ALL LIFE AND NO CHRIST ( Part 3)

ALL LIFE AND NO CHRIST ( Part 3)

"I didn't stay with my parents for long. As soon as I was through with my primary education and moved to the secondary school, I was transferred to the boarding school that only allowed us go home on holidays and anytime I was home for holidays, I was either with an uncle or an aunt, and very scarcely with my own parents. As soon as I got admitted to the university, the hostels were crowded and I surely couldn't stay there, not even for my economic status. 

I called my dad and explained the situation to him. He said I should look for a convenient place around and let him know. I soon found a duplex I loved and in one week, it was mine. I didn't know how but I know I moved in after a week. I loved my dad so much that I called him my husband. If I wanted anything, all I needed to do was ask and it was mine. 

My mom, I didn't like her so much. She was always spiritual about everything. You won't finish a sentence before her without hearing something like, 'what has the Holy Spirit told you?', 'have you asked for permission from the Holy Spirit?', 'is the Holy Spirit leading you in that direction?', and so on. It was so bad that the Holy Spirit determined what we had for breakfast, lunch and dinner, where we went to for holidays and almost everything in the house, including what she wore. I didn't really like the Holy Spirit because whatever she said the Holy Spirit told her was almost against all that I wanted, so I decided to take sides with my father because he wasn't so spiritual. He believed in God but also believed in living a good and comfortable life, getting all you want. 

So, yeah, I stayed alone in that duplex but had bodyguards and servants (maids, gardeners, security guard, and so on). I could do almost nothing in the kitchen. I didn't even know when an egg is boiled. I always either destroyed the egg, or it was uncooked. So I hired cooks to do my cooking for me and I felt I was having fun. 

I stabbed a lot of lectures and skipped tests. All I needed to do was visit the lecturer, give him some money and I would get all the marks I wanted. I picked friends who never helped my life positively. They opened my eyes to whatever evil you could think of, and little by little, I began to do them. I didn't like them at first but with time and further pressure, I began to enjoy them. I partied, I did cigarettes, I drank to a stupor many times than I could remember and would find myself in my room the following day, thanks to my friends. 

And I continued like this all the 4 years I spent in school. I was admitted to study 'ENG.', which was short for English, but for the first two years I stayed in school, I thought the abbreviation 'ENG.' meant Engineering. It was that bad. "

The congregation laughed but the laugh ended real quick. 

Then I continued...

"The whole of 4 years went like that without me knowing what I did in school. I was as blank as a plain sheet of paper but my certificate carried a First class honours in Engineering. I'm sure you know how that happened. That was how I graduated. 

However, as I think back on my undergraduate days, there's only one particular encounter I remember. 

No one visited me at all, except my friends of course. No one dared come close to me, or they would be beaten by my bodyguards. However, on this fateful Saturday morning, I received a message in my room that there was a young man downstairs asking to see me. I decided to see the person who had so much guts to walk up to my house to come see me and hear what he had to say.

When I got downstairs to the living room where he was waiting for me. I paused a while and took a good look at him. My gateman was better dressed. I became furious but curious to hear what he had to say before giving the bodyguard, who was already behind him awaiting instructions to deal with him, a go ahead. 

'what is your name?'

'Paul, Paul Johnson', he answered. 

As he answered, there was this joy that radiated from his inside that I couldn't place my hand on. It looked like what I used to see in my mom. 

'could it be that he has a death wish?', I thought to myself. 

'what do you have to say?', I asked him. 

What did he say?

ALL LIFE AND NO CHRIST continues in Part 4.