CHUKWUNETA OBY FROM PUNCH
‘The burden bearer’ has become the buzz expression in friendships/relationships, especially from gospel preachers.
Whenever I come across the expression, I find myself wondering what happened to someone’s hands, that they cannot bear their own burden.
Do they know how much personal burdens that everyone has to grapple with?
However, a recent phone conversation opened my eyes to this reality.
The caller is a senior friend, whose principal (a religious figure) was embroiled in a scandal that shook him. I was among those who assisted with the clean-up, literally.
So, when we caught up over the phone, I was surprised to learn that the scandal that I witnessed was one of too many that had erupted in the course of the man’s career.
He also revealed that they had worked together for over 16 years!
When I asked how he had managed to cope in such an irritating setting for that long, the response that came from him sobered me up.
He said what had helped him was always holding the man’s good side in view. And then, the vow he made to himself, which was to stick by the man and serve him to retire happily!
He also revealed that in the course of their working together, a lot of others had “razzmatazzed” their way into the Oga’s consciousness, but none lasted!
When he told me this last bit of their story, I was nodding to myself in understanding.
It’s always the thing about the average human being.
Those who have been there through thick and thin (for us) are often the ones we are quick to take for granted until our fingers get burned and we crawl back to their embrace of goodness.
There’s just something about most of us that makes it rather difficult to appreciate (enough) the good ones in our lives until we have been treated poorly by those who easily have our attention.
I have worked with a boss who once she sees famous people, you will know that she knows how to spend money…even when the salary of those responsible for how well the business runs, is still being owed. It is the same thing her driver complained about!
According to him, he’s been in the employ of that family for about 10 years but he’s the least appreciated of their domestic workers, despite the fact that every other person comes and goes.
According to the driver, the longest the others last on the job is about six months to one year.
The point that I want to make from all these is this…
Burden bearers will not fall from heaven for you.
Nobody will waltz into your life bearing the toga of a burden bearer.
However, if you look around you well enough, you will realise that someone has actually been a burden bearer to you in their own way.
