What I'm Listening to...

Yup. They are called Anthem Lights and I'm listening to their EP that goes by the same name. They were formerly known as Yellow Cavalier and originated form Tennessee. They sing Christian Rock and Pop. the reason behind the name change according to them is: "These songs [and] this record is our anthem to the world saying, "Listen, we know there's a lot of darkness in this life, but in the end, light is gonna win." And we wanna be the light to people and just show them who the light of the world is." Source

That's enough introduction.

On the Anthem Lights EP, I particularly love two songs: "Where the Light is" and "Can't get over You". I think I'm actually obsessed with "Where the light is" because the song did met me at a point when I needed it the most and I haven't been able to get over "Can't get over You".

Where the light is talks simply about darkness not standing a chance where Light exists; telling us that though it may seem like darkness has the upper hand for a long time, the Light will always win. I might not know what darkness means to you, but I know that light means just one thing to everybody. It's kinda like an encouragement/reminder that no matter how dark, gloomy or hopeless any situation might be; there's still the tiniest bit of light shining. One part of the song I like so much goes:

Even when you're close to midnight

Even when the walls are closing in

There'll always be a star that's shining

And the night will never win

Where the light is

Can't get over you is a worship/commitment song acknowledging the love, grace and forgiving nature of God and asking God to draw us closer because we can't get over Him or His love. My "part" of the song is:

Here in the arms of my Father

Only grace can be found

So I lay my fears down

Nothing is the same anymore

You've changed me from the inside out

Now my heart is beating and it's singing won't You...

They have other great songs on the EP but these two are my best...

So that's what I'm listening to at the moment and I thought to share. They've got web presence here  and also on twitter @anthemlights and youtube. You can check them out and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Okay, bye. Have an awesome weekend.

What I'm Reading

Over the weekend, I read this nice book "The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's wives" by Lola Shoneyin. 

Where do I even start from? Okay, first, I know the book is not new; but keep your judgements to yourself. Thank you very much. I loved the book. It was funny for a very long time and then after some time, some serious lessons started to find their way to my brain. 

I'm an Ibadan girl (or I used to be); so it was quite easy to relate with many of the places she spoke about in the book and at some point, I could practically feel myself moving along the road as the characters in the book were moving and even sometimes, I'd say to myself "Oh, I know this place". Lol.

For a first novel, the author did a great job. I liked how she portrayed the family as a fully "Yoruba-ish" family, but also as people somehow in tune with the modern world. 

Yep, so in case you didn't know that polygamy is plenty work, go get the book; it will help you understand better. Seriously though, I have never been a fan of anything beyond one man, one wife. It's like intentionally digging your own grave when you start taking a second, third, fourth and so on wife. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think two or more wives of the same man can co-habit without even the tiniest bit of jealousy, hatred, envy and so on.

This is the cover of the one I read

Brief storyline: Baba Segi married four wives: Iya Segi, Iya Tope, Iya Femi and Bolanle (aka Iya nobody) and between the first three wives, he had seven children that he loved dearly. Turns out that Baba Segi's "pride" was brutally bruised by a series of events with the help of modern technology. #EndofStory. Sorry, I suck at summaries so I'm so sure I just confused the person reading this further. Forgive me. 

I moved from confusion to anger to laughter back to confusion to sadness to laughter to confusion to depression back to sadness and ended the book with part joy and part sadness.

Okay, so what I learnt: First, polygamy is a no go area. Shikena. Secondly, resilience is something that MUST be learnt. Also, it's important to note that the evil that men do will ALWAYS come back to haunt them. Finally, as Yoruba people say "Ti a ba so oko si oja, ara ile eni ni n ba". (I don't know the English version. Please help!)

Okay, I'm done. If you have read it, please tell me how you liked the book. If you haven't read it, go grab your copy NOW!!! *in my best nollywood advertisement voice* Lol.

#Random: The author said she lives with her "husband, four children and four dogs". I read that and I thought "Errm, this is Nigeria. This woman sounds too western o. Four dogs bawo?". Lol. Just kidding.

She has a website here

There's something about the book here

Follow her on twitter at @lolashoneyin (she followed me just because I tweeted the title of the book :D)

Okay, bye. Have an awesome week.

THE DAY GOD SAYS “I TOLD YOU SO”

I like this Carrie Underwood song I told you so; I’ve always loved it. I’m not sure who she was singing to or the context of the song, but I kinda related it to God and humans.

Here’s what I know from the song: It’s a song about a girl who’s asking someone else (probably a guy) how he will respond to her if she came back home or came back to him after leaving or after being a “prodigal child”. She asked if he would laugh at her for being silly enough to leave in the first place and say he told her so and tell her he’s found a new person so she isn’t needed in his life again or if he would draw her close and hug her and cry with her and welcome her back and love her again.

So I thought “What if it was God?” I mean what if whenever we err and come back to God for forgiveness, He goes something like:

“I told you so

Oh, I told you so

I told you someday you’d come crawling back and asking me to take you in

I told you so

But you had to go

Now I’ve found somebody new and you will never break my heart in two again”

It just made me think of the fact that without God’s mercy and forgiveness, we are totally doomed to destruction. Imagine God laughing at you when you ask for forgiveness and He says He’s found another person to love that loves Him back as much so you gotta leave Him forever saying He won’t let you break His heart ever again. It’s easy to imagine for me because rejection isn’t such a foreign concept so I know how utterly painful it is to be denied forgiveness and acceptance and I just think “What if that was God?”

The prodigal son in the Bible would probably have gone to commit suicide if his father had said something like this to him when he went back home because he would have felt rejected, unworthy, ashamed of himself and totally useless and the best option for him would have been death.

So first, it makes me think of how God feels whenever we reject Him and that makes me extremely careful of the things I do to Him. I don’t ever want to be rejected by a God who loves me so much even when I don’t deserve it.

Also, I think of this great and mighty unconditional love God has for us all; the kind of love that never makes Him send us further away when we stray and come back to Him but instead draws us closer, gives us a hug and says “Welcome back child”. I covet that kind of love; the kind that can look past wrongs and bear the hurt and scars of whatever wrong someone has done to me and forgive the person genuinely.

I don’t know who Carrie Underwood was singing the song to or what she meant by that song; but I know what the songs means to me. This is a subtle reminder that although I have a God who will never reject me no matter how much I err or how far I walk away, I owe Him a conscious duty to not intentionally hurt Him and to be constantly careful of what I do.

I hope it means the same for you too.

You can find the full lyrics to the song here