March 31, 2020 – Osasu Oviawe

Numbers 21:4-9
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

Homily:

We are inclined to always complain about our situation.

No matter how good the situation is, we complain. No matter how bad the past was, we speak about it in glowing terms. We seek a new day, no matter how ugly it can get, we cannot wait for tomorrow.

God showed the people in the above passage, a simple truth – If you’re still alive, you should be thankful. When death came into the present and stared the people in the face, yesterday and tomorrow faded away. They became present, conscious and looked up to the symbol of the thin line between life and death, for them to survive.

When they were complaining about their situation and comparing it to death, they did not really know what death was. When we complain about our situation and compare it to the crumbling of our world, we do not really know what a crumbling world is.

Today, give thanks. You might not yet be in a land of milk and honey, but the path you’re on, is the only way to get there. Breathe and live. Be thankful.

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

This pandemic has made it clearer that plans are useless.

But the process of building plans, improves inherent agility. The scenarios, the alternatives, the premortems, the what ifs and the space for the unknown. All these help us to explore different areas that we would have been blinded by, if there was no planning.

It does not eliminate blindspots. Nothing does. But planning reduces blindspots.

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson

And so when you get into the ring, and life punches you in the mouth, you are already trained to have reflex actions that keep you from falling or being badly injured. You have trained muscles of alternative thinking, so even without a workable plan, you bounce back and look for the opportunities in the situation.

– Osasu Oviawe