"I Married You"..... Joseph's story as he marries Anu on her graduation day

I knew Joseph Ola Kolawole on facebook after a friend shared his post on my wall, I was wowed by his writings, inspiring and filled with wisdom. He dished out nuggets on a regular to bless everyone until suddenly his posts reduced drastically. I found out he had moved to the UK to study further and so had little time to do what he loved doing. 

This morning I saw this post of his, he had married his longtime sweetheart Anu. Whoever knew Joseph (or Pastor Joseph like others call him) knows there is someone called "Anu". HE married her on her graduation day, love so amazing.

This is wishing you a happy married life filled with the glory of God.

E ba ara yin kale ooo, Amin

Read his story below 

“I MARRIED YOU!”
No, not “you”, I mean her, the beautiful damsel in the pictures below. But between the two of us, “I Married You” isn’t just a phrase; it’s the title of the book I bought for her ON THE VERY FIRST DAY THAT I MET HER. It was in a Youth Service Camp in Northern Nigeria. I was drawn to her as she stood looking at the books at the book stand in front of the hall where I had just finished holding a Bible Study session. I walked up to her, struck up a conversation, and felt led to buy her a book by Late Walter Trobisch. I wanted to buy her “I Loved A Girl” which was the only book by that author which I had read, but they were out of copies so I opted for another title by the same author; a book I HAD NOT EVEN READ MYSELF. And the title became a prophetic script: “I MARRIED YOU!”
And it came…to pass. Last Wednesday. July 27th. I married her!
But not only that, ON THE SAME DAY, she graduated with a FIRST CLASS in her LLB Programme.
Pause right there. Give me a moment to tie it up for you…
Of course, this isn’t just a post about me getting married or about her graduating with a first class (we won’t be the first in anyways); but you know I like to draw out life lessons from almost everything. So this post wouldn’t be without one, and here is it: GOD LISTENS TO YOUR SILENT WHISPERS!
Here’s what I mean…
When Eleos was leaving Nigeria for the UK in 2013, I intended to meet her at the airport. I woke up early enough, stopped by at a store to buy her a golden wristwatch that I wanted to give her as a parting gift alongside a Friendship Journal where I chronicled our first conversations in our first few months together since February 2012 when the relationship started...
But Lagos traffic did its worst and I didn't make it to the airport in time to meet her. She had boarded the plane before I got there.
I cried. Like, literally.
But the aircraft had some little challenge so their take off was delayed... So we spoke on phone for almost an hour until it was time for the plane to take off.
But the only thing I can remember in that long conversation was this:
"Eleos, don't worry. I'll come and give you these things in the UK by myself..."
I said it jokingly, though. I had no plans of coming to the UK. I even had no Nigerian Passport at the time let alone a UK Visa...
Fast forward to months later, I find myself telling her (again, jokingly) in our almost-every-night conversations while I was still in Nigeria trying to encourage her with regards to her studies... I'll say something like:
"Don't worry. Study well and FINISH WITH A FIRST CLASS... I'll be there at your convocation...and WHISK YOU OFF AFTERWARDS TO MARRY YOU ON THE SAME DAY!"
Again, it was just a joke, but I love to tease her with the idea...
But as of today, not only did I actually come to give her the golden wristwatch by myself but I also witnessed her graduation and ‘WIFED’ her the same day! (Only the order was different; marriage first, graduation afterwards...)
Where am I going?
Here: GOD LISTENS!!!
In the two cases above, I neither prayed nor fasted for days for those things to happen. They happened...because God listened! And He still does…
And that's my news to you today...
What have you been asking Him that He seems to be delaying to do?
What are your deepest desires?
The truth is that the God that cared enough to listen to my silent whispers is still alive. Don't stop trusting Him.
So yeah, I married her! And same day she graduated! And same day we got to have our first kiss in a SUPER GREAT and DUPER GUILTLESS atmosphere...
That’s what love looks like to me!
If our story inspires you enough, do well to drop a word of prayer for us. We will appreciate it.
If you feel offended to not have been informed, no hard feelings. At worst, pardon my forgetfulness. At best, respect Romans 8:14😄Wishing you even greater testimonies!
Let’s celebrate!

NIGERIA’S PROBLEM ISN’T CORRUPTION; NEITHER IS AMERICA’S PROBLEM RACISM; NOR THE WORLD’S PROBLEM ISIS

You see, I have been thinking and as many have said before me; the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. All over the world, conferences are convoked to address issues presumed by world leaders to be the bane of the human society. They talk about opening up of borders, gun control, racial tensions, violent attacks, xenophobia, political ideology, corruption, religious extremism and a whole lot of other stuff. They are trying, I think, to dig deep enough into the problem of the human society, in order to come up with a viable solution.

But then, at any and every corner of personal and social life, the primary threats to human flourishing are not these externals the world seems to be addressing, rather, the crux of the human crisis is the disordering of the human soul and social relations into self-centered, individualistic, indulgent, narcissistic, idealistic, prideful, tribal, or sentimental factions. Chaos is a cancer that manifests itself within the soul of the individual and social relations when order disintegrates. Our desires become our masters, and with desires as numerous as the hairs on our heads we are pulled in a thousand different directions. St Augustine, better than anyone else in Western history and philosophy, provides the essential account of the human person as an uncontrollable bundle of desires that cannot be properly realigned outside of the grace of God.

Hobbes’ basic intuition about the terrible state of the “war of all against all” seems essentially right: that evil lies within the human heart that must never be depersonalized. Evil is always personal because it’s always a person who is evil. Not a truck, not a plane, not a gun, not a bomb. All of these externals are the means used by evil people to perpetrate evil deeds, just like all the motivations for attack, whether they be racial or religious or political, are internals that co-opt the congenital evil of the human heart to further their cause.

Hence this is what I think: Blow up Boko Haram, smoke up ISIS into dust or smithereens, and other groups will crawl out of their ashes. Ban all guns and someone will create a new weapon. This is the reality: you cannot legislate evil out of the heart of man. People are the problem. We always have been the problem and only a rebirth and redemption of the human heart in God can salvage our fallen race. God help the human family.

Benneth Joseph Obinna is a graduate of the University of Ibadan and a Post Graduate Diploma student in Broadcast Journalism with the Nigerian Institute of Journalism. He is an Administrative Assistant with the MBA department at the Pan-Atlantic University (Lagos Business School)Benneth Joseph Obinna is an Administrative Assistant with the Top of Form