It had been a long day at the office. I’d gotten up early that Monday morning and had to fight my way to get a bus heading to the Island. As if that wasn’t enough, a colleague was giving me the cold shoulder.
I thought hard about the past Friday to see if anything would come to mind as to why she’d be cold and aloof, nothing did… So I called her to the side to ask her if I’d upset her in anyway, she said no. I apologised just in case she wasn’t sure if she didn’t want to say anything.
So work eventually started and I got swamped. I even forgot to take my lunch break – it was that hectic. When it was eventually my closing hour, I didn’t hesitate at all, I got my stuff and bolted out the door like a cartoon character. Not because I was in aa haste to get home, but because I wanted to get to the bus terminal at TBS so as to catch a quick bus back to the Mainland.
I got to the terminal in record time and I met a very long queue – “Long” is an understatement seff.
The long queue, the traffic we would encounter. No doubt I’d be getting home really late. Chai!
And as God would have it, I saw another queue for commuters that would be standing in the bus. I didn’t even blink. I joined the queue with alacrity. The air condition in the bus was working, and in the November heat, I’d take that rather than the other long queue meant for commuters that chose to sit.
I know you’re wondering where I’m going with this blow-by-blow account of how my Monday went… I’ll get there. Just stay with me.
So, I brought out my phone’s earpiece to listen to a particular playlist I’d put together the night before – but alas, the earpiece was tangled. Very tangled. How that happened is still a mystery to me. I successfully untangled it and proceeded to listen to my playlist. Only one was working. I couldn’t believe I’d be standing in the bus, for the long ride, with just one ear of my earpiece working. I was so livid. At who, I didn’t know.
I got on the bus, found the perfect spot to stand and proceeded to listen to my song jejeli. It was awful. Very awful listening to my playlist with external sounds filtering in.
Then I heard it!
I whipped my head up so fast that I heard the crack in my neck.
On the mini TV installed on the bus, a gospel music video was playing and I cringed.
I love music. I mean, I listen to various genres. From Rap, to ballads, jazz to contemporary beats and composition. A good music production always gets me every time. Especially gospel songs. From lyrics, to its arrangement and then the beat.
So why did I cringe when I heard this song, everything about it was unappealing to my ears. I felt more could have been done to both the song and video production. I didn’t even bother to finish listening to the first verse before proceeded to dismiss.
But something caught my eye!
Because of the position I was in the bus, I could see the bus driver in the rear-view mirror. What I saw not only shook me, but it got me wondering.
The driver was singing tenaciously along. When the video got to the chorus, and because we were stuck in traffic, I saw the driver raise his left hand to worship God.
Ha! A song that was over-seasoned with autotune?
It was at that point I paused my own playlist to listen to the lyrics of the song.
Forget that the song and video production were both bad, the lyrics were lit!
So lit that I tuned out everything else to listen to just the lyrics alone. Whoever had composed the song did a good job. It wasn’t long after that I prayed silently, while standing, using the song as fuel for my thirsty heart. The weeks before that evening had leFt me really troubled, which caused my insomnia to come back.e
The message in the song was timely.
It made me let go and simply… Pray.
Pray like I’d not done in weeks.
Before I knew it, I opened the bible app on my phone and began to read a particular scripture and I was immersed in it throughout my journey home. I didn’t even know when the song ended.
I felt good. Good because there’s no right adjective to describe how I felt.
I got home and googled the artiste, I got her twitter handle and sent a message to her, thanking her for the message in her lyrics. God had used her. God used that song which I thought was bad, to bring me to a place of prayer and serendipity.
There’s a message from God in everything we see, hear, and read.
We only need to listen.
Be still… And simple listen.
Written by Iteoluwakishi @The_Kishi
