MY STANDBY

I was down. Indisposed. Under the weather. You name it. But my body was buckling under the pressure of these malaria symptoms, sitting heavy in my throat, upon my eyes and in my limbs. I thought to let my system fight it a bit. “Let’s observe it”, those around me opted. That sounded right to me. I wasn’t ready to start pumping my body with pills. Matter of fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I took a pill. 

Anyway, this was the third day of our supposed ‘observation':  the symptoms kicked in on Friday and here I was on a Sunday, still needing to cuddle my pillow and let my muscles stretch unto the soft folds of my bed. I was tired. I made it through the first and second service in church, with every restraint I could muster to keep me from sprawling across the rug just in front of the alter: we could  call it ‘taking over by the Spirit of God'. Then I could just pretend and lay there till I could lift my limbs. But like I said, I resisted the urge to create such a scene. 

Fast forward. Here I was, awaken to consciousness by my Pastor, with whom I now cohabited. With her eyes hinting a bit of concern, she walked into my room: “Have you forgotten the program you are to attend by 4pm?” And then she added “will you be able to make it?” My response was a slow nod, followed by a strained effort to lift my body from the bed. At that moment, I wanted to call this friend of mine and tell her just how my body wouldn’t let me show up as I had earlier promised, but I  shook the thought off. I had given her my word. 

As I stepped out of my room, fully dressed, my Pastor looked at me and declared: “don’t worry. A miracle will happen.” You see, my heart caught those words and I went on. On getting to the venue, the guy who was also on the backup team for the music minister that had been invited, called in sick from a stomach upset. Besides, the music minister was nowhere to be found.

After the opening prayer had extended to a somewhat ‘prayer meeting' and already anxious eyes from the small gathering demanded ‘what next?’ the convener of the meeting called for me. “Mr. Tim is supposed to have started his ministration by now, but he’s nowhere to be found. Can you hold the fort till he comes?” Men! To tell you the truth, I became suddenly tensed. My palms became sweaty in no time. So I stalled, looking into the eyes of the other organisers of the meeting—all of whom were friends of the host—the look they gave me seemed to say “can you?” in a daring kind of way. So I took up the challenge. I had no choice anyway. Things were becoming a bit awkward back inside.

I knew I was going to need my standby because:

1 I was still trying to recover 

2 I hadn’t been on the backup team let alone leading worship for months since I left the choir for the writing team. 

Guess what? My standby came through. Where the songs came from, I had no idea, the atmosphere didn’t fall flat like I was previously scared it would, and I could hear blessed souls blasting in tongues. 

Now here’s the part I  didn’t state earlier : prior to that moment, it was just impressed in my heart to pray more, even before the prayer session started. I wondered why I needed the extra fire since I wasn’t the lead singer anyway. Nevertheless, as the prayer session was unfolding, my heart was up. I prayed with all focus and commitment. And the result came later. 

After leading worship for what seemed like fifteen minutes, the minister we had all been waiting for, stepped in and joined in the worship. But later on, he took off from where I had stopped. As expected, he took the atmosphere, to a higher crescendo.

I learnt a lot from that single meeting; especially when the ministers and every other person who participated in the meeting were celebrated and I seemed to have fazed into oblivion before their eyes. My standby had to remind me that I didn’t come there to be recognised and I didn’t do what I just did with my own strength. There was an unction for it and I felt it—the way my apprehensive knees submitted under the help of the Holy Spirit, it was Divine. 

Here's what is funny; I couldn’t even feel any symptoms until I had to walk some distance to flag down a bike after the meeting. That incident buried deep lessons in my heart. And to think I almost didn’t show up. Now here’s the scripture that comes to mind when I reminisce on the whole experience:

Heb.13.5b ; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] (AMP)