Hey Blog Fam,

Trust we are all doing great and following passionately after all that God has placed in our hands and in our hearts.

So, I’ll be sharing the lesson from one of my public holidays.

For context, in case you don’t know what a public holiday means, be my guest as I tell you its importance, public holidays are days in a year when the government (in my case the Nigerian government) declares a work/school-free day.

If you are a Monday-Friday or Monday-Saturday kinda person, you’ll know the importance of public holidays, especially those public holidays that falls within the week, they usually come in the midst of a very busy schedule when you are almost fainting from work-load, they provide an avenue to just relax and recoup from work stress.

Even if you are still in the university here in Nigeria, you are sha familiar with ASUU strike, those kind of strike that comes during the times when lectures are becoming very hard and you are just writing notes and nothing is really sinking in, what ASUU is to a university student is what public holiday means to someone who is working. 

So back to my public holiday gist, this pubic holiday was one that I have been looking forward to, I have been telling a friend how I was going to rest and just do me on that day, in all sincerity, I was really looking forward to that day, and coupled with the fact that it was a Friday, my joy literally knew no bounds because it means I’ll have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to rest, having three days against the normal two days’ weekend rest was such a big deal for me.

So a day to my big public holiday, we just suddenly heard that the public holiday was not approved in the company where I work and that we were all expected to report back to the office on the said public holiday. 

I was speechless for some seconds, this has never happened, I have been working with the company for a while and we have always all holidays. We had high hopes that the decision was going to change and I went home that Thursday evening still hoping that I won’t be coming the next day.

Before I retired for the night, I went online to check if there was any latest development, and to my amazement, I saw a memo informing all members of staff that we are to report back to the office the following day.

I just jejely switched off my data, prepared my mind for another work day and did other things I do before sleeping.

The next morning, I woke up, went through my morning routine and off I went to work. I got there in good time, and got started on a pending assignment. 

But as the day was going, I realized that some members of staff were not around, while it was deliberate action for some, they were others who were absent because they didn’t have a phone that had access to the internet and so they were not in the know of the recent development.

I did my job, and went back home, as I was ruminating on my day, I suddenly felt it will be unfair if there was nothing done to those members of staff who didn’t come to the office and still went ahead to fulfil all the plans they had initially had for their public holiday. 

How can they enjoy their day while I was saddled with a day that wasn’t part of my initial plan? Not at all o, there must be some form of discipline.

I just felt there should at least some level of chastising to them, so that those of us who came will at least feel justified for not coming in vain. My heart was screaming for punishment of any kind on them.

As I kept brooding on these thoughts in my mind, the Holy Spirit made me see that I have started behaving like the elder brother of the prodigal son. I once heard a beloved woman of God explain this.

The mind of the prodigal son’s elder brother is the mind that will see a robber coming back to the Father, and instead of being genuinely happy that someone who was lost has now being found, I start feeling annoyed because I feel he deserves to be punished for what he did.

It is the kind of heart that sees a lady who was a confirm runs girl, committed a whole lot of abortions and still end up getting married to a godly man and now has children, and I start feeling it isn’t fair, at least let her be punished for killing innocent babies na.

We all feel like this at times, and it is only natural, but we must continually renew our mind….

That others have done wrong at different point in time, and have now repented does not mean that they will have to suffer for the things they have earlier done. 

While there are some circumstances that are natural, like a lady who sleeps with a man, and then comes to apologize to God, if she gets pregnant from having sexual relations with a man, her getting pregnant cannot be said to be a form of punishment from God. Not at all, it is only a natural repercussion for what she has earlier done.

Those who have had a rough past, gone on their own way before coming to the Lord, they won’t all be punished for what they have done. 

If we were punished for all the times we did wrong, what will become of us at the moment?

Things does not have to go bad for people who have come to their Lord, they might have had a not-soo-great past, but the future the Lord has for them is glorious, that I can tell.

He is the God who leaves the ninety-nine and runs after one!

If you had done things you should not do, the deed has been done already, come back home, there is a Father who has his arms spread waiting for you. And to the ones already at home, let’s stop judging and just show those who are coming back home love.

See you next Thursday…

There is so much light***

P.S: Remember those members of staff who did not come on that public holiday, there was no measure of discipline meted at them at all…