Let your life glorify Him

I’m not much of a preacher, therefore this isn’t meant to be a preaching. Its just an observation I made during my devotion today and I thought to share.
The text was from the book of 2kings1:9-12, and its about the story of some soldiers sent by the king to bring him Elijah the prophet. In this story, on getting to him, they ordered him to follow them, and he commanded fire to consume them. This happened like twice, till the third time they brought a sensible captain who was able to beg for his life, and those of his men, and they were spared.
The essence of this story is to bring out a point. A point most of us don’t see when we read stories like these. We seem to concentrate on the fact that it was a prophet of God that called down fire, and it happened immediately. In our minds, they’re are the bad guys, and the Elijah was the actor. To me that’s wrong.
Let’s see it this way, a hundred soldiers were roasted that day. A hundred men. Family men. With wives, and kids, and parents. And what was their crime? They followed he instructions of their king. Did they deserve to die? No. Did they die? Yes. Was it an easy death? Hell no!! But when we read this story, all we see if the name of God being glorified in that situation. Nothing else. We don’t mourn the dead, or ask about their families. We don’t even count them as casualties. Are we wrong in our perception? NO.
I’m not trying to make anyone rebel against God here. But you’ve got to get my point. God knew what he was doing. It was no mistake. He knew every man that was roasted that day. And he roasted them………to glorify himself.
So sometimes when we go through troubles and trials, and even suffer loss, we start to ask if God cares. Sincerely, he does. He created us for one reason alone. To Glorify Him.
Let’s use this example, sometimes scientists or engineers create something and they’re recognised for their creations. After sometime, it all wears down. The whole hype fades away, and they try to come up with something better. To bring th hype back. So what do they do? They dis-assemble their creation, in order to create a better one. And in the end when they do, the hype returns.
When God created us, he had one purpose in his heart. ‘That we might glorify him’. Now some people do. Through their thoughts and actions, and through their lives. Many people are where they are today, not because they deserve it, but because God’s glory is being seen through their lives. Others have to die just so his glory would be seen too. So either ways, dead or alive, we must glorify God just the way he wants it. Just what we were created for.
So I want you all to ponder on this a while. “If your life isn’t giving glory to God, then maybe your death will”. You have a choice. You can choose to bring him glory in life, or in death. I hope you make the right choice today. Shalom

Rock Calvary

No ending

I’m tired of happy endings
Why on earth does it have to end
Cause at the beginning we promised forever
And I doubt we’re even half way through

I’m tired of sad endings
The type that’s caused by ‘irreconcilable differences’
Cause love is supposed to cover all
So it shouldn’t be that hard to reconcile

I’m tired of logical endings
The ‘we weren’t meant to be’ types
Cause I don’t see why I’ll let you go
If you’re already making me happy

I’m tired of the inconclusive endings
The type where we just drift apart till it ends
Cause if you really did love me
You’ll be nice enough to tell me when its over

I’m tired of any kind of ending
Why can’t I just love you forever
Cherish you till my very last breathe
Keep loving you till the seas boil over

Rock Calvary

Most Romantic Husband

I’m the most romantic husband on earth.
I gave my wife breakfast in bed…..

Actually it was just last night’s leftover.
But I served it to her in bed……

Actually I didn’t use a tray,
But I put it on her lap…..

Actually she wasn’t awake when I put it.
But she woke up immediately…….

Actually it wasn’t hot
But it was straight from the freezer….

And though she had to go to the kitchen to warm it,
I initiated the thought.

And even though we ended up eating at the dining table.
It started from the bed.

After eating she offered to wash up and I obliged
Cause I’ll do anything to make her happy.

So you see??
I’m the most romantic husband on earth
Cause I gave my wife breakfast in bed

Rock Calvary

Good night Poem

The cool breeze blowing through your window
The quietness of the night fills your room
You lie on one side of your bed and leave that space for me
Holding your pillow tight and wishing it was me
¶ wish it was me too
Wish ¶ could be right there beside you
So here’s what we’ll both do

We’ll close our eyes and imagine
That we were right there in a world of our own
Where You and Me are the only people that matter
Where our happiness is the only thing that matters
And ¶’ll hold you in my arms with your head to my chest
And you’ll listen to my heartbeat like its a lullaby from me just for you

Even as we slowly drift off to sleep, knowing this in our hearts
That both our worlds are right there in that room, and we’ll be waking up together to live in it.

Flops from the past

Going through my blog this morning wondering why I haven’t been able to write a thing in ages, and ¶ stumbled on this one. Wrote it early this year for a girl ¶ met at the office. But ¶ couldn’t get myself to make it public on my blog, so ¶ just saved it locally. Well, now that I’m going through some kinda ‘writers drought’ maybe ¶ could put it here, so this blog doesn’t seem dormant.
Its just one of the numerous flops I’m made when ¶ meet a girl ¶ sorta like.*covers face*. Guess I’ve still got a long way to go in this “chyking” business.
Yab me if you want, ¶ don’t care. Its quite embarrassing though, but its aiite. And after this ¶ solemnly promise to continue writing, so help me God. Thanks for hanging in.

“Just this morning I thought I’ll never write again. Been a while since my thoughts have been able to translate into words and now I’m surprised this is all coming out. When I first saw her today I was shocked to say the least. She was wearing a very pretty ‘PINK’ gown. Have to confess the color caught my attention. Then I noticed she was battling with the copier, and I laughed to myself. All of a sudden she looked up and I saw her face. Words fail me right now to describe the feeling. I’m not one to be tripped by pretty girls, cos I’ve met a lot of them and well….they sorta scare me. But yours was way different. There was this innocent look in your eyes I could see behind those glasses. And your lips……….. I caught myself after a few seconds of staring at you, then looked round to see if anybody had seen me. It was hard getting you out of my mind after that. Wanted to ask every other guy around if they had noticed you. But I was too shy to let anyone know I was ‘scoping’ you. So I kept it all to myself and got on with my work. Then this evening I bumped into you again. This time you saw me. Like the sun bursting out from beneath the clouds I could feel something burst out within me. The way you looked at me like you knew me. And I winked back like we were old mates. I was super-hyped, like I was on cloud nine. Then I stopped by to talk to you. Hearing your voice was the sweetest thing ever!!! Dunno why I drooled though. Dunno how my tongue got twisted between my teeth. Thinking back now its actually a really funny story”

What it’s like to die by fire

What it’s like to die by fire

Would you hear the sizzle as your hair melts?
Or would your screams drown those out?
Would you smell suya as your skin gets burnt?
Or would the smell of your fears cover that?
Would you have time to say a prayer?
Or would you try to fight for life?

I don’t know what it feels like to die by fire
But I sense we all are.
Dying by fire.
And instead of finding a way to put it out
We’re praying our way out.

I hope the heavens hear
And send down the rain
Maybe Majek would help to loud our cries
Or maybe the Lord would open our eyes
To see the lagoon beside us
When we jump into another election season.

Or maybe once again
The rumble in our tummy
Would drown the voices of the innocent blood
That cry out from beneath our feet
And we’ll take a bag of rice
Or choose to sleep a little more
That Saturday morning
Instead of going out to fight
To exercise our rights
To be heard with our thumb in ink
And not our harshtags or tweets.

I hope we do what’s right
And speak
When we’re confronted by evil
Before we take out our phones to record
Before we update on Instagram live
I hope we choose to defend lives.
To defend our own lives.

To speak and not be quiet.
Be brave and not be cowards.
To confront evil
When it faces us
Because Evil doesn’t have a Twitter account

I hope we never have to feel
What it’s like to die by fire.
But if it’ll make us take action
Instead of talk about it
Then maybe we should.

© rockcalvary 📸

Help!!! I’m afraid of wedding 💒

So I recently discovered that at the end of every wedding I attend, I leave with a certain fear of weddings. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t say fear of marriage. I have no fears about that. I would like to believe that I have met the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. And being with her just gives me this wonderful feeling of certainty that I would enjoy being married to her. So it’s not a fear of marriage. It’s a fear of the ceremony or sequence of ceremonies before the marriage actually begins.

First of all is the proposal.

 
How am I supposed to propose? In this age where proposals have become so innovative with fairytale stories and some action film moves at times. It’s so difficult to keep up. Especially for a creative person like me, who’s also a romantic. I’ll like that to show in the way I ask the love of my life to spend the rest of this life with me. It has to be epic!

Unfortunately, all my ideas that I put on paper and secretly guarded have already been used. Like seriously! Why would someone think of what I thought of, and decide to use it? It’s just… 😥. So now, my first battle would be finding an ingenious way of proposing to bae so I don’t fall her hand.

Next is the wedding ceremonies.

Where I come from, there’s not one, but 4 different ceremonies. There’s the Introduction, then the Engagement (which is the traditional marriage) then the court and the religious marriage. That’s like 4 events. I’m not even going to start thinking about the logistics of planning them all, and the attendance but I guess I’ll just mention a few things I worry about:

A. The cost of planning and organizing those ceremonies. See if you don go Yoruba Traditional wedding, where those alága dey collect money at every checkpoint. You’ll know that Police is your friend. 
B. My fear of running into somebody I don’t want to meet. As much as you might try to restrict attendance of your wedding ceremony, you’re bound to have a problem with that in an African family. For one, African families are huge. Everyone is related to you. As long as they have seen you in a diaper. And they all have a right to be at your wedding. Because it’s Africa, and your parents alone didn’t raise you as a child. Your whole community did. So there’s always that distant relative that you just don’t wanna meet. 
C. What if our families don’t click. Because of the presence of different people from probably different cultures, there might be some misunderstandings among them. What if someone in my family doesn’t like someone in hers?
And there’s inconsequential reasons like 

What if some close family member doesn’t get food? 

What if one of my exes shows up? 

Maybe it’s just me being the worrier that I am. Or just me thinking with a broke guy’s mindset. Think I might need therapy for this. Or just a big fat cheque. 

Love like a child

Hi, 

So I’ve been doing a lot of poem writing of recent. Short poems with beautiful messages on love and life.

I’ll be sharing some of my favorite poems with the stories behind them, and their learning points 

Love like a child

This has been a personal favorite of all the pieces I wrote this last November. A lot of our habits have evolved as we’ve grown. The way we act, the way we speak, the way we think, as well as the way we love. 

The way we love has evolved so much, it doesn’t feel like love anymore. It’s like each experience of love, leaves us with less love to give the next. 

And so we started out as kids, loving with all of our little hearts. TRUSTING,  because we knew how to. FORGIVING,  without thinking too much of it. Life was easy. 

But as the years went by, we started to give less. Maybe because we learnt from bad experiences. Maybe because we’d slowly run out of stock. But now we’ve all grown-up and we’ve seen life. And our love meter is low.  (lol)

Now we love with the safety on. With our helmets and our shin guards. With bulletproof vests and a trampoline to fall back on. With our shield of falsehood and breastplate of defensiveness.  

The thing is, we’ve  remove the innocence in love, and replaced it with fear. We love with conditions now and find it difficult to forgive.

Love like a child is pointing out to us how a child’s love is the truest form of love. And how we can emulate it in three easy steps.

Be Open 

Be True

Forgive Easily

Treat her right

She’s beaten

She’s struck

Her heart is treated

Like a rock

Tossed around

Without regard

She’s stronger than she knows

But she’s afraid

She’s hanging on to him

She’s hanging on to them

Cause with him she can make sense

Out of this meaningless life

Or so she thinks
He’s hard

He’s tough

Or so he thinks

He’s frustrated

Never expected it to be this hard

So he takes it out on her

He wants more

But can’t seem to find it

He blames her

He hits her

But deep down he knows it’s not her

But him that’s the problem

He feels worthless

Out of luck

If only he knew

That she’s his luck

Treat that woman right

Make her feel like a queen

She was made for you

She was made from you

You were meant to serve her

Find purpose in making her happy

They say she’s your help meet

Cos she’s here to help you through

When life gets tough

She soothes you through

She’s not weaker

She has a different type of strength

Make her happy

And the earth would revolve in your favor

Make her your world

And life would be worth living

Treat that woman right

She’s God’s gift to you

An expression of his perfect love for you

Even in the imperfect world of turmoil 

@rockcalvary 

Starting Over

 

I’m turning the hour glass over.

I’m starting my life all over.

Don’t like the way things have gone.

Right from when my life begun.

 

 

Not turning a new leaf.

Am buying a whole new book.

Not changing the topic.

Am starting a whole new course.

 

 

I’m going to correct my every mistakes.

Going to give it all that it takes.

Not minding all the chaos it creates.

Am marching backwards through life’s gates.

Rock Calvary 2011

 

 

How to cope with Long Distance Relationships

Lesson 1

Give her a souvenir when she’s leaving. A jacket that smells like you, a teddy, a potted plant, framed picture… She wants something to remember you by. She loves to feel like you’re right there with her 💋😍
As much as you will miss her, she wants to remember you too. Help her out! Give her something of yours she loves. Something she can take care of, that reminds her of you. I especially love the jacket idea. She’ll feel warm, cozy and wrapped up in you + she can smell you anytime she wears it. Makes her feel like she’s right there in your arms 💋😍

Lesson 2

Call her everyday. Spend time with her on phone. She wants to know how your day went. She loves to hear how you failed to cope without her 😜
Tell her how you tried to make pancakes on your own and failed. Or how you burnt dinner and had to drink garri. Tell her what happened at work, in traffic, anywhere, anything. Give her a rundown of your day, let her feel like a part of it. 💋😍

Lesson 3

Sing to her at night. She wants to hear you serenade her. She loves to know she’s a better singer, but you still won’t give up 😜
So you don’t have the voice, or you can’t even figure out the lyrics..sing her favorite songs to her every other night. You could play the song on the background so you don’t sound entirely off. When she listens to the song on her own, chances are she’ll remember your version and laugh, or at least smile to herself. 💋😍

Lesson 4

Discuss a welcome back plan. Talk about what you’ll do the moment she gets back. She wants to know someone’s waiting for her. She loves to know you can’t wait to have her back. 💋😍
Talk with her about things she wants to do when she gets back. Plan dates, make wish lists, discuss the places she misses going to with you, and make plans to take her there. Give her something to look forward to when she gets back. 💋😍

Lesson 5

Make her birthday special. Distance shouldn’t make you forget, or make it just a normal day. She wants you around, a surprise visit won’t be bad. She’ll love a surprise party too even if you can’t make it there.
Birthdays, Valentines day, there are special periods when she’s got attention from so many. Why risk not being a part of it? She wants you there. Or at least feel you’re there in spirit. Visit her if you can. Organise a party with her friends if you can’t. Or maybe just send her cakes and party stuff. She’ll never forget it 💋😍

Lesson 6

Love her multimedia. Send her voice notes, pictures, videos. She wants to know you think about her. She loves to see it, to hear it, to feel it. 💋😍
Not everybody can be romantic, but she’s in love with you for a reason. Say her nice things in a voice note and send to her. Make a video, let her watch you say you love her, or sing to her, or dance your silly dance for her. Make her laugh, make her memories she can always go back to anytime she’s feeling low. 💋😍

Lesson 7

Send her money regularly. A lil pocket change? an allowance? Anything you can afford. She does need some extra cash. She loves to know you can cater for her
Its not the amount that counts, its the thought. If she was right there with you, you’ll be spending on her. Why not do the same when she’s away? Before she’ll start thinking you’re spending on someone else + she needs to know you can take care of her needs. Nobody likes a stingy koko. And you shouldn’t see her being away as a tax holiday. 😜

I might not be an expert at this, considering bae has been away for only about 3 months (which feels much longer to me cos she’s my oxygen) but I think these lessons should help.
If they don’t, then she probably doesn’t like you in the first place.
If you think you know some more, feel free to add them you never know who you could be helping.
Like I always say, life is too short to be alone, gloating, angry forming lone ranger (me against the world). Live your life, love your life, laugh out hard, make someone other than yourself happy. Cause you didn’t come here to live for yourself alone. The best thing life can give you is someone who truly loves you…never take them for granted.

Lagos Oh! Part 2

Well, due to the huge interest in the part 1 of this poem, and well my further joblessness. I decided to do a part 2 almost immediately:D. Hope its not as useless as Nollywood part two’s or maybe I should just take a cue from Techies and call it Lagos oh! Part 1s 😝
Enjoy!

Lagos doesn’t need sun
We’ve got so many stars here.
From Music, to Movies, to Sports, name it! 😝
There’s a huge constellation here that’ll light up the city.
And well…our NEPA has gotten better + generators sell a dozen a dime

Lagos doesn’t need sun
We’ve got hot girls that come out at night 😍
That aren’t an effect of global warming blabla
We don’t need one round ball of pride in the sky
Showing itself every afternoon making us uncomfortable. 👿

Lagos doesn’t need any heat 👿
We’ve got washing machines that have dryers
And beauty salons that have hair dryers
And generators that can boil the seas
And of course hot girls like I aforementioned😝.

Lagos doesn’t need photosynthesis
We’ve got photographers, and photocopiers
And photo bombers, and photogenic mistresses 🙈
Our plants would improvise to make food for themselves 😑
Everyone has got to adapt and be sharp here to cope anyways 🙄

I think I’ve gotta go do something with my time. Else there’ll be a part 3 and 4 to this senseless show of crankiness. I guess I’ve finally broken my writer’s drought. Thanks to a lil reading last night and the rain this afternoon.
Thanks for checking up on me. Love you to pieces.
Of course Rock needs You 💋

Lagos oh!!

Lagos doesn’t need rain
We’ve got rivers and beaches
And canals and lagoons overflowing
We’ve got gutters full with nowhere to flow
And drainage that ain’t draining but collecting.

Lagos doesn’t need rain
We’ve got parks that are watered anyway
And no farmlands that need to be irrigated
We’ve got no dams that need to be filled up
Nor any ‘hydro-anything’ that needs H2O power

Lagos doesn’t need food
We’re a mega city, we’ll survive anyhow
We don’t need agriculture, its for rural areas
We don’t need trees, and flowers and plants
We’re not a wildlife reserve, or a jungle or forest

 

Lagos doesn’t need you people
We’ve got 20 million people for Christ’s sake
We’re already a nation on our own
We’ve got diverse cultures already
Every race and tribe in the world represented here.

This is not a hate post. Not political. Not racist. Not tribalist. Not even realistic. Neither is it a statement of my true opinion. This is just a frustrated mind caught in Lagos traffic under the rain *covers face.
I hope it makes a good poem. Lol
Lagos needs us jare!!

Let me be Me

Listening to 3 doors down at 2am in the morning. Can’t sleep. They make me realize I’m not living the life I want. I’ve stopped chasing my dreams, all in a bid to be ‘realistic’. But guess what? Being realistic sucks!! Sometimes we confuse mediocrity with realistic living, but it ain’t the same.
I wanna be an OAP, wanna be a Rock star. Wanna travel the world on tours, see the world, rock with the world’s best, write about my travels, and at the end of everyday spend time with my wifey in a bubble filled tub talking about my day over a glass of wine, and making love till sunrise.
I don’t want this. I don’t want to wake up each day wondering how much I have in the bank, and how long its gonna last me. I don’t wanna be a paper chaser, I wanna be chased by paper. There’s a couple of people like that in this world you know? Chased by money, and not the other way round. I’ll really love that.
I wanna make music. I wanna express myself in more than words, I want melody. I wanna pour out myself on a guitar, or a piano, or both, in a song. I wanna change the world from my studio. Through music or radio. I don’t want any fame…I have this dream of being a faceless artiste. Nobody recognizing me, so I can live the life I want.
I wanna spend my life with the woman I love. I wanna see her face everyday…. Every single day. Can’t think of what else could make life worth living. I wanna be back in her arms every night. I don’t do long distance, not even with my relationship with God.
I wanna make God proud. As much as I wanna live my life, I want to glorify him with it. I want to proclaim his name around the world, I want the world to feel the joy of knowing him…just like I do.
I wanna start a family. I wanna be a father. I want to be a role model to someone. I wanna be involved in making a miracle…children are miracles.
I wanna make my folks proud, I wanna put a big smile on my mother’s face. I wanna be the reason she never ages. I want that beautiful smile to stay just the same…the way it was when she first held me in her arms.
I want to be Rock Calvary. There’s more to me than just writing interesting stuff once a year. I wanna live a life that’ll make a bestseller. I wanna impact my world, I wanna make a difference…..best of all… I want this to make you wanna be you too.
It just has to……..

Its my birthday, but…..

So its my birthday today. Yay!!!!!
Do I feel excited? Hell Yeah!!!
Has God been good to me? Yeah!!!
Am I where I thought I’ll be? Sadly No

A couple of years ago, after reading a book, I decided to write out a plan for my life. A couple of time bound goals, and steps I was going to take to accomplish them. Looking back at my list, I’m not even close to being close. Let’s take a look at 2 of those goals, and what level of accomplishment I’ve reached.

1. By 3/6/2014 I’ll have made my first million. (Hahaha!!! ‘See beta laugh’). How did I hope to do this?By being an OAP on cool FM,  and an MC at events *covers face*
Let’s analyse this step by step.
By the strike of 00:00am this morning, I had a total of about #15, 000 in my account *covers face again *
About the OAP stuff, I barely even know where cool FM office is. I’ve tried to call into a show a few times, never got lucky. Even tried this night, hoping I could give myself a birthday gift. But them no gree pick my call *sobs*
Being an MC at events. Well…I think I’ve tried to do that a couple of times, sadly my bank hasn’t been involved in any of the transactions. In fact, the last MC job I did, only earned me an extra donut and drink at the end of the show.
Looking on the positive side of all this, I guess #15,000 would actually make a million in Zimbabwe, so maybe my only failure was in specifying what currency exactly I wanted.

2. By 3/6/2014 I’ll own a car. My own car. How did I hope to achieve this? By using my first million mentioned above. *lol*
You know the funniest part of it all? My drivers license expires today. And the only thing I ever used it for was to open account. In fact even last night, I still caught myself wishing I had a bicycle *covers face* Don’t know who to blame but I’m nowhere near getting a car *sobs*
Well the positive side of this is, after eventually changing my #15k into millions of Zimbabwean dollars, I could go to Owode, confuse one maga with my fake dollars and get myself a Benz

Well, there’s a whole lot of other goals, but those two are the ones dated today, but look how far I’ve come. I didn’t write this to grumble about my issues. I’m sure most of you already feel that way already. But here’s the real message: I’m alive.
Let me make it clearer to you
I’M ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve gone through more than one score year of my life (not telling my age *tongue out*) and I’m still here. Big, Strong, Healthy, Hale and Hearty. Its been the grace of God all the way. Some other people would look at this story and feel like ‘Guy, you really haven’t gotten nowhere’ but guess what? I’ve got one privilege some people even older than me do not, I can postpone.
Let me give you this scenario, you have an appointment with someone at your house for 8pm after work, its 8:05pm already and you’re still stuck in traffic. Do you turn the car around and head back to where you’re coming from? Or keep going home?? That’s exactly the way I see this. The fact that I’m not there when I hoped I would be doesn’t make me a failure, or mean I won’t get there. It’ll be a huge waste of emotional energy feeling bad about my delays, when I can be rescheduling and working on a new plan.

So if you find yourself in a similar situation, take the advice I gave myself. Postpone and reschedule, but never give up on your dreams.

Happy birthday to me. Please posts your comments and follow my blog. Really need to get this back up. The Rock Calvary brand has almost been wiped off Google 😦 
Thank you