MY LOVE FOR PLANTAIN FAILED ME
There are some things you just love with reckless abandon, you seem not to get tired of them, regardless of how often you consume them, PLANTAIN is one of such things, for me.
My best plug for my rice, and beans is plantain, I seem not to get enough of it.
Oh plantain, the more i eat you, the more i want to eat you, plantain, I want more of you.
Now, let me give you the gist of this article, with respect to the topic above.
MY LOVE FOR PLANTAIN FAILED ME, or we can put it this way, MY LOVE FOR PLANTAIN MADE ME FAIL GOD'S TEST.
God reminded me of what happened to me recently, with a friend and room mate of mine. Let's call my friend, Brother Shabalala.
Brother Shabalala went to his hometown for a visit, so while coming back, he came with a lot of OGEDE (PLANTAIN) , when i say a lot, I mean a whole lot.
Immediately i set my eyes on that big sack of plantain, I started singing, "This is the day of joy, that day of joy, that the Lord has made". "I cannot do without you, I cannot do without you, I cannot do without you, Oh PLANTAIN. "
Brother Shabalala got back from his hometown in the night, so we couldn't cook that day.
We had to wait till the second day, but the sleep of that night was different, I started thinking of how glorious the second day would be, with the presence of the Love of my life - Freaky freaky Plantain. I was smiling in my dreams, even angels had a good time watching over me.
When we woke up, I volunteered myself for kitchen duties (anytime you see me cooking, then you should know it's a very deep something, it happens once in a hsjsfsjsksfjsksh - story for another day) , I cooked rice and stew, with fresh Titus fish, and i crowned it up with a large portion of Almighty plantain.
Where did plantain fail me exactly?
While we were eating, Brother Shabalala mentioned that we would need to give some people (his friends in the neighborhood) part of this plantain, because they're all ripe, and we won't be able to finish everything at once, before it gets spoilt.
Jeez!
I couldn't believe what i just heard, I felt heartbroken. How on earth will someone even conceive the thought of sharing my Almighty plantain with people?
The flesh in me attacked him (remember this plantain wasn't mine actually, it was brother Shabalala that brought it from his hometown, but i took it personal, because of my obsession for it).
I told Brother Shabalala things like , " Hmmmm, it's not like I'm not nice o ( I was trying to justify myself before saying rubbish - we do that alot). Brother Shabalala, you know i can be very nice too bla bla bla , BUT you see this plantain, I think we should keep it, we don't have to give anyone, you know we're also managing ourselves, so God (How often do we DRAG the name of God into a conversation, just to cover the rubbish we are saying with the blood of Jesus, because we feel once we mention God, people won't attack us, even though deep down we know what we are saying wasn't God inspired. Think about it! ) just gave us this one to be managing with the little cash on us, bla bla bla"
Brother Shabalala looked at me and laughed. He said, this plantain is too much. We can't kill ourselves with it, and it's not even healthy to take too much of it, it's too sweet (In my mind, I sang a song . Small talk you don dey talk too much, FEM!) Don't worry about that abeg, I'll take "Agbo Jedi Jedi from Iya Shukusheka".
Long story, cut short. For the first one we made that day, I ate 60% of it while Brother Shabalala ( the real owner) ate 40%. I disgraced my local government that day, Osogbo I'm sorry.
I was very uncomfortable throughout that day, my tummy was "turning on its on" , and i was visiting the toilet countless times, like an unserious guy visiting the compound of his babe, waiting for her parent to go to the work.
Oh, how i suffered.
I was miserable, I had to take drugs to suppress the stomach pain. And remember, this is just day one of plantain eating. Omo, times one thousand.
The Lord saved my shame because brother Shabalala wasn't indoor while i was disgracing my local government, with a stomach suffering from the fruits of my stupidity, stomach forgive me ehn.
Immediately Brother Shabalala came back home, I started preaching to him that we should give out the remaining plantain that night, it's too much, and it won't be nice for it to waste like that, it's good to give, and we can't finish it, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. That was how i turned into a new man within few hours. Brother Shabalala was looking at me with a surprised look, what happened?
I didn't give him the full gist of how horrible I've been all day, I just told him that I'm already tired of the plantain, and it's only day one, what i ate today was too much, and it's not healthy to continue that way, bla bla bla bla bla. Brother Shabalala looked at me and laughed, he said okay, but we would have to wait till the next day before giving it out, because it's late evening already.
People of God, guess who woke brother Shabalala up the next day, to give out the Plantain with immediate effect?
Ehn, it's yours truly, Minister of Plantain Affairs, your favorite hsgshgsshsgjsh.
While he was picking the ones to give out, he tried leaving out some, for us to eat, I attacked him immediately, saying he should just give out everything that we don't need it again ( I just wanted to get rid of the sight of that Plantain, seeing it around keeps reminding me of my stupidity).
Brother Shabalala said it's amazing how i suddenly changed towards this plantain, I should allow him keep a part of it, he still wants to eat it.
So, he shared the bigger part of it, and left just few for us, but global man didn't go close to the remaining Plantain again. Plantain that made me disgrace my local government, is that one plantain?
While all these was going on, the Holy Spirit made me see the condition of my heart, and the way God sees us when we ask for some things.
I've always pride myself in the fact that I'm a cheerful giver, and God needs to bless me real big. The Holy Spirit kept bringing it to my heart that i should see the way i approached God's supply of ORDINARY PLANTAIN.
I had it in abundance, and because of my love for it, I wanted to keep everything to myself (palliative kini).
That tells me, we can't really be sure of how we would behave in a particular situation, until we're finally there.
The more you love a thing, the more you find it hard to share with people.
Some of us love money so much, it's in our daily prayer point, and we keep asking God to bless us with money, so we would be a blessing to others.
When we pray such prayers, God looks beyond the words of our mouth and checks the content of our heart, with the stage we are in our walk with Him.
Maybe the reason why God is yet to answer some of our prayers, is because He has seen how we would behave when we have them.
God's NO to some of our prayers is actually His way of keeping us, and growing us up UNTIL we can HANDLE what we're asking for.
Because of God's love for us, He won't give us anything that would take His love away from our heart, He would keep us from things that has the capacity of keeping us far from Him, and His principles.
When we pray, God looks beyond what we're saying, to check the condition of our heart.
From my plantain gist, I want you to take out time to EXAMINE YOURSELF! Are you sure you have grown enough to handle what you're asking for?
If God really loves you, like He loves me (I kid you not, God loves me differently), He would keep you far from things that would keep you far from Him, regardless of how much you desire those things.
The Bible says,
All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight,
But the Lord weighs the motives - Proverbs 16:2.
At times, some of us talk so highly about how we would help people, once God blesses us, but when God checks our heart, He sees something else.
"Whatever doesn't look like you, that's still manifesting itself in me, take it away" .
" If there's anything in my heart that's bigger than my love for you, please take it away"
"PLEASE, LORD! Don't give me anything that will take me away from you"
"Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." - Psalms 139:23-24.
Prayers, like the few ones highlighted above, should be our heart cry, on a daily basis.
If you have read my plantain gist, till this point, then you're a great soul.
I don't want you to just laugh at my gist, I want you to also be delivered by God, from anything that's not right in your heart, I want God to work on you before walking you to that palace you so much desire.
Do you want God to work on you?
Why not begin to pray in your spirit, right now.
Please, PRAY!
The deliverance power of God is touching you, as you're reading these words, I kid you not.
Do you know why I'm sure that God is in this article?
He woke me up, from my sleep, to write, and share this.
I'm not just sharing this for the fun of it, I'm doing this for the deliverance of your soul.
Lastly, I believe you would agree that it's been a while Ojo Michael wrote an epistle, like this.
If you miss reading my Epistles, and you would love to read more from the produce of my pen, why not just pray for me in your heart, pray as you're led, please PRAY FOR ME!
I can do nothing of my own self, I depend totally on the Grace of God.
Thanks for reading. Glory to God for inspiration to pen down something meaningful, He deserves it all.
# Kindly note that, the attached picture is not the plantain i made. I only attached the picture to make you see the GLORY OF PLANTAIN. Smiles.
# GROWTH IS INTENTIONAL
# He lives in me
# Can you just say, THANK YOU JESUS!
OJO MICHAEL (2021)
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