NEWS

Monday, March 22, 2010

Swagger Home

My Head of Department asked to see us all so I had to stay back when most members had gone. I kept poring over the unique teaching I received that evening and the emphasis on understanding the glorious future ahead, made me feel like starting the service all over. I walked to the main street to pick a cab after the meeting and I opted to alight at a point that though much closer home, wasn’t as well lit as the one I would have stopped at usually. However, being already late, I didn’t want to spend any more time outside than usual. So, I started walking towards this eerie path through the “woods” just opposite my apartment. Midway through, I could almost hear footsteps behind me but the much louder voice within me saying ‘I do not have a spirit of fear’, made me pound my feet harder into the ground. With my laptop backpack and my hard-sole ankle shoes, thumping away with so much audacity, you would think it was a one man army approaching.
Seeing there was a gorge of some sort across the route, I decided to follow another path that led to the street in front of the house facing mine so I get to walk around the path and not through it as it were. As I moved toward the street, I saw a figure lurking at the narrow exit from the dark alley to the street. I thought to myself that he definitely chose a wrong day if he intends to mug anybody because with the Word I just heard brewing in me and the song “I’ve got the light of God in me… I've got the spirit of the Son of God” playing out in my mind – a song I haven’t heard or sang in ages that came completely out of the blue – I knew something was about to happen…or so I thought. With the thump in my strides sending shockwaves through the ground towards him, he moved out of the way quickly and when I made my way through, I was expecting him to foolishly lift a finger so I would once and for all confirm if what I was feeling inside of me was the anger that led David to tear open a lion and kill a bear or not. On the contrary, with a rather puzzled voice, he told me “bros, I was just robbed there (referring to the path I just walked through), so please be careful”. I gave a casual response and walked on thinking to myself if he was really robbed or was too confused to rob when he saw “us” coming. The rest of the walk home had more swagger because now I had a further confirmation that “yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil”
Well, you don’t need to tell me, I won’t walk that late through the path again but if I have to, it will be a physical “us” this time around and I will be the one holding the cudgel.


‘Bayor Martins
November 2009

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