Gosh, I haven’t blogged in a little over a week, and I feel so guilty. Life and work have gotten crazy, and I am still learning the art of work-life balance (so help me, God). On the weekends, I just want to have my feet up, and not move a finger, while someone waits on me 24/7. But that is only wishful thinking. Hopefully, I get better and better, as the Lord gives me the strength to do the things He has entrusted me with.
Image courtesy of Unsplash
The first time I wrote about kindness was for thriveglobal.com, they usually give their contributors assignments on various topics to tackle. Kindness was a good topic to talk about, as we sometimes overlook the importance of it. So I decided to address it again, sharing with you guys, new experiences. Hope your week and days have been great so far, last week was really tough for me. The Lagos traffic has gotten crazier, I spend hours on the road and sometimes find myself crying, I know, I can be dramatic. The stresses of life can take a toll on your physical body, especially when we as Christians, don’t go to the throne of grace boldly, asking for the help that we truly need.
Last week I found myself, going to bed late, and waking up early, without spending time reading my bible, or praying as I should, because I just had to make it to work on time. The truth is, when we remove God from the equation, the burden becomes harder for us to bear. I found out I was more stressed at work, not happy being there, I was angrier at the roads, and the distance I had to drive. Little did I know, I was slowly experiencing burn-out, and I needed God’s help. In all of this, I trusted Google maps, and passed through a lonely road, on my way back home one night, trying to avoid traffic, and ended up in a place, worse off, than where I was trying to avoid.
The rains had no mercy on me that day, as I swam through the trenches, of what were once roads. My navigation system kept telling me to go forward, as even turning back wasn’t an option for me. I got to what I call a dead end; a pool of water, which appeared to be so deep that I knew listening to Google maps was going to land me in a deep mess. I turned around, trying to force the system to redirect me, but it kept saying—make a U-turn (in that annoying voice).
But I paid it no mind and started slowly making my way back, hoping for God to come to my rescue. Then I came across a woman, who asked me where I was going, this was about 10:30 pm. I answered her frantically, desperately looking for help. She said the roads were bad, and those who had cars had parked their vehicles on the road, and continued their journey by foot. She then advised for me to spend the night wherever I was coming from.
That wasn’t even an option, as I was coming from Ikoyi; she probably thought I visited someone around the area. She then went ahead to ask me for a ride, promising to take me to an estate where we might find commercial bike riders to direct me home. I agreed, and we made our way to the estate. No bikes were available as it was slowly getting to 11 pm at this time. Then we came across a group of people who she knew, and she explained my situation to them.
Some said I needed to go back the way I came, some tried to describe another way out for me, but I did not know the route. Then finally, one of the men offered to follow me, with the intentions of leading me to my destination. I usually would not let a complete stranger into my car, who was a man (sorry men) at that time of the night, but for some reason, I was not afraid.
So the lady stepped down and continued on her journey, while the man hopped in, taking over from where she left off. Turn this way, turn that way, don’t go that way, stay on this path; he directed, with me listening and clinging to every word which came out of his mouth. Finally, we got to a familiar area, which was no longer flooded, and he stepped out of the car, without asking for any rewards from me, and went on his merry way. I was so thankful that God sent those two angels to be of help to me. The only other option was to go all the way back; through the bad and lonely roads, back to the traffic area, I was avoiding, which seemed bizarre to me at the time. But someone saw I was in need and decided to be of help.
My experience reminded me of this amazing song by Lauren Diagle--Rescue. The chorus goes like this: "I will send out an army to find you, in the middle of the darkest night, it's true, I will rescue you. There is no distance, that cannot be covered, over and over, you're not defenseless, I'll be your shelter, I'll be your armor." She captured God's kindness towards me that night, with the lyrics to her song.
There are still kind people out there; the world is plagued with bad news everywhere, which makes us believe that good things don’t happen anymore, and that’s a lie. I remember a woman I worked for when I was in one of my lowest points; broke, without money to pay my bills. I had racked up a phone bill of over $300 and did not know how I was going to pay it off. I refused to call home and burden my family with the issues I created for myself, so I decided to deal with my struggles alone. I sent the woman a message saying, my phone line was going to be suspended soon, but while at work, she could communicate with me via imessage, since there was Wi-Fi in the office.
She asked if I needed her to give me a phone to use in the interim, to which I responded that would be great. Then she went ahead to ask me how much the bill was. I wanted to lie and tell her a lesser amount, but I only figured I would be doing myself a disservice. So I told her the truth, and the next thing I got an alert, she had sent me the money, with my salary as well. I was, and I’m still grateful to her because even on the weeks she did not need my services, she still paid me. God used her in that season of drought, to be a blessing to me. I will never forget how kind and gracious she was to me.
So what have you done for someone lately? Can people count on you in their time of need? Can you help, even when you are not asked for help? Kindness, which is one of the fruits of the Spirit of God, goes a long way and actually restores people’s hope in God and humanity — got kindness?
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About The Author: Evi Idoghor is a Christian, writer, and content creator on Letstalknationblog.com. She is a chemical engineering graduate from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Consumed by her love for writing and desire to effect change, she launched her online platform––Let’s Talk Nation––to tap into her creativity and start meaningful conversations that would make a difference around the world.
Most of her writing has been influenced by her time spent in America, where she lived for about 11 years. Also, she lived in Nigeria and South Korea and currently loves traveling the world while learning about other fascinating cultures. You can find her on all social media platforms with @eviidoghor.