From the desk of A Caring Heart...Bernard Olufemi JEMILOHUN

ARE YOU THE CAUSE OF YOUR WOES? As I contemplate on some painful and sorrowful scenarios that people experience in life, I cannot but wish I have the solution to people's problems each time a close case comes to my knowledge. Looking at how Satan torments humanity with all manner of sicknesses and afflictions and woe, I cannot but thank God for the Gospel of Jesus and at the same time wish the church will regain power as of old. But then sometimes I come across some self made problems that human beings have brought upon themselves and their children just because they rebelled against God-ordained authority and or chose to live in disobedience to His commands. We are very quick to heap all the blames on the devil and while the victims are suffering, some run around for help and very few people know that this is not the fault of the devil. It is sad that many young people hear and sometimes even know about the misery of some people, yet, they do not depart from the same pathway that those miserable people walked in. With so many stories to hear and learn from as a child and the myriad of examples and illustrations we hear at home, in the classroom, on social media and in the church, many still go headstrong on wrong doing thinking that somehow, they will escape what happened to others. I like to ask you, Are you the cause of your woes? Young man, the values of hard work and patient promotion was what you heard when you were young. In fact to a large extent, you believed it until you began to desire what other boys of your age should not have. Then you began internet fraud and you were happy you belong to the Big Boys Club. But now, your maga has gone wise and you have began money ritual! Last week your accomplice died and the fear of sudden death is eating you up... You cannot tell anyone what is wrong but you are already a walking corpse. Your parents are now concerned though they were not concerned then when you brought a new car home. Your lie that you won the car on the internet was enough to satisfy them. Now that the blood suckers are knocking your door, your daydreams have become nightmares. Are you not your own disaster? You are a young woman and from your childhood you have been taught the value of sexual purity. You were rebuked by your parents for wrong friendship when you were in secondary school and even when you were about to enter higher institution, your parents still warned you about the danger of an immoral lifestyle. Yet, you refused to listen and obey. You were not the hottest babe on campus but you secretly jumped from bed to bed. And, you were so smart, your parents did not know. Now your fornication has landed you in the bed of irreparable damage: the doctor said your last abortion is your very last! You will never get pregnant again not to talk of aborting! Now you are thinking of who will marry the cockerel that you have become! Are you not your own affliction? Oga Director... You thought you were smart. You forgot what you were told by the orientation officer when you joined the public service. You forgot that Rome was not built in a day. You desired to be a multi-millionaire without a personal business. You felt those who refused to steal were fools. You liked the Nigerian situation where no body is ever made to refund stolen money, after all you are not in the opposition. The Government earmarked money to take care of the mentally insane, but you diverted part of the money into your private account and you sent your children to study abroad with stolen money. Two of them are now diagnosed to be lunatics in progress. Are you not your own despair? Reverend Pastor, you entered the ministry to serve the Lord and be an agent of divine help to humanity, but you got lured into the pursuit of wealth and social class at the risk of your soul. You were no longer content with pastoring a humble congregation. You forgot that Jesus said no man could serve two masters. In your pursuit of money you developed an unduly high taste for class until you began to walk with magicians and satanists who call themselves prophets. Now the Spirit of God has left you, you only sustain yourself by eating at the table of darkness. Recently your first child died in sleep because the enemy who empowered you demanded his life. Are you not your own destruction? Mr Lecturer, you were employed to communicate knowledge and build the younger generation, and when you were introduced to students, they were excited. They saw you as the link bridge between them and the older professors. But you lacked the power to control your passion, every student in skirt appears to you like bush meat to be eaten by you. You took pleasure in devouring the very ones you were employed to nurture and develop. Now, all your age mates and colleagues are married, at 45, you do not have a fiancé much less a child. Even if you marry now, you will use your pension to train your children. And now you have spent about 20 years on the same level. Are you not your own stagnation? Oga ex-banker, your job was your life when we knew you. Everybody was happy that at last the chain of poverty in your family is broken. We all thought you will do your job with integrity and uprightness and a lot of respect for your personal dignity. We did not know that covetousness had eaten deep into you but was only waiting for a time to manifest. We thought it was the bonuses that made you rich. We did not know you were stealing by colluding with your customers. Now you have been dismissed with no benefits! All your years and all our hopes, dashed to pieces! All our dreams gone down the drain! Suddenly all your friends do not appear to know you again. In your loneliness you are now contemplating suicide. Are you not your own destiny killer? Our Youth Pastor, when you came into the church, the pastor thought you are the God sent help he has been praying for. You began to play with the sisters in a careless fashion. But since you are the youth pastor who has become the parish pastor's first son, nobody dare suspect you. You did not know that some of those girls are traps, they are already broken in life and they are looking for others to break. They only came to church for a cover up. And in your foolishness you entered their trap. You have now been told that one sister 'Hotlegs' tested positive for HIV. Alas, she was the one you slept with two weeks ago! The person that told you wanted you to warn the youths, not knowing that you are already in the trap. You are now ashamed and alarmed, the fear of an HIV screening result is killing you. Are you not your own eternal shame? Mummy! That is what we all call you. We loved and we respected you. It seems you forgot what your role primarily is, you did not know that a crown is only fitting when it is on the right head. It was your husband that added value to your life. After all, he was the one that God called and we followed. But you allowed distrust and competition to kill you. You never could trust your husband, every woman you see around him in the daytime is a rival and a competitor. You unashamedly pick quarrels with other women for no reason and when you find out you are wrong, you are too big to apologise. You have practically ruined the man's ministry. Now the man has been pushed to the wall, your overbearing nature has become too much. He has left the church and left home with no trace. You are now headless and directionless. Are you not your own confusion? Mr Government Contractor, I know you may not read this page. But let me sound you in case your friends do. You have made so much money from government contracts both on roads and on houses. But deep inside you know those roads are not good and the buildings are not as strong as they should be. On the day the road will swallow your children coming on holiday, or when the building will collapse on your children at the wedding reception, the whole community will ask who you offended. They may never know that your children entered the death trap that you created in the night, and your tears may run endlessly. Are you not the destroyer of your own posterity? Perhaps I did not mention your own case here. But deep down you know you are undoing yourself. You think you are smart enough to deceive everybody. Doesn't your mind remind you that you cannot outsmart the devil in deception? Doesn't your tricks teach you that one day monkey will go to the farm and not return home? Remember that much as a monkey loves banana, he never tries to climb a banana tree. A life in wisdom is the best you can live. Deceiving others always end in self destruction. Though sin offers man many pleasures, it lacks capacity to bring profit. All that sin can bring is sorrow and disappointment. Repent of your ungodly and sinful ways today and Jesus will give you a new beginning. I remain your friend, the Life Coach, Blessed Beyond Curses!