Are you A Church Rat? In the voice of my friend

It was funny how and when my friend called me a church rat as I finished narrating my near-death experience which happened on Sunday and I believe that many of you have read about it. I want you to follow me in this article because I believe that most of us have been in this situation before, so I would want to be very careful with this article so that you don’t get too confused about the context in which my friend made the statement. The truth is that I felt the same way when he first told me that I am a church rat. You and I know that the statement is used to qualify a poor man because people believe that any rat that stays in the church will not be able to feed well since there are no rooms where foodstuffs are kept other than bibles and pews or chairs. When he made the statement, I looked at him in awe because I felt he made the statement in a wrong context but as I inquired that he explain what he meant he said;

“You are a church rat because you are always going to church in fact, I don’t think you will survive if churches were to be closed”…

 

At first, I laughed very hard at what he said because I could not imagine anybody responding in such a way after I narrated my near-death experience. It was a mixed feeling of laughter and anger that came later but I had to control the anger because I understood the kind of friend he is. For the records, he is the kind of friend that will not put much seriousness into serious issues in fact, he will trivialize anything you tend to make serious. Since I understood his personality, I decided not to react angrily but I wanted him to explain what he meant by calling me a church rat and when he had given his reason, even though I understood that he intentionally used the church rat thing as a means to get me thinking. One thing about me is that I try to look at situations critically and logically because I believe that anything said or done to you by anybody is for a purpose. When I got home, I asked myself the question again; are you a church rat (Using the exact word of my friend)? To look at his statement, I would want us to look at it carefully.

Are you a Church Rat?

When I got home I had to look into the mirror to ask myself the question again because I believe that one should be able to understand before trying to convince others. Now, one thing you must understand is that my being a musicologist has made it impossible for me to stay at home on weekdays talk more on Sundays. It is funny, right? But that is the truth about what I do so when my friend called me a church rat I took it upon myself to see things from his point of view. He is among the persons that usually visit me in the house almost daily and for the fact that he does not get to see me anytime he visited he tagged me a church rat probably because he will always get to hear that I have gone to church. It is not like we don’t get to see once in a while because I try to make out time for me to hang out with my friends whenever I have the chance but to him, he feels it is not enough but do I have an option? I don’t think I have any option because I must make ends meet since we are all in this race for survival together.

I would want to pose this question to us and the reason is simple, I want to open your minds to what and how your friends feel about you whenever it becomes so hard for them to spend some time with you. The question is; what do your friends see you as? We must understand that this question goes a long way to determine how our friends see us especially if we are the type that is so engaged that we hardly find time to mingle with friends. I bet you have heard this saying;

“Keep your friends close and your enemy closer”

 The above quote goes a long way to tell you about the importance of friends in our lives as individuals. You may be so busy with work but I would want you not to allow your work or whatever that keeps you busy to take you away from friends because no man is an island.

I did not just think about the statement above, I also looked at the possibility of making out time to be with friends more often. We do not know how or what the afterlife will be like because no one has ever gone there and come back to tell us about it. We must know that every single minute we spend with friends must be cherished so much so that it will become a memorial anytime we see each other. This leads me to ask this question; what type of memories have you created with your friends?

Friends and Memories

Sometimes we tend to forget that the memories we shared with friends are always golden. I was discussing with a friend and he said to me, “Davinchy, we are beginning to have fewer memories as friends, time is going”. As I weighed his statement, I saw a glaring truth in what he said. Before we all jumped into the world as a means of finding our feet in a way to make ends meet, we were usually creating great memories almost daily but right now, we can’t even boast of a day of good memory because even when we meet, everybody is always conscious of the time just to get back home and prepare for another of hustling bustling. It is very terrible because we have forgotten that none of us is getting any younger and what it means is that we are getting to that place where we won’t be able to even hang out again.

What memories do you have with your friends? The most worrisome of them all is that a lot of friends are carrying mountains of guilt of what they did or said against their friends which they believe if they confess to their friends might end such a relationship. This keeps them under the heavy bondage of guilt but what is the need for a friendship if there is no time for disagreement and agreement? We must understand that we live not just for ourselves but for others who may not necessarily show us how much they love and want us to be a part of their life. Don’t be a church rat or better still, do not allow your friend to get to see you as a church rat because you are always not available for a little hang out here and there with them. You can create lasting sweet memories with your friends because we all have one shot at life as humans. Love and spread love all around the world. I love you all.

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