Reconciling Survival with Salvation

RECONCILING SURVIVAL WITH SALVATION

by Eromose Ileso

The cliché that unfolds like a smoke from the chimney of many places is that the means justifies the end. Yet, the question remains whether a moral high ground should always be pursued when trying to evaluate what type of means leads to an end? 

To many the crave for survival from a difficult situation most times leads to a relegation of moral standards which in itself means many do not bother about salvation when it comes to the issue of survival. This has fostered a situation where many pursue a means that is not pure to achieve their desired end. That is one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is a situation where a person finds himself in a situation which he cannot explain, as the scenario below depicts.

A man gets both his limbs amputated as a result of an accident. When you approach him by saying, give your life to Christ and you would have the opportunity of walking with Jesus in heaven. For a man that just lost his limbs, telling him about walking seems fanciful at best at such a moment. 

The realist in the amputee, first and foremost is to survive and where possible put is life back on track, and most probably not a narrative on salvation. Though, the state of mind of such a person ultimately determines whether he would readily take the salvation narrative to heart. No doubt to a realist the first instinct is pursuing a course of survival, but one who has the graces to see beyond it would embrace salvation in spite of the complicated nature of such a situation.

Coming down to a more common appraisal in daily life is this: There are many in the society today who are jobless. And they find themselves in a forlorn situation. Most persons in such situation pursue a survival first instinct before salvation comes into play. To this extent they often pursue any road of survival whether or not it furthers the cause of moral insolvency. It is not unusual to see many engage in many nefarious activities all in a bid to survive thereby relegating salvation to the back burner.

Though, from the parlance of divinity, it is never a good thing to sacrifice salvation at the altar of survival. Yet, many in today's society do not care. All they concern themselves about is to irk out a living. 

Yet, this is not to say that there are no persons who do not see salvation as a first option no matter the situation.

Why there is never a justification for engaging in activities that is against morality and law when trying to survive, a question however springs to mind, would the society blame a person who steals to satisfy is hunger? 

Islamic Law provides a window of escape in such situation. It exempts a person who steals because of hunger from the prescribed punishment of stealing. Most people that steal for hunger are usually amoral; choosing instead to satisfy their belly before bearing what consequences awaits them. Yet stealing for whatever reason is immoral.

The cliché that the quickest way to a man's loyalty is through his belly hold sway. Which means many will prioritize their personal needs via trying to survive. This is were survival comes into it. The reality is that many people cannot attain stability in their lives if their very survival is threatened by a lack of the basic things of life.

When trying to a draw a line between salvation and survival, many in the society today, wants to survive first before they seek salvation.

In reality, you cannot blame such a person who assumes that position by being judgmental. Because in hindsight, it is difficult to say to a man who has not eaten anything for days, that he should give his life to Christ and that God will put food on his table. For such a man, at that moment, such narrative is illogical to him. It is survival first, and giving such a person food at the first instance eventually makes the salvation message to be readily acceptable. 

Jesus Christ recognized this while on earth through the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes after teaching the multitude that where gathered.

Without doubt the nature of a society vis-à-vis the standard of living determines how people approach these two issues. There will always be persons who will do anything to survive whether it defeats morals before they countenance salvation.

It takes the graces to seek salvation in a path of labyrinth.

Some will say salvation can be sought at anytime as survival is it first, even when the eyes might close and never opens by which time salvation becomes eternally impossible.

USELU: A SODDEN SUBURB ON A SLIPPERY SLOPE

USELU: A SODDEN SUBURB ON A SLIPPERY SLOPE

by Eromose Ileso

A picture they say speaks more than a thousand words, so does the bare mention of a place evokes a meaning or description of some sort to the subconscious of many. 

For example, the mention of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil sparks an image of the popular Copacabana beach, so does Paris echoes images of the Eiffel Tower, the mention of Cairo elicits legends of the pyramids, while the River Thames and the Big Ben would forever be associated with London. And landmarks of such nature dots cities across the world by which their identity becomes known.

Conversely, when most cities are mentioned, they evoke positive images, even if not all can boast of such good attributes, but there are some areas that have become forever associated with negativity, that the entire social vices one can conjure up in the books of dark arts are linked with such places. And such is the state of a suburb in the city of Benin City called Uselu.

The mention of Uselu evokes an immediate fright in the minds of those that have had unsavoury experiences there. It used to be a suburb associated with persons who were embolden by the nature of the environment by the way they channeled difficult experiences to positive use to better their lives. 

But those good mannered traits of channeling difficult experience to mold lives are well and truly gone, with the recent trend now a case of teenagers and youths becoming kingpins of cult groups, while firearms is to them, what gloves are to a goalkeeper in a football team.

While Uselu has always been associated with unsavoury things, it has assumed a different dimension in recent years especially with the proliferation of street cult groups over the years.

For a start, Uselu is not just a suburb in the ancient city of Benin; it is one that has a strong historical significance in the annals of the Benin Kingdom. The heir to the throne of Oba of Benin traditionally lives there, and assumes the title of Ediaken of Uselu. Traditionally, there is a rite of passage that is done by the would be Oba in Uselu on a span of land called the Traditional Ground before the Oba assumes the throne, he has to walk through that place to the palace.

With such significance, you would think such a place would be a scenery to behold to anybody, but what is on ground is a place that has itself been forsaken by nature. It is a suburb that is on a slope, but it is not noticeable until it rains.

When the heavens opens, the place becomes a deluge which could easily be described as River Uselu. From the spans through the Benin-Lagos Expressway, through the interior of Anigboro street, Ebo street, Ediaken Primary School road, Second Federal Road (a road that is not passable whether in rainy or dry season, during the rains, it could best be described as a mangrove forest), down to the back of Oluwa Primary School, it is a tale of woes whenever it rains. 

To highlight how bad the situation is, ninety percent of Uselu is always under water when there is heavy downpour.

Yet this is just nature's disservice to that part of the city because of it topography, as well as government insensitivity.

However, that is nature, yet the other part has little to do with nature's script. The street cults, the avalanche of cult related killings, the arm robberies, the burglaries, and all the social vices you can think of are like water you drink in Uselu. To better understand the free reign of the dark acts there, a description of what regularly happens is necessary.

A bus coming from Lagos stopped over at a filling Station in Uselu just a few yards from the popular Uselu Shell, a passenger was to alight there, but before he could get down, the driver went into a rage, "Uselu is a bad and useless place" he said, "my friend was robbed here, and his relative killed." "Why would people stay here" he queried, the person alighting from the bus had to pretend that he does not live in that area. The driver's account is what Uselu is and has become.

For instance, a man was recently shot in front of his house early this month, in trying to prevent being shot in his head he used his right hand as a shield to protect it, as at today he has lost that hand to amputation after the bullets damaged several tissues.

Then there is the robbery incident where everybody was robbed in a house whether phones, money, and all, nothing was spared at 5am, with the robbers all masked, which draw strong lines that they are boys from within the community.

On the other hand, robberies between 7-9pm are regular recurrences. While some are lucky to escape with just being robbed, other robbery incidents have been followed by fatalities.

The number of teenagers and youths who are cultist there are on the increase, flexing of muscles are regular occurrences when there are tensions brewing between cult groups, but you will not see muscles being flexed in a manner befitting a wrestling bout, rather its a case of the person that can fire the first shot from whatever firearm to send their victim to the state of thy Kingdom come. Baby faced teenagers could be mistaken with an air of innocence that paints a picture that they cannot hurt a fly, but in the dark acts, they could be seen turning a male-man into an object of ridicule if care is not taken. 

Whatever the picture paints of the suburb of Uselu, it is one frost with a web of negativity, even the hand of nature has not been kind to that part of the city, neither has the environment being kind to persons that grew up there, this is not to say there are no good mannered people with strong morals there, so also it can be said that good things and good persons have come out of the place, but they are diminishing by the day.

To complicate the state of Uselu, it is a place lacking in government presence despite it being a Local government headquarters. It is a place crying out for a police station to be sited there because of the high crime rate, although there are at least three police stations (Textile Mill Road, Okhoro and New Benin Police stations) that could easily be called upon when there is trouble, due to distance, the deed of the deviants would have been done before they arrive.

The question now is who and what can salvage Uselu from the hands of the deranged and deviants? And can it ever assume a different description to what it is today? As Bob Dylan puts it, the answer my friend is blowing in the winds.