Charles Ighele
Some time ago, I told my wife that we needed to chill out to free our minds from work. In Mark 6:31, Jesus said to his disciples after a very hectic season of work: “Come away… into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.”
God created men to rest the body from work from time to time. We then went to an Atlantic Ocean Beach in one of the countries in West Africa. As we laid side by side with the ocean breeze blowing on us, Carol was off to a deep sleep, which lasted for about three hours. By the time she woke up, she was looking better. For those hours, she did not concentrate on work. It was about eating and enjoying the beauty of the Atlantic Ocean, loving and gisting.
By the time we left that private beach at about 9pm, we were both filled with new strength and great happiness. As I kept thinking much later about where the strength and happiness came from, my mind went to a research conducted by the famous Harvard University in the United States. The researchers discovered that the greatest source of happiness to a normal human being is love. When a person is adequately loved and feels adequately loved, the person becomes very happy. As marriage counsellors, my wife and I know so many people who are rich and have good jobs, but are not happy due to a problem in their love relationship with spouses, children, parents and others.
While married people should spend enough time to develop their skills and put up the best in their different places of work, they should also spend enough time to increase their knowledge on how to love and enjoy their husbands or wives and other loved ones. And most importantly, we should all spend time on how to respond to the great love that God has for all of us.
The power of love gives strength and happiness. It is very common to hear of politicians, civil servants, professionals and pastors collapsing and dying. The other day, a pastor died while preaching.
On the day Archbishop Benson Idahosa died in 1998, at about 58 years, I had so much overworked myself that I could hardly move my legs. And without my knowing the cause of his death, as I heard the news and was at the point of tears, I heard a voice telling me that the only thing that will make me not to fulfill my God-ordained number of years on earth and in ministry is overwork. Make no mistakes about the fact that God wants us to work. Jesus met and called Peter, James and John while busy at their workplaces. But He also wants us to rest the body everyday through sleep, relaxation, among others. God also wants us to rest and relax the body every seven days apart from Bible feast days, holidays, honeymoons and others.
Using your body and soul to work and making money and fulfilling destiny is very important. But using your body and soul to love and to receive love into your body and soul is seriously needed, so that, your body and soul is supplied with enough love for extra happiness and joy that you need to give your strength to do the work you are talented to do. Joy gives strength (Nehemiah 8:10)!
I seriously plead with couples today to spend enough time to grow their marriages and love lives. This will make them more focused and productive in their workplaces. This will also make them live happier lives. Make una enjoy small. I beg una. Love you!
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