Crossed Roads

So, here I am,  stuck on the cross

Paying the ultimate price for my wrong

Feeling my life seep slowly out of me

Looking down at my accusers, scorning me and my colleagues.

 

Well…

Colleague and one other man

Of  whom I know so little about

Of all the things I’ve heard,

It’s that he doesn’t deserve to be up here

 

Well, my colleague thinks otherwise

Since he’s been taunting and  mocking him,

“If you really are the Christ, then save us!” he says

“how can you say such, seeing we deserve to be here?” I answered.

 

However when I look at him

I felt an indescribable thing

So different from what I’ve felt since I made my first kill

 

I knew, I just knew he was going somewhere

Somewhere good.

So maybe, just maybe, I could go with him

So, I throw in me last bargaining chip

“Lord,  remember me when you come into your paradise”

 

Then he turned his eyes to me.

And I wondered, “how could someone in such amount of pain,

Much greater than the one I’m feeling, have such compassion?”

He says, ” I assure you,  today, you well be with me in paradise”

 

Then peace flooded my heart

I knew that for once in my wretched life

I’d finally done the right thing.

 

  • Emenike Chinwendu (2017)

#TheConversation

Love Would


Love would bring you before a garden

Fill your nostrils with scents of wild flowers,

Knock out your reasoning…

Then put you in prison.
Love would make you see tomorrow,

Blindfold you against today,

And the little dry leaves you place before fire

Get you animated

Then disgrace you as an animal before people you never met.
Love will be your solace,

When the whole race crown you a sinner,

Deprives you the freedom to love,

Yet claim they belong to the kingdom of love

BEAUTIFUL SUBSTANDARD

You ever noticed how adorable the girl looked when she smiled whose face is so freckled or pimpled?

You ever noticed how cute it was watching that poor family happily eat together of the same plate?

To the ladies…

You ever noticed how loving the guy was who never met a single quality on your checklist? Or how handsome the guy looked when he cried?

You ever noticed how simply beautiful that old ignorant woman was who kept talking superstitions with so much confidence and good intents that you couldn’t help but smile?

You ever realized how perfect those scattered eyelashes or uncarved eyebrows can be?

You ever saw how admirable that poor little boy was when he acted out a deed of love?

You ever saw the ease with which little children of different races bonded on first meeting?

Did you ever take a moment to notice…

You see the problem is we think we need to be perfect to be happy, but no, we don’t and we cannot. We don’t need to be perfect to be happy neither can we be no matter how hard we try. The one thing that connects us is the fact that we are humans, we were created to be family. We all hunger for that sense of belonging, and desire love that is real, unconditional and unfailing.

Love is the answer… it is that which binds  us, it is the one thing that can make us stop struggling so hard to belong,  to be noticed and to be considered better than others. It is the one thing that will make us stop jumping into  conclusions,  criticizing and judging others but rather hearing the full story and making fair decisions.

It is the one thing that will keep us from being biased in our dealings with people of varying tribe, race or religion, class or background, political party or mindset.

It is the one thing that will enable us see everyone as who they are-humans- first before what they are!

It will enable us know that we are all equal and that no one is better off because we all fall short..only in different ways.

Love will enable us live happy lives in the midst of imperfections. A life of happiness is the one we live when we keep our lives simple, improving on the things we can do, our strengths and using them in the service of others faithfully.

True love makes a perfect world. It deletes all imperfections and pastes beauty. It  makes a  show of standard, proving neither perfection nor standard to be happiness but rather happiness in substandard is what yields perfection.

However,

True lasting love is not natural. We cannot produce that lasting love by our broken selves but we know one who can because He is whole and He is love.

We know someone who can amend our imperfect world with love because He amends our hearts. It was necessary that he started with our hearts because the brokenness of the world around us is only a reflection of the brokenness of our hearts. He has shed love abroad in the hearts of those who accept his arm of fatherhood.

When He walked on earth as a man called Jesus, we knew Him to live, love and show happiness.

We knew him to have been born in an average home  of a carpenter and his dear wife.

We knew him to see perfection in an old woman who gave a few coins as her offering.

We knew him to see perfection in children of different backgrounds.

We knew him to see perfection in a woman who the society had condemned.

We knew him to see perfection in a disciple and friend (Peter) though impulsive and undecisive..

We knew him to see perfection in crying women who had lost their brother, his friend.

We knew him to see perfection in a short “sinful” taxcollector.

We knew him to see perfection in a  man who died a criminal beside him on a cross.

He, Jesus can give us the ability to truly love. He can give us the ability with which we can heal our broken world. He came, died and rose so that all who believed in this could be one with Him, partake in his nature and have him as their representative before God, he came to give us his nature of eternal life and love.