My attention has been drawn to a report of the day the renowned businessman, Femi Otedola, found the meaning of happiness, what really true happiness means. The enthralling post forwarded to me by my friend, Mazi Uso Aninye, reads:
“I want to remember your face so that when I meet you in Heaven, I will be able to recognise you and thank you once again”
“When Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola in a telephone interview, was asked by the radio presenter, ‘Sir, what can you remember made you a happiest man in life?’ Otedola said:
“I have gone through four stages of happiness in life and finally I understood the meaning of true happiness.” The first stage was to accumulate wealth and means. But at this stage I did not get the happiness I wanted.
“Then came the second stage of collecting valuables and items. But I realised that the effect of this thing is also temporary and the luster of valuable things does not last long. Then came the third stage of getting big projects. That was when I was holding 95 per cent of diesel supply in Nigeria and Africa, I was also the largest vessel owner in Africa and Asia. But even here I did not get the happiness I had imagined.
“The fourth stage was the time a friend of mine asked me to buy wheelchair for some disabled children. Just 200 kids. At the friend’s request, I immediately bought the wheel chairs. But the friend insisted that I go with him and hand over the wheelchairs to the children. I got ready and went with him. There I gave these wheel chairs to these children with my own hands. I saw the strange glow of happiness on the faces of these children. I saw them all sitting on the wheelchairs, moving around and having fun. It was as if they had arrived at a picnic spot where they were sharing a jackpot winning. I felt REAL joy inside me. When I decided to leave one of the kids grabbed my legs. I tried to free my legs gently but the child stared at my face and held my legs tightly.
“I bent down and asked the child: Do you need something else? The answer this child gave me not only made me happy but also changed my attitude to life completely. The child said: “I want to remember your face so that when I meet you in Heaven, I will be able to recognise you and thank you once again.”
Presumably comments came from those who may have come across the post. One goes as follows: What would you be remembered for after you leave that office or place? Will anyone desire to see your face again where it all matters?’
‘This is a must read piece. It got me thinking. I am sending it to all my friends. I pray it does same to everyone.
Mazi Uso Aninye comments:
“Well, without meaning to take away and diminish the great merits or the positive import of the writing, I will like us to consider it from a spiritual dimension—for proper absorption.
“There are many reincarnations of a man into Gross Material World. So it is the spirit that would be recognising each other at Home, Paradise, and it would be automatic. Therefore, there would be no looking out for any face, as each person would have had different faces at each incarnation. All the same we should go ahead doing good deeds for it is Creation that would reward you, for your good deeds, to the minutest detail whether or not the faces of the doer of the good or the beneficiary is recognised by the other. The child as a recipient of a great help had spoken from the depth of his soul.
“Great is the perfection of His Laws in His Creations—to the minutest details.
“Gloria tibi Domine! Glory to the Lord always. Amen.”
