beside the University of Benin. The guy he called was afraid to raise a step forward. Instead of rushing to help he just started recollecting at all the sermons on “be careful with strangers”. He first retrenched to help looking at how save he was at that location. It was somehow clear to him that the helpee was only harmless and really needed a helper. And so he went ahead to offer him some help.

When he got closer he wondered how helpful he could be to the man even though he had never fixed a car tyre before. He believed he could fix it as he went further to collect the necessary tools from the man. One thing that gave him so much confidence was the fact that he was the engineer of his own bicycle though he hasn’t own a car yet. At last he fixed the tyre perfectly. It was so wonderful that the man carried a spare tyre with him he would have been in a mess that day.

The car owner could not believe his eyes. According to him, he had always felt the tyre fixing was one easy thing to do anytime he sees the so called vulcanisers fixing it in their workshops. It was that day he knew it was not so easy that there were little tricks behind it as he was challenged in fixing the tyre himself. And now he would not allow the poor boy to go. He told the boy to wait and collect something from him for the sake of his kind gestures to him as way of saying thank you. The boy collected the money he offered and both of them were happy. The man complained that it was a road in Ekosodin community a nearby village that damaged his car. And he vowed not to visit that community again. The boy got touched by those words. The man left with the car and the boy took some part of the money given to him to transport himself back home. That man may not know the reason why he was trapped that day. It may not necessarily be because of the bad road that trapped his car that day. It may as well be that God has some plans ahead of him like he delayed him against some bad future occurrences. Sometimes it may be the case of Wisdom 18:18-19 where it was stated that "Thrown half-dead, some here and some there, they made known why they were dying, for the dreams that had troubled them had also instructed them, lest they perish without knowing the reason for their misfortune." I had this thought when the man actually vowed that he will seize to visit Ekosodin village again. Though he may be right, the road is bad.

Everyone is to be blamed. At first the government failed to reconstruct the road and now there are always cases of car breakdown. Let us help each other and God will help us all. It was fine that the boy passing helped the man not minding the fact that something bad might happen to him that night. This story was like the case of the Good Samaritan in the gospel of Luke 10:33. It is really good to be good anywhere and anytime. Sirach 29:9 reads "For the commandments' sake, help the poor man; see his need and do not turn him away empty-handed. But more importantly in this case the letter to the Corinthians 16:11 warns that "Let no one look down on him. Help him continue his journey so that he may return to me without difficulties. I am expecting him with the brothers." In the joy of helping is the joy of love. The man said “if it was not that you assisted, I wouldn’t have known my next story. You are God-sent”. He thanked the boy joyfully. The bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that "and give thanks to God at every moment. This is the will of God, your vocation as Christians."

Some lessons learnt are stated below:

·         Always carry spare accessories when travelling

·         Be good

·         That little thing that you fail to correct today may cause a great havoc tomorrow

Aguri M. C.