One of the things I do often is to listen to newspaper review. Sometimes last week, the was a conversation that followed the review was that of Seyi Tinubu following the father around. Well, that’s not my business. Someone made comment on that furiously and ended the conversation with ‘that nonsense must stop,’ but I heard something different. I heard, ‘the spirit of nonsense.’ Yes that was what I heard. That thought lingered in my heart for days. There are twin demons that has stopped our progress as a nation, ‘the culture of waste and the spirit of nonsense. ‘ The spirit of nonsense can afflict a life, family nation or community. It makes those who you think should be reasonable to very unreasonable.
A lot of times we do things that does not make sense at all. Do you need to beg a nation struggling financially to reduce the cost of governance to the barest minimum or do you need to tell a person struggling financially to adjust taste and lifestyle or do you need tell a Pastor who lost three members at once that it is not the right time to celebrate birthday? I think no. But when the spirit of nonsense has taken permanent resident in a family, Church, nation and life, such continue to do things that does not make sense.
There are nonsense that must stop if we are to make progress and achieve our dreams personally and corporately. To continue to so something the same way and expect a different result is called insanity. Though Voltaire said, “common sense is not common,’ but there are places where we must always find not just common sense but wisdom. *“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” Thomas Edison
Don’t support nonsense, don’t finance nonsense and don’t start nonsense. We put ourselves in jeopardy when we allow “the spirit of nonsense” to have place in our lives. You must always ask yourself questions to know whether there is sense in what you are doing. There are things that made sense many years ago, that no longer make sense because times, tastes and realities have changed.
Wise people always take time to stop, listen and evaluate. The problems of people who don’t listen to feedback and do evaluation will always persist. When people and organizations continue to pretend in face of daunting realities and continue to do things the way they have been doing it without positive adjustment then you know that the ‘spirit of nonsense is afflicting that person or system.’
Jesus got into the temple and saw the nonsense they were doing and he did something radical, he stopped it. He drove all of them out of the temple and upturned the tables of money changers and flogged sense into some of them (John 22: 13-16). He has to do that to restore sanity and sense to them.
Today, take self assessment and find out things you have to stop, change or dismiss, and be courageous to stop it. Also find out the things you need to start to create the change you require, go ahead and start it.
Remember, progress is difficult without commonsense.
I am Pst Femi Ajayi