I first heard his voice on UCB, a Christian radio station. I am familiar with many of the on-air preachers on UCB but this one was rather unique and I continued to listen as it was a period of my life when I had a lot of questions begging for answers and genuinely felt this “messenger” was speaking to me.
He began to talk about Annie Johnston Flint. “She was one of the greatest hymn writers”. “If you read her biography”, “It is called the making of the beautiful, by Roland Bingham. Annie was born as Annie Johnston, shortly after that, she was orphaned and raised by the Flint family and so she is known to the world as Annie Johnson Flint”. He continued, “Annie suffered a lot in her life, she got Rheumatoid arthritis and was twisted up in bed for so many decades. Annie had cancer inside of her. She was incontinent and lived on diapers and blindness started to overtake her”.
I was beginning to wonder where this story was leading but he began to recite a hymn by Annie Johnson Flint
“He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labours increase;
To added affliction, He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials His multiplied peace
When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed and the day is half done;
When we’ve reached the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again”.
There was massive applause at the end and I was enthralled by the poetry as the message continued. I listened to the very end and found out it was the voice of Dr Ravi Zacharias.
I lost my mum to cancer many years ago and her loss left a massive void. They say one heals from the loss of a dear one over time, but what is more true is that time only reveals how God does the healing. Although through her loss, I learnt to accept that death is a part of life, I could not accept the recent news that my right leg was to be amputated pending further tests relating to chronic Leg Ulcers. I was definitely in search of answers and serendipitously, Ravi Zacharias through his message on UCB that evening said everything I needed to hear.
I fell in love with Dr Zacharias teachings and couldn’t get enough of him. I began to watch most of his YouTube videos and every YouTube video enlightened me. No one has been a greater influence in my life and it is only fitting that my first blog post on this website is dedicated to him. He stretched my faith in ways that would not otherwise happen. During my University years, I was part of a group of students that was committed to promoting the love of Jesus and the importance of our diversity as humans. We achieved incredible things together and considered ourselves men and women of influence. However, after graduating from University, I ignored my commitment to this call, got married, and went on a different tangent. God began to work with me in a way I never thought was possible. More on this point in subsequent blog posts. Sadly, as part of this journey, I let God down and began to prioritise my Job as a Community Pharmacist. I was tasked with the responsibility of setting up and growing a pharmacy business and regrettably, this became a preoccupation and God became an afterthought.
This is not an experience to be trumpeted around because I am not proud of it but for some reason, I lost my sense of identity and certain appellations like Big brother, Incredible friend, and Caring husband counted for little. I had become a father yet I hardly saw my son. I was indeed a workaholic and over time, my body began to give me signals with occasional pain on my right leg and I ignored the continuous call by my wife to see a doctor. Well, I was too busy too! Sadly, on this fateful evening, whilst at work, a vein on my left lower limb erupted and I began to bleed. I collapse and was rushed to A+E. It was a long way to recovery from here and as already alluded, I was facing amputation. It took me about 12 months to fully heal after numerous visits to the hospital that culminated in having the defective vein stripped out. This experience changed my perspective on life completely.
I continue to ponder on the idea that one could be fine one minute and then be facing the prospect of life and death the next. This prevailing thought has led to the formation of this blog site. We may indeed be fine one minute and then be faced with a situation we never imagined. I wrote this a few weeks after losing one of my cousins to a brain haemorrhage. He was in a coma for a few days and was only 34. He had a son and it’s sad to say that his son will have to grow without his biological father.
As I reflect on my cousin’s situation, I am very aware that there are many fathers out there who are “ticking time bombs”, overwhelmed by the quest to create wealth as well as balance family and work-life. Unfortunately, work-life has crept insidiously into family time. I recently watched a YouTube video by a mentor, Ken Okoroafo, the founder of “The humblepenny.com” – A blog about financial independence- in which he mentioned that by quitting his six-figure salaried job, he has discovered fatherhood all over again. He quit his job to focus on what he now considers a life mission, to empower families to achieve financial independence. He dedicates his time to encourage people through his blog and YouTube channel and has been a big influence in my life in the last few months. Reflecting once
more on the life of Dr Zacharias, through his dialogues and engagement with young students he expressed so much love for others, especially those who disagreed with him and this reinforced my thinking about what it means to be a father of greater influence. It practically means, optimizing your life so you can optimize the lives of those around you. I shall elaborate on the first part of this statement through subsequent blog posts but optimizing the lives of those around you essentially means being unselfish, creating a platform and opportunity for other people, and doing this with humility and respect. Dr Zacharias recently passed away and on his hospital bed, referring to his attempt to take his life at the age of 17, he said: “I gave myself 17 years and tried to take my life, but God gave me 50+ more and unto eternity, I couldn’t be more grateful”.
I certainly couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to be able to do this. It has been a long time coming and I am hoping that many will read my blog and be encouraged. These are difficult but interesting times and as I reflect on what can potentially happen in the days and months ahead, I feel that this is the beginning of a journey and I have no idea where it will lead. The whole world is in darkness and coming to terms with the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent death of a black man in the street of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am reminded of the words of King George VI in 1939, at the start of the Second World War. Amid the gloom on Christmas Eve, He made this comment;
“ And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
King George VI, 1939
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than any known way.”
I am essentially putting my hands in the hand of God and believe that I am treading safely into the unknown. I will endeavour to publish content regularly and hope my blog posts will inspire you into reflecting on your role as a father and become a Father of Greater Influence.
