It is a mixture of sorrow and shock to see great damage from insignificant tiny creatures.
While swimming in the euphoria of the magnificence of my newly dedicated residence, little did I know that my shining new ceiling was a hide-out for some termites. The woodwork at the four corners of the ceiling in one bedroom became the dining apartment of termites. Revelation of death and accidents punctuated night rests in my abode. I did not know that the devils had hired the termites to pull down the ceiling over me on my bed. Before long divine intervention arrived to free me from the fetters of death. After I returned from a trip someday, I met my wardrobe sadly swarming with the desperate insects. Further examination showed that these angry animals had overthrown the ceiling and roof of one room. Urgent fumigation of the whole roof and foundation of the building brought respite and saved the situation. In this way I was rescued from sudden death.
Termites appear feeble and inconsequential, but they can quietly pull down unfortunate skyscrapers. They can equally devastate innocent victims. Human farmlands are not immune to the activities of termites. Their anthills rob farmers of arable land, crops and useful vegetation.
There are human attitudes, habits, behaviors and cultures which can attack human progress and promotion like termites. They can eat up moral and spiritual fabrics of a person, leaving the culprits empty and vulnerable. How easily does adherents to cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, sexual immorality, pilfering and other vices readily come out of the harsh grip? Those vices like termites prey on the victims’ progress and income until they are crushed.Think of how beer and alcohol one voluntarily arranged in a bar can subtly push the victim into stinking dirty gutters. What about an immoral person that engages a prostitute who preys on his income, transmits a deadly disease to him and in the long run sends him to an untimely grave? Does that not exhibit an invisible termite?
A stitch in time saves nine, wise people often say. The only safeguard is to live your life within safe boundaries. Eliminate every resemblance of financial, moral and spiritual termite in you before they develop destructive footholds. Seek further fortification by putting your trust in Jesus Christ of Nazareth whose Holy Spirit will indwell you at conversion and fill you with the ability to do what is right. “To those who believed in his name, he gave the right (power) to become children of God.” (John 1:12). Connect to Christ and draw inexhaustible fountain of moral and spiritual strength to live for God.
© Rev. Fidelis C. Obianozie (2018)
