MISSING PEOPLE LIST##

It was late that thursday night when I got the text. I had already finished my assignment and was about to sleep when my phone alerted me. Actually, I neglected the text because I really wanted to sleep. I finally decided to get up at around 11:30pm- 30minutes after I got in bed for the lack of sleeping exercise.
I opened the text message, read it and immediately I sat upright. My room-mates were all asleep, I couldn’t scream but I really did panic. I couldn’t phantom who could have sent something of such to me.

‘Could it be school authority?’ Could it be my friends? Could it be someone playing pranks on me?’. All these I wondered.
I read it all over again for like five minutes and heaved a sigh. I couldn’t even think straight on who to call or who not to call. After about an hour of deep thinking I called my best friend, she picked up the call and I noticed she was crying. Without saying anything I started crying too. I knew she had gotten the exact message. I disconnected the call and wished for the day to break because I couldn’t explain what was happening.
I cannot tell you exactly when I slept off but I woke up pretty late than usual. I quickly had my quiet time asking God to give me strength to face any form of heartbreak that morning. Immediately after that I had my bath and dressed up for school without really saying much to my room mates; they were silent too.
Usually, I have lectures by 11:00am on Fridays but as at 8am, I was ready to leave. I couldn’t even eat. As I stepped out of the hostel gate, I opened my bag and picked my phone to re-read th message and for the first time in the last nine hours I could read it out. It went thus:
‘Dear student, some people have gone missing. We cannot fully disclose their names but we are sure that you are linked to some of them in school. Come to the main school hall (MSH) tomorrow by 8:30am to check for the list and identify those you know so we can investigate well. Good night.’
There were lot of dinners and excursions in school so I didn’t even know what could have happened. It took me 10minutes to get there. I have a lot of friends so I couldn’t think of who could have gone missing. I met my best friend outside but I also met a lot of people outside the school hall. There and then I knew the people missing weren’t only people that I knew. A lot of people knew them too. My best friend and I couldn’t talk much. As at 8:40am, the school hall was opened and we all rushed in to the massive notice board. As I looked at the long list I noticed it was grouped into departments and levels so I went straight to where the list of my department was pasted. The funniest part of it is I cannot even remember who was in the hall with me. I saw the names of some of my friends. I don’t even know if it was alphabetically arranged but I knew almost every name on that list. Tears started flowing. What could have happened? As I was about to turn back, something caught my attention. I saw a name that I know very well like I know myself. I wiped the tears off my face to check well but I realised it was the name I knew. I looked at the matriculation number and it was it. I knew it.
Surprisingly, it was MY NAME; MY FULL NAME. MY NAME? Was I missing? Was I supposed to be missing? Was it a setup? I couldn’t think straight.
School officers were all around the school hall because there was a massive crowd in there. One of the school officers noticed the look on my face and gave me a paper. As at that moment I felt like I was the only one in the hall, only one in the school and only one in the world at large. As I dashed out to read the paper, I noticed I was not the only one given the paper but I felt mine was a personal message. That paper changed me and here is its content:
‘Calm down and do not let your head travel into outer space. You are missing! The school found out lately that there is a vacuum that you are expected to fill and you have defaulted greatly. You have performed below the expectation of your Creator and we are disappointed.
Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right. You are where you are because you have chosen to be there. No one but YOU is expected to have the best grades in this school. No one but YOU is expected to be the best in school politics. No one but YOU is supposed to be the best in Christ. If anyone can do it, you can do it better. You have the power to instantly change virtually anything and everything in your life. What you are afraid of is much more afraid of you. Sacrifice what you are feeling for what at best you should feel. Sacrifice what you are for what you could become. You must never take your destiny for granted. You will be in this phase only once in your life. There is no much time left.
John 9:4 says ‘I must work he works of him that sent me: while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.’
Dare the impossible to be free. Don’t just be interested in something, get committed to it. Stop digging your grave with your teeth as you cram your body with high-fat, nutritionally empty foods, poisoning your system with cigarette, alcohol and drugs. Worst still, passively sitting in front of TV sets for minutes of hours of days of your life. THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN FUN. Overcome the fears of making decisions. Make your decisions intelligently, but make it quickly. Find a way to succeed or make a way. If you have decided to get past the walls, you can climb over, you can break through them, you can tunnel under them, or find a door. No matter how long a wall has stood, none has the power to withstand the continued force of an human being who has decided to persist till it falls. Life is a daring adventure or nothing. Many know what to do but they are not doing it. If action doesn’t follow your decision then you haven’t decided. If you don’t make decisions about how you’re going to live, then you already made a decision, haven’t you? You are born to live, do not prepare to live. ACT NOW!
There is a vacuum in this school, in your fellowship, in your house, in your hostel, on your street that you are to fill. Please find yourself and fill it. Remove your name from the missing people’s list and ACT. Most people fail in life because they major in minor things. Change the ’cause’ of your behaviour not your behaviour towards issues of life.
No matter how prepared you are, there’s one thing that I can absolutely guarantee: if you are on the river of life, it’s likely you’re going to hit a few rocks. That’s not being negative; that’s being accurate. Learn from your mistakes and forge ahead.
Philippians 3:13-14 says: Brethen, I count not myself to have apprehended, BUT THIS ONE THING I DO, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’
Know that it is your decision not your condition that determines your destiny.
I hope someday you will finally realize that you will not live a day twice. NEVER! I hope someday you will finally realize that Christ has given you all it takes. I hope someday you will finally realize that you can do it and do it better. BE ACTIVE.’
I cried as I walked back to the hostel, indeed I was missing. I had forgotten who I was, I had forgotten my childhood dreams and the assignments God gave me. I had really forgotten everything. That paper is still on my wall in school. I read it almost everyday and remind myself of my potentials. Not that I didn’t know them, I just forgot. That semester was the best so far in the history of the school because they helped almost everyone (they couldn’t actually help EVERYONE) regain confidence and wake from slumber. My Spiritual life took a new turn too because I saw HOPE and JOY in Christ. My main question now is….ARE YOU MISSING?. GOD BLESS YOU now and always.
look into yourself and check the areas you gave been missing. talk to God and let him lead. may the Lord bless you as you read this post and upvote it.