Pathways: New Beginnings

It happened at a season of her life when everything seemed shaky. She was the third of five daughters, a fast learner academically. She got her ICAN at the age of 29.

She got employed by a firm and learned quickly that she had a deficiency, she couldn’t apply what she knew at work. It was a question of confidence and self-doubt.

After a month on the job, she resigned. She didn’t get it. Was it that she was working in the wrong environment or with the wrong people? She just didn’t feel at home at that office

Once she steps into the office, she becomes jittery, anxious, unstable, lacking in confidence and almost always feeling like bursting into tears. It was too much, too unhealthy for her both mentally and physically.

After resigning, she started hunting for a job with a multinational organization. Something she could do remotely or that she would get a sponsorship for to do abroad.

She got one after eight months of searching. It was a very good job. The company employed three of them from Nigeria at the same time.

She was in Edo state, the two others were in Lagos and Abuja respectively.

The job was remote but she needed to be trained as a new recruit. She was asked to resume at the Abuja office for her training. She packed her bags and ran to Abuja. She was determined to keep the job and excel at it.

When she got to the Abuja office, there were only eight people on ground, she was processed in and handed over to a colleague who trained her in the use of the company's preferred software and work ethos.

In three weeks, she was done and was given the equipment to set up her station remotely but she didn't want to hurry back to her state so that if she had some teething issues, help would be close by.

She was staying with her aunt in Abuja and staying there meant baby sitting and cooking duties were firmly on the menu. She really wanted to focus on the job and master it.

She asked her trainer if she could be coming to the office for a while longer to work. He told her No! The company hired that office space for training purposes only. The company expected staff members to work from home. She understood but…

He saw her distress and offered a way out. He worked remotely too and had set up a space at his house. He asked her to come and check it out. She went and saw that he had remodeled his garage into an office and had all the equipment and gadgets needed to be proficient on the job. She began to resume at his house for work daily. He was quite professional and she thrived.

It wasn’t long however till she began to want more than a work relationship with him. He was goal oriented, disciplined, focused, intelligent, patient, considerate and compassionate.

He was tall and handsome and a good listener. Of course, she wasn’t going to do anything about it. But the body speaks once the mind wills it to.

A week after she began having these considerations, he took her out to lunch and kissed her for the first time. That was how sex and work became the routine.

She practically moved in with him after two weeks. The closer she got to him however, the more she realized she couldn’t marry him.

He was four years younger than her, she understood that they were having sex but she didn’t love him feverishly or passionately.

Apart from work, he was still childish about some things (in her opinion), he did not know how to serenade a woman.

Perhaps it was the moment she discovered his age that she lost interest in going public with him

They had opened the door to sex and she was indulging herself in that but that was about all she was willing to do.

She didn’t push for a relationship and neither did he. A year into their arrangement, she met a cousin of hers for the first time in Benin. The cousin and her parents were visiting Nigeria for the first time in many years.

She went home for the holidays and was saddled with the responsibility of taking her cousin out so as to make the visit memorable for her.

Her cousin was a very pleasant, open minded and lovable person, they hit it off big, it was as if they had always been friends. Then he came to town, to see her regarding some work-related issue which was an emergency.

He met her cousin and it was love at first sight. She saw it.

That light that he didn’t have for her in his eyes when he shook hands with her cousin.

He basically lit up everywhere. She should feel bad, terrible, protect her territory or feel jealous, She didn’t. All she felt was relief and a bit of panic.

She knew her cousin may be uncomfortable being with somebody she had some sort of history with. She didn’t want to be labeled a slut.

So, she just prayed the whatever she saw between him and her cousin would fade away after a few hours. It didn’t. Her cousin practically fell in love with him just like that.

She kept her cool till the holiday was over, set up her work space at home and refused to return to Abuja. He didn’t ask her why or even call to pretend to care.

Her cousin had travelled to New Jersey with her parents after the holidays only to return to Abuja three weeks later to be with him.

She heard about it and didn’t really mind it but she was concerned about the potential of her cousin finding out the truth. So, one evening she called him and begged him to erase their chat records and never to mention that they had a relationship outside of work to her cousin.

He said he had done all that. She was relieved.

2022 Christmas Day, He and her cousin got married at a quiet ceremony on the 6th floor of a hotel. They invited the Brother in Jeans and T-shirt to officiate.

He showed up early and asked the couple to join their hands and he would pray with them before the wedding. The Holy Spirit came upon her cousin, her cousin turned around, hugged her tight and said, “Lizzy, I know you really didn’t believe in the Holy Spirit and Spiritual stuff but the Lord just told me to tell you that if you will give your life to him, he will give you a new beginning.”

He said, “The secret that you were hoping wouldn’t ruin the family has lost its sting and your mind should be set at rest”

Wow!

She didn’t know when she began to weep profusely. She had tried to shake that guilt, that fear but it wouldn’t go away. Hearing those words flooded her heart with relief.

She said, “I want to give my life to Jesus.”

The brother in Jeans and T-shirt led her to Christ and she got filled with the Holy Spirit too.

Her cousin’s husband was mesmerized as the whole scene unfolded. He said, “Sir, Wow! Thank you so much. I told my mother everything and how worried I was about hiding this thing from my wife and she said, “Call Bro. Gbenga, if he comes in there, things will sort themselves out but do this before the wedding. This was why I had been calling you for several days until you showed up today. Thank you so much sir.”

They hugged and prayed together. He got filled with the Holy Spirit too.

Two hours later, the wedding held.

New creatures began a new life and the mistakes of the past were blotted out forever.

 

PS: For Mandy and Seun

 

-GSW-