Growing up as a teenager is a phase full of quests, tests, and restlessness. This was the story of a sixteen years old boy born into a middle-class family in a far-flung town of North Africa. He was a precocious child with an appetite for life and learning. While others read books, he read libraries. And his doting parents toiled to give him the best of education the ancient world could offer in terms of rhetoric and classics. However, his growing up was not all paved paths and clear visions. There were flickers of exuberance and restlessness. He roamed with a group of crippled characters.
And together with these scoundrels, he committed petty crimes and mischievous acts. At some points, he indulged in booze and loose living to the point that lust drove its dripping fangs into his restlessness soul. However, through these cracks in character, a shaft of light shone which paved the way for western philosophy and Christian civilization. That is, in a sudden moment of insight, this boy straightened himself, turned to the Christian faith and eventually became a Bishop. His thirst for deeper meanings in life moved him to write boldly about his reckless life as a growing youth and his groping progress towards the light. By looking inwards, he came to a realisation.
The man’s name was Aurelius Augustinus, famously known today as St. Augustine of Hippo. This brings us to a very crucial topic, Realisation, the understanding or awareness of a particular fact or situation. One can say from the story of St. Augustine‘s life, that realization is indeed important and unfortunately for us, it doesn’t come up until a very crucial and critical aspect of one’s life. Lucky are the people, who like St. Augustine experience this early in life. Now, my generation is going downhill. It’s wiping out. Most people are walking Zombies and obviously they have no sense of direction of right and wrong and of what is good and what is bad. Blind to the truths that are right before our eyes while searching for that same truth in everything but the right thing.
This truth in question is what you may ask, this truth is the truth that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had proclaimed for us right there on the cross, the one which we reverence and celebrate virtually every day. This truth that we see that surrounds us so fully and wholly are the same truth we are blissfully ignorant to and that is because we have not yet realised the blessings that come from the beautiful life of Jesus Christ. This is why realisations keep you in pain and sadness. A valid example or rather a hypothetical explanation of this can be seen with teenagers, as we all know these are the set of people at a very crucial age, where they either make or mar themselves and everything is just a roller coaster of emotions.
Teenagers nowadays search for eternity in temporary places, Everyone, no matter how aggressive or bad they may seem is just looking for love. Where is the most suitable to have love and have it in abundance? Of course – God’s presence. Yes, we all know this and have been taught this since we were little children, but not a lot of people have realised it. We know it, but we do not realise it which is why we are ignorant and go about doing other things anyway.
On a conclusive note, my best piece of advice to whoever may be reading this is to slow down in life, sit back and try and tap into that unknown force that makes you a different person and a lot changes in the way you live your life, you begin to see deeper things, way more that the people around you, you begin to act in a much more calm way and take bad things in good faith, confident that God will lead you, and lastly, but, most definitely not the least, you find joy, and you find it in abundance, all in God’s divine presence just like St. Augustine.
• Ninioluwa Olusola Sanni is a student of Mater Ecclesiae College, Epe.
