One Thing at a Time

One thing I love the Yorubas for is the way they describe God. They say, among other things, that God is Great and Mighty (Oyigiyigi). He is also the Arugbo Ojo Gbogbo (The Ancient One who spans the past, present and the future), The Apase wa ni pa ase re la fi da ohun gbogbo which means The One who has authority to give orders, and by His orders have all things been created. These adjectives greatly describe the infiniteness of the Almighty God, even though words remain insufficient to describe Him. 

But have you ever asked yourself why it took this Oyigiyigi six whole days to create the world? Why did He, being the Apase wa ni pa ase re la fi da ohun gbogbo, not just give explicit orders for the creation of the world within a split second? Why would he have to confer with ‘others’ to create man as recorded in Genesis 1:26? These actually got me thinking and my conclusion is that God takes one thing at a time. He is indeed a God order. 

However, we human beings seem to do things on the contrary. We seem to lack the patience to achieve things gradually. We just want to get things done ‘sharp sharp.’ Natural or social order is always predicated on man’s respect for divine, timeless and immutable imperatives. It is indeed a divine, timeless and immutable imperative from our Maker to do things one at a time. There are no shortcuts to achieving success. When we try to outsmart ourselves, we end up shortchanging ourselves. We know some protagonist of ‘multitasking’ may contend with this perspective, yet it is critical to state that we are not wired up to multitask but to focus on just one thing at a time. 

I have seen some women who say they want to have their kids all in a row and stop having children. Sweetheart, there’s something called child spacing. You can’t just get your kids all in a row without the consequences. Some women have even lost their lives in the process. Same thing applies to our educational pursuits, financial quests, social aspirations, career prospects, marital goals, political inclinations and indeed every other facet of life. We must understand that “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them all.” 

Therefore, let’s stop chasing the things of life as if we are the determiners of destiny. There’s time for everything. An ancient proverb states that everything comes to him who waits. As we go about conducting the affairs of our lives this week and indeed for the rest of the year, let us take things with ease and refrain from an acquire-all-at-once mentality.

Like the 16th century German poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote,

“Like the star that shines afar,

Without haste and without rest,

Let each one wheel with steady sway

Round the task that rules the day,

And do their best.”

It just gonna be one thing at a time, darling. Do have a blessed and fulfilling week ahead.