Owiwi

How come God was so biased?
How come God seemed to always reward
wayward children with good things
while the faithful ones were forgotten?
Why was it that most of the 
success stories or divine providence 
stories she heard was
about a prostitute finding favour, 
or a thief having an encounter with 
the mercy of God
All around her, it seemed the ones 
who had decided to walk the straight 
and the narrow end up losing out to 
the prodigals!
She wished she could become prodigal
Perhaps then, God would remember her
But she couldn't!
At the age of thirty -three she had 
grown resistant to most of the fun 
that ought to be had
When her mates were clubbing in 
their early twenties, she was a 
fervent fellowship sister
She stayed on the narrow lane, never 
deviating to the right or to the left
While her mates were testing out 
relationship waters, getting their 
hearts broken  and jumping from 
boys to boys like monkeys at a mango 
plantation
She maintained her focus, kept a straight 
course
After she graduated, she had to pray for 
three years before she got a job!
Three years!
Her faith and adherence to the things 
of God did not give her any special 
favour
Yet she held on!
She felt they were just light 
afflictions
She felt they were part of her 
trials of faith
She consoled herself that God was 
keeping an account of her ability 
to endure and if she fainted not the 
reward will suddenly show up!
The reward never came 
She struggled at her place of work
Nobody would walk the straight and the narrow
Everybody was corrupt
She was made the chief accountant of the 
organization where she worked for one 
reason only
The manager realised that her religious 
disposition would help him save money
She thought this was an advantage at the 
beginning, but it was not
The man was just using her to cover for his
own wickedness
Most of the staff members blamed her 
when they didn't get paid their 
salaries on time due to the man's
excesses
She blocked all their other avenues of
making money at the expense of the company
As a result, they resented her
But she was standing for righteousness
She was being a good Christian!
Of course, they called her names
It was nothing new!
Jesus was called much more by sinners
What made it worse was the fact that the
owner of the business did a lot of sinful
things that made her skin crawl but she 
couldn't summon the courage to confront him
because she was scared of losing her job
But the other staff members wouldn't dare
do the same because they were afraid of her
It felt to her as if she was a very partial
judge of sinful behaviour
Those she had authority over wouldn't dare
sin in her presence
She hated sin and would punish iniquity with
the most severe whip
Of course, the other staff members loathed her
Nobody wanted to be friends with her 
They kept her at a distance and gave 
her lots of nicknames
The one that unnerved her the most 
was "Owiwi" (The owl)
She guessed they called her this name 
because she was always walking around 
the establishment
making sure everything was in order
Some other staff members called her 
Thatcher!
When she introduced the "suspension 
without pay punishment" they started 
calling her "The Witch!"
She suffered from persecution
If at any time God ought to arise and 
defend her it ought to have been then!
She was standing for righteousness and 
holiness making sure iniquity was 
punished so that the punishment will be 
a deterrent for would-be sinners
just like the Bible said
And yet, the tag "Miss Witch" stuck!
They called her the name behind her 
back at the 
beginning but as time went on, they 
did so to her face!
Whenever they had a programme in the 
church
she would invite many of the fellow 
staff members
"They need to hear the word of God.
they don't know the dangers of hell
They have never seen hellfire before!
She has!"
She had seen hell four times, even 
been there in a vision once
This was why she was doing everything 
she was doing
She wanted to make heaven
What profit would be in this world 
for her
if she didn't make heaven?
She had denied herself all the earthly 
pleasures
she had been overlooked, vilified 
and labelled
She had never had a day's relationship
She has kept herself Holy, undefiled and 
unsullied for the sake of Christ
Heaven is the focus of her race
But heaven seemed to be uncooperative
Though the Bible said a believer 
should not be envious of the wicked 
when they seemed to prosper
But God seemed to be less interested 
in actually rewarding evil with 
evil and good with good!
Many of her classmates who were notorious
for their sexcapades in school had 
settled down with their own husbands
Some of them are happily married
Some of them, despite all the abortions 
they had while in school, conceived and 
became parents with ease
If only she was God!
She would make all the sinners barren, 
jobless, hopeless and joyless
That way they would repent quickly
Isn't that how the system was supposed 
to work?
Reward the evil with evil and the good 
with good?
God didn't cooperate with believers 
at all
He allowed the wicked to prosper
He allowed the flirts to get married
he allowed the wayward ones to have all the
satisfaction and pleasures of this world
God blessed the ungodly
Sometimes at the expense of the godly
In her office, there was a girl who was 
sleeping with her boss
The girl was a fresh graduate and she 
had been trying to win her soul
Her boss corrupted the girl and got 
her pregnant
When she saw the girl crying one 
morning in the office and 
found out the girl was pregnant
She was secretly happy!
Evil had to be punished
Consequences had to show up!
But when her boss arrived at the 
office
He discussed with the girl and 
the girl's face lit up
He didn't just promise to marry 
the girl
He actually married her and she 
delivered a baby boy without any 
complication
Then the lady became born again
Born again!
Just like many others
The lady cheated the system and 
God accepted her as a child
Both of them would be in the same 
heaven
Both of them would have mansions
And she would be the holy one 
while the lady, the slut, would 
also share the same inheritance
Where was the fairness in that?
It was very galling and unnerving
The partiality of God
Favour ain't fair, right?
She didn't know why it got to her
It had been eating away at her on 
the inside 
for many months
One day it was just too much
Life wasn't worth living
Everybody is making something of 
their lives
She was lonely, depressed and 
extremely hopeless
She just didn't see the need to go 
on living
What would be the point?
There are so many things she desired 
to do
So many things she longed to have
She had nothing!
She gave everything up for the 
sake of the gospel
And the gospel continued to take 
more and more from her until she 
felt hollow and empty!
She couldn't go into the world
She just wanted to die and be done 
with it
That was when she reached out to the 
Brother in Jeans and T-shirt
She told him she was depressed
She hated her life and wanted to 
end it
The joy of her salvation had been 
long gone
She was hopeless, joyless and lifeless
She wrote a long essay about the 
unfairness of God
She poured out her heart
She didn't even know he would read 
her letter
But he did!
He gave her a call and they had 
a meeting
He was just laughing at her
It was irritating
Whenever she said anything she 
felt about
God, he would laugh and laugh
It made her feel he wasn't taking 
her serious
What sort of "Pastor" laughs at 
the plight
of the person he was counselling
She would have left but she 
strangely couldn't
She felt she would just endure 
the counselling
session and go home to end it all
It wasn't as if she didn't reach 
out when she needed help
When she was done talking, he looked 
at her and said 
"You have believed in the wrong gospel"
The gospel of works and performance
You think you can impress God with 
good behaviour in the flesh
You have forsaken the gospel of 
Christ entirely
You have evolved another formula 
for salvation based on your own 
"right standing" with God!
Whenever you see a believer who 
did not rejoice at the salvation and 
benevolence of God to all his children, 
The gospel of works or performance 
is the cause!
You want to merit the goodness of God 
by your own filthy rag type of holiness
You want to earn the joy of the holiness 
by your own righteousness
You want to see sinners cast into the 
fires of hell so as to prove to them 
that you were right and they were wrong!
You think in a carnal way and expect God 
to act in a carnal way
He showed her the scripture
He told her she was self-righteous 
and bitter
He told her she was like the elder 
brother of the prodigal son
She felt entitled to all and felt 
the misery was a just recompense 
of reward for the "sinners"
She hated him
He was trying to "force-feed" her the 
grace message
that they all preach which had turned 
the world upside down
She had a sure defence against his 
message
"Shall we continue in sin and say 
that grace should abound?"
He took her to the book of acts, he 
told her to read
aloud "Acts 15" and explain what she 
read to him
he took her to Acts 7, 8, 9 and 10
He took her to the book of Romans
He told her to go home and study the 
Bible for herself
He said "You were invited to a banquet, 
the table had been set and all the 
provisions made for your
convenience but you felt you have 
to earn your seat despite being invited 
to eat and drink for free!"
That was the turning point!
It took her a month of reading 
the Bible, praying and crying
She cried because she never saw 
the gospel 
like that ever before
She was always angry, always bitter, 
always sad
She felt it was because she was 
surrounded by sin and sinners
But she was suddenly relieved
The heaviness lifted
She also stopped dreaming about hell
She started seeing heavenly things
Speaking heavenly language
Praying in the spirit with joy
She experienced the fullness of joy
in the presence of God
She saw things in bright colours 
again
When she resumed work, she was 
cheerful
She laughed and mingled and 
became free
It was as if she had a complete 
change of life!
Her friends in church frowned at it
She was unnecessarily uppity and 
walking with springs in her step
She had tasted of the fountain of 
living waters
Shallow waters had been turned into 
rivers of living water in her belly
She changed her church
All she wanted was a church where 
she could listen to the right message 
without the yeast of the religious 
people
Grace was absolutely liberating!
She went for an interview for a 
better job
Her interviewer asked her a lot of 
questions
At the end of the day, they exchanged 
numbers
He started calling her socially
She would have blocked his phone number
Seen him as a predator who wanted to use
the job to take advantage of her
But she didn't!
She had seen the quality of his 
Christian life
He treated her with respect
He proposed to her after two months
He wanted to marry her
She was shocked!
He was two years younger than him
She would have red-flagged it
But her happy heart was singing "Yes"
She said yes!
They got married in December 2017
She got a better job with another firm two months
later

 
PS: The marriage was blessed with a set 
of twins in December 2018
She still marvelled at the coincidence
All she changed was her gospel
She switched from "performer" to "inheritor"
The fountain of bitterness was demolished
Depression was crushed
She saw with the lens of grace rather 
than the lens of sin
People became attracted to her too
No more name-calling and vilification 
When people have issues, they come to her
Grace made her comely and she became
a more effective witness of the 
gospel to others!

Seeing the story of many people 
unfold under the wing of grace is 
a delight
I have seen with my own eyes 
broken lives
hewn together by the thread of 
grace and restored effortlessly
Grace is not a license to sin
How can it be?
Nobody who drinks of the waters 
of grace remains the same
You cannot even think of sin!
Those who claim to walk in grace 
and used it
as a license to sin are holding 
the truth in unrighteousness
They have a theory of grace without 
the spirit of Grace
Theories are carnal, the spirit 
gives life!