What I Learnt From “The Other Room”

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I hope you didn’t come to read this post hoping to get tips on the so-called ‘the other room’. Well, if that is true am sorry to disappoint you. This post is about honour rather than your private life, it’s about respect and obedience to God’s word to us as Christians and as a Nation.

Before now, one could freely say ‘the other room’ without much ado, but it’s not so anymore. It comes with a lot of mockery and ‘fun’. This has become a trending topic in Nigeria and I must admit that it is quite funny.

Let me stop and salute Nigerians for being very creative and funny in finding a way to laugh about everything. twale!

I once teased someone that I still don’t know why people have high blood pressure in Nigeria when there are so many things to make one laugh. This is on a lighter note, though.

Let me first confess that when I first heard the joke, I laughed about it too. I didn’t want to, but I did. I hadn’t seen the video then, so I just laughed based on what people said and how they said it. I even used the term too without giving it serious thought.

But something happened one day, a classmate of mine posted a picture on our class page, you might have seen the picture on social media. It was a cartoon where Our President’s wife was carrying Him in her arms with a feeding bottle and they wrote something about the kitchen and ‘the other room’.

How funny can Nigerians get!

I saw the picture and laughed too, this happened after ‘the other room’ saga. I came to work some days later and we were gisting about Nigeria and the funny things that were happening. The issue of ‘the other room’ came up and I quickly remembered that picture. I quickly moved to bring out my phone and show them that picture but I stopped halfway; there was a check in my spirit. It was as if the Holy Spirit was pricking me. God’s word came alive and I strongly felt against doing it. I strongly felt an urge not to join and mock the Head of State, I was surprised.

I tried to tell myself that it’s just a funny thing and it would make us to laugh and that’s all, after all I wasn’t the one who designed the cartoon or posted it on social media. It would have really made us laugh the more and I would feel good having contributed my own quota to the ‘fun’, it would have even validated our gist. But the word of God was firm and I just removed my hand from my bag where the phone was.

What I am saying is this; I shouldn’t be the one to spread the message of the mockery of our president. I may not have started it, but if I show it (the cartoon), I am preaching it, I am spreading it, validating it and giving it my approval. I will be promoting disrespect and mockery; it would mean introducing them to more reasons why they should mock Him. That is clearly none of my job descriptions as a Christian.

Let me simply tell us this, mocking the President will weaken your prayers for Him and the country. You can’t pray a heartfelt, effectual, fervent prayer that makes tremendous power available for someone you are mocking. It will hold no water. Even if he goes wrong, it is not an occasion for mockery. It is never a news to be preached (have you finished preaching the good news?).

Remember when Saul died, what did David do? We should do something very similar. Am not saying we should pretend it didn’t happen, (maybe you should do that too) but don’t preach that ‘gospel’.

This segment of my blog is dedicated to stirring up our faith in Nigeria and praying for Nigeria, we can’t do that if we are busy mocking our Head of State.You may not be the one designing those pictures, but you should also not be the one spreading them.

I learnt that we must pray for our leader (1 Tim 2:2). We should honour and respect him too, that respect and honour should be there regardless of who is on that sit, Christian, Muslim, man, woman or youth, even if he is not from your village or political party, even if he is not from your church, tribe or class, even if He is not your friend. I know am sounding harsh, but that’s because of how important this matter is.

It’s not just about the person there; it’s about the office he is occupying. No authority can stand if God doesn’t permit it. We must recognize Him as Gods man for a time like this. We must realize that it is true and this truth changed my perspective about our President and helped me to pray better for Him. If we keep stabbing him this way, how do you want him to walk in wisdom and do all the things we want him to do? How will God use him to change our nation? How will he make wise decisions and policies to turn things around?

Remember God’s word in Eph 4:29; our speech should be seasoned with salt so that it can minister Grace to the hearers (paraphrased). Salt is something that preserves; let our speech preserve our President and this country. Am sure you don’t yet know the weight of your words, that’s why you are still talking anyhow. What we say should be encouraging, good and helpful. That’s how a Christian talks.

I know you may not have thought about all this while you laughed, you may not have seen it in this light, you probably laughed because it was funny and trending, but  that’s why we are here to learn to do the right things regardless of what everyone else is doing.

It’s not easy to be up there my people; it’s not easy at all. Let’s not make it more difficult than it already is. Insults and mockery is too demeaning, I have done that too and now I know better, we must repent of this. Now I pray God helps us to speak well of him, to bless him and to uphold honour and respect for him like an authority that he is.

God has enabled us, let’s do this together!

Much Love