THE LINEAGE OF THOMAS
Who does my dad thinks he is sef?
Last year, my dad traveled to his village, something he rarely does.
Before leaving, he gave me his ATM card so that we would be able to withdraw money from his account in case of an emergency.
I knew the kind of emergency he was talking about, like having to quickly wrap up his burial in case he didn’t make it back alive.
That was scary!
Before we go on, I want to take a moment to apologize for not writing to you since the 19th of December 2024.
Please understand this: writing comes naturally to me if I’m writing a blog post on social media, content creation or an Instagram caption. But this newsletter is just different.
When writing a newsletter, I’m not focusing on great hooks, click-worthy headlines, or sentence constructions. I simply write out what has been laid in my heart, what has been, biting me, what the Master has told me to write.
I’m simply a steward of this newsletter. If you don’t understand what I mean, take a look at this wonderful statement written by Grant Herbel:
Because
So, when my next letters are taking too long to drop, know that the Master has not commissioned His steward yet.
Let’s get back to business.
Remember the story of Thomas (Didymus) in the Bible? In John 20, we are told of how he refused to believe those who had encountered the resurrected Christ.
He practically asked to touch Jesus’ spleen before he would believe. That took guts, you know.
I thought that if you had walked with a person for 3+ years, seen the person perform uncountable miracles (John 21:25), and countered ‘powerful’ people many times, you’d have been convinced of such a person’s authority.
Why then did Thomas refuse to believe Jesus’ ‘last miracle?’
Now when you read that part of the scripture, what comes to your mind? You probably think “How dare he?”
I bet you also call him “Doubting Thomas” or “Doubting Diddy (DD for short).
You believe that you would have done better if you were one of the disciples. YOU ARE WRONG!
You are just like Thomas.
You see, every time you make a decision, take a step or even utter a statement that does not align with God’s will, you show that you truly belong to the lineage of Thomas.
The Figure Fixer
Before we continue, here’s a short story.
In a Church program, the moderator asked the members a question:
“Imagine you're working on a community development project, such as providing pipe-borne water for a community. You seek financial support from the government, but the official responsible for approving the budget requests that you inflate the figures by adding an extra zero. But you can’t go ahead without this support, what would you do?”
Many responded by saying they would inflate the budget, not for personal gain, but to ensure help reaches those in need quickly, without unnecessary delays.
Others said they’d inflate it and return the money when the project was done.
One particular man said something very saddening. He said that when it came to politics, Christianity and its values are only a figment of our imaginations.
What???
When it came to my turn, I explained that I’d never inflate the budget no matter what. I backed up my answer with this verse of the scripture:
“Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people” - Proverbs 14:34
Those who choose to inflate the budget do so out of uncertainty. Like DD, they feel the need to hold onto something rather than risk having nothing.
I said to the moderator, “If I call myself a Christian publicly but then fail in the Christian value system, people will judge me.”
This is so true. Better to hide your faith than to display it publicly so that when you stumble, only those at home with you will hear it.
The moderator stepped down, and the pastor climbed the altar. When the pastor finally spoke about the issue, I loved the verse of scripture he used, Matthew 5:13, and the message translation precisely.
“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.”
How does adding that extra zero make you a child of God? How does being part of the problem make you a solution?
How does changing the figure really help the people?
Listen to me, doing a little wrong to obtain the greatest possible good is never right. Because the truth is, there are many other ways to get funding for the project.
Who says it has to come from a man whose values have been eroded, calling himself a representative of the government?
But because you belong to the lineage of Thomas, you choose to see with your “two eyes” and not with your heart.
Now, you’re wondering “How does Thomas’ doubting Jesus connect with this?” I’ll tell you.
When you forgo the fundamental principles of God, when you ignore the core message of the scriptures and allow your humanity to direct the course of your actions, like Thomas, you have doubted Christ’s resurrection.
You have chosen to walk by sight and not by faith. You have asked to touch Jesus’ kidneys with your fingers. You have trivialized the death and resurrection of the master.
When you compromise on godly principles because of a short-term gain, you’re no better than Thomas.
I’m never silent on my core values, because unlike Thomas, I still want to be spoken of in the books, I want to be an apostle that millions of people, thousands of years later will use as a yardstick for their faith.
It’s so dear to me, I literally based my Instagram Live sessions on the subject matter.
Speaking of Instagram live, I have another one coming up this Friday at 7 Pm.
Follow me here to get notified when I go live.
The pain that never came back
If you have been reading my newsletters for a while now, you would have read in one of them that I had 2 surgeries last year.
I think I narrated my entire ordeal in this letter
One was a fibroid surgery, an illness that had plagued me for years, and the second one was, well, unplanned.
At 4:55 am, on a Saturday, I was rushed to the hospital in an Uber. My dad’s car was very much available, but he couldn’t drive in the dark. As a result of this, my sister, who couldn’t drive either, booked a ride, which didn’t arrive until then.
We got to the hospital and my doctor, the man who treats my entire family, told us that he didn’t know what was wrong with me. HAAA, scary!
With my stomach bloated, I kept slipping in and out of consciousness. Every time I came to, I would throw up, only to fade back into unconsciousness. Yet, even in that state, I could still hear them as they carried me into the car, rushing me to another hospital.
I’ll spare you the gory details, but after nearly two painful days of waiting endlessly for a doctor, the hospital informed us that they suspected an intestinal obstruction. I had never heard of that before.
After two terrible and painful weeks, the surgery was finally done, and I was discharged. I took a break from all my activities to focus on healing completely.
Once I had fully recovered, I slowly eased back into my life. I had missed everything I left behind, so I was happy to start again.
But the truth was, I constantly worried about whether the pain would return. Since it happened suddenly at midnight and the doctors confirmed it wasn’t caused by anything I ate, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a spiritual attack.
Every day, I feared it would happen again. I kept wondering who could have been behind it. Was it a frenemy? A relative? The mama living next door to us? The thought lingered in my mind over and over.
I would mark the ‘anniversary’ of the pain every week, hoping that it would not happen on that same day each week. Any slight stomach discomfort and my anxiety would become intense.
Before the ‘attack’ I was scheduled to teach our believers’ class. A moment I had been praying for. I was just so excited, but as it happened, I never got the chance to take it.
But a few months after the surgery, I received an email informing me that a new believers’ class had been scheduled and I was expected to teach it. At that moment, my anxiety spiked.
“What if it came back again?” “What if the enemy was trying to stop me from teaching it the first time, now that the opportunity has presented itself again, what if it comes back?”
“Where exactly is God in all this? and why hasn’t He dealt with my enemy? Why can’t Jesus do something about this?”
And on and on my thoughts spiralled, until I realized that Thomas’ doubt truly ran through my veins.
If you have ever been in that situation, where you expect God to show up, you’ve prayed, fasted, done everything you think can ‘move Him to act’ but nothing happens, how you respond actually indicates the lineage you belong.
Like me, do you sometimes think to yourself “abi God is angry with me ni?” Or do you simply hope in the Lord and trust Him to renew your strength? (Isaiah 40:31).
Your lineage of ingratitude
During my University days, I had two close friends, Ify and Fadeke. Although we were in different departments, our bond was strong.
Ify and I had been friends since our pre-degree days and remained close well into our 300 level. Fadeke, on the other hand, was my neighbour in the apartment I previously lived in and a good friend, so it was only natural for the three of us to form a tight-knit friendship.
Despite having our apartments, we often crammed into Fadeke’s small self-contained room because it was conveniently close to campus.
Whenever we travelled home to Lagos, we had a tradition of announcing our arrival on Twitter (when it was still Twitter and not the compartment of savagery it is now).
But something terrible happened in our 300 level. Just two days into our second-semester exams, Ify passed away, she died of sickle cell disease.
I couldn't decide what hurt more: the fact that she never told me she had sickle cell or the thought that I could have been with her in her final moments if I hadn’t chosen to stay overnight at school to study.
A month later, Fadeke graduated, leaving me to navigate my final year alone.
Eventually, I graduated too and returned home. When I arrived in Lagos, I instinctively reached for my phone to announce my arrival just as we always did.
“Lagos touch-down. Fisayo has arrived”
But it wasn’t the same anymore. And so, I sank into a long season of sadness.
Every day, I questioned why God had allowed it to happen. Not once did I stop to thank Him for preserving my life or for granting me the grace to graduate.
The lineage of Thomas is one of ingratitude, always reminding God of what He didn’t do, while forgetting to acknowledge all that He has done.
You cannot see Ibadan from Lagos
When you leave Lagos for Ibadan, you have a clear destination in mind.
You set your GPS or Google Maps, trust the route, and begin your journey.
Now, imagine how ridiculous it would be if, upon reaching Ojota, you started scanning the horizon for Ibadan. And because you couldn’t see it yet, you suddenly doubted the journey, turned around, and headed back.
That would surely earn you a Guinness World Record for the stupidest traveler on earth.
A few months ago, I boarded a bus heading out when, suddenly, a man flagged it down and jumped in.
Breathless, he instructed the driver to follow the bus ahead, explaining that he had forgotten something inside.
The bus was nearly empty. It was just me sitting at the back and another passenger in the front seat. Yet, instead of sitting down, the man crouched behind the front seat, panting heavily.
The other passenger turned to him and shouted at him. At first, I was puzzled, but when he said, “Mr. man, calm down o, don’t kill yourself,” I realized he shouted because he could see that the man was overwhelmed with fear.
Within two minutes, our driver caught up with the other bus. The man quickly got down, retrieved his item, gave us a grateful wave, and left.
Just like that, the matter was settled.
Many of us are just like that passenger, panicking the moment things don’t seem to align with the picture we had in mind.
We are consumed by fear when the deadline we set for God is almost up, yet He hasn’t shown up the way we expected.
The lineage of Thomas is one of impatience.
You see, you can’t spot Ibadan from Lagos, but as you stay on course, the road unfolds before you. Eventually, the signs become clear, and you arrive at your destination.
Consider this, despite the economic downturn, cockroaches haven’t grown bigger, and lilies haven’t changed color. They remain the same.
But you? Your heart races every time you hear the new price of Agege bread. “Things are hard,” “The economy is bad,” and “This president is wicked” have become your daily songs, your personal anthem.
Even flies have mastered time management better than you; they know precisely when to perch on a meal. But you? You’ve used the time God created to try and force His hand to fit your schedule.
The blood of Thomas runs through your veins. And just like we never heard from him again, just like he left no legacy worth reading about, you might be walking the same path, fading into silence.
The woman with a huge breast
My dad is a man of few words, but when he does speak, it’s either something profound, terrifying, or downright hilarious.
Back when we still attended our former Church, the pastor approached him and asked for his help. He mentioned that several Church members were searching for jobs and hoped my dad could assist in any way possible.
My dad agreed and told the pastor to send them to his office for a meeting the next day. That Monday morning, as he settled into work, his secretary informed him that a woman was waiting at the reception.
He asked her to let the woman in and the moment she stepped into his office, he nearly fell out of his chair.
Let me tell it in my dad’s exact words:
"The first thing I saw were just breasts, I couldn’t even see her face at all."
This was the woman the pastor had told my dad needed a job. But what the pastor never mentioned was just how massive her chest was.
Now, let me give you some context. I grew up in a white garment Church. We spent nearly two decades there before moving to a Pentecostal church, where I finally and properly gave my life to Christ.
In white garment Churches, as the name suggests, we wear white garments and everything is properly tucked in, modest and covered.
But when she got the chance to untuck everything, she took it. And in doing so, she also blew her shot at the job.
Did she go around telling people about the so-called injustice done to her? Of course, she did. But what she didn’t tell them was how she had walked in with her face practically hidden behind what should have been properly inside her dress.
There are so many people like this, people who miss out on great opportunities simply because they lack discipline.
My younger sister, who works in HR, once told me about a woman she had to fire. The woman had come to the head office expecting a promotion, only to be blindsided by the news that she was actually being laid off.
At first, my sister felt sorry for her. The woman struggled to speak proper English and couldn’t even articulate herself when she received the news. Hearing this, I also felt a wave of pity.
That was until my sister told me why she was let go, she was incompetent, lazy, and consistently failed to do her job properly.
My final words for you
Listen, Thomases, it’s time to get a grip. Stop being irresponsible. Focus on the word God has given you and hold on to your faith.
As for my dad? Well, he made it home safely. And the very first thing he did was take back his ATM card from us, saying something hilarious like, “You people are not getting rid of me that easily.”
We all burst into laughter.
You’d want to listen to this:
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