Staff writer - Latoya Wakefield
It’s so easy to call on God when everything’s going wrong. Yet many of us forget Him when all is well. The Lord should be with us every day whether we’re religious or just ‘religious minded’. For those of us who believed in the Almighty, how often do you pray/ thank the Lord for all He’s done? I’m not talking about a quick recited prayer or a racy ‘Thank Yu Jah’, more so in-depth conversation with the Lord at least twice a week.
It’s too easy for a human being to get all hyped and prepare days in advanced for parties and yet spend so little with God and loved ones. We get so wrapped in the big things of life that we fail to realize that these things are smaller in importance to the simple things of life. It is first priority to get a car but to call your mother or a close relative is whenever you have the time. Now, I am not saying one shouldn’t be ambitious. I’m just saying that materialistic things are too important to us that some people are even killing over it. Which flesh and blood with a pumping heart would kill somebody over a Blackberry? It is known that people have killed for less. How inhumane of us.
A good friend of mine, who was immensely sick, words stuck in my thoughts. She said nowadays she doesn’t care much about vanity. She works and makes good money and she’ll be using that money to have a meal that she always wanted, to bring her whole family to the movies, to help somebody. She doesn’t care if she never gets rich or can’t afford the finer things in life, she’s happy with being alive, laughing and truly living life. How many of us can say we truly lived and not just existed?
Could you actually live without these finer things? Could you function without your blackberry? Laugh without your television? Live without posting it on Facebook? Can you survive with just being around the people you love, good food and hammocks made from bamboos for bed? We really need to start living instead of going along with the flow or following the path that people set for living.
Enjoy family gatherings
One of the reasons why I love growing up in the inner city is that it helped me appreciate the simple things of life such as duppy stories with the whole family when the lights went, a bowl of soup cooked on the cold stove, picking mangoes with my siblings and cousins, having Bible study in the mornings with the ones I care the most about.
Do not be misleaded by life’s glamour. The essence of life is simply to live and that can be done by no great means. So take the time out and call your mother for an hour chat, go to the river with your friends without your gadgets, have car races with homemade vehicles made from juice boxes. Don’t take those around you for granted and never forget that the Lord needs time with you too. After all, after life, the only thing that’s preserved are the memories you left behind.
