THAT'S LIFE: When heaven smiles upon you

“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” Ecclesiastes 9:11

In a tense voting week that heavily divided many Kenyans along ethnic lines, there were several moments of comic relief. One came in the humorous posts of good-looking public servants although the greatest sensation had to be Martin Kamotho, now popularly known as Githeriman. He was photographed eating his breakfast of Githeri on voting day. Some humorous Kenyans quickly turned his photo into a meme that showed him with famous world leaders and celebrities. From an obscure citizen, Githeriman became an internet sensation. However, this overnight wonder also rolled in some serious dough in the form of land and advertising deals. He was given the latest smart phones and had TV cameras following him home for interviews. The only thing that was missing is his own reality super-hero show where Githeriman saves Kenyans from danger. Githeriman to the rescue!

The story of Githeriman is a classic example of what prosperity preachers like to call unmerited favour. And for once, I agree with them. How is it possible that you can be going about your business, in the most unlikely of ways and days and good fortune seeks you out? What else is that, if not unmerited, undeserved blessing?

The good news though, as the writer is Ecclesiastes points out, this unmerited favour happens to us all, at different times and seasons of our lives. It may not look like Githeriman’s favour, but there have been times in your life when heaven literally smiled down upon you. The problem is, we usually don’t recognise our day of blessing or favour and hence miss the opportunity. We expect it to look like winning the lottery, even though the odds are against us, and there can be only one winner out of millions of players. We may expect it to look like a sudden inheritance or coming into unexpected cash even though that too, is a slim possibility. Yet, if you look in your life, there were moments of blessing or favour. Perhaps someone paid your school fees. Perhaps you were offered a job out of the blue. Perhaps you met the girl or man of your dreams at the bus stop. Perhaps you are a terrible parent and wonder of wonder, your children turned out really well. Perhaps you just went to vote and your queue was really short while everyone else was lining up for hours. Whatever the case, nothing you did brought about your good fortune. You got it simply by just showing up.

I don’t know why this is so, why “fate” seemingly has a hand in a lot of what we do. Perhaps it is heaven’s way of occasionally levelling the playing field and giving everyone a fair shot. You see, no one life, no matter how desperate, is a continuous drag. There are moments of respite, moments of blessing and favour. The trick is not to stay so long in the clay pit that we never see the occasionally hand that is sent to help us out.

Unfortunately, too many of us wear our misfortune like a comfortable coat, refusing to shed it even when a bright new one is offered. We continue to complain about how things never look up for us, how the odds are stacked against us, how everyone else is prospering while we languish in poverty. We moan our lack of education, our low paying job, our illiterate and unloving parents, the terrible person we married and our negligent children. We are stuck in a vicious cycle of complaining, of seeing the glass as half full. When a positive individual comes our way and attempts to show us that at least the glass has something in it, we shrug them off.

Sadly, if we don’t change our negative outlook, we risk squandering our day of favour. May we see it, may we seize it, and may we run with it. 

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