JUSTIFY YOUR INCLUSION........

JUSTIFY YOUR INCLUSION

In the early part of my junior high school days, I played for an Under-12 colts football team called Golden Boys F/C [no raising of eyebrows as I’m quite talented] lol. On my first day, I trained with a young boy who would have easily passed for an Under-8 team player. Initially, I thought we actually had a lower division team, but nay!, we didn’t. “How can I play with this ‘skinny’ little boy”, I kept on muttering under my breadth on numerous occasions. The pace of these mutterings was increased a notch when he was selected ahead of me in a warm-up game in training. Truthfully, I nearly stormed out of the Tesano R/C Cluster of Schools pitch we’d adopted as our training grounds.

These unfounded qualms were short-lived as Richard Babalanga proved beyond reasonable doubt the reason for my warming the bench that day. WHAT??? What a joy it was to watch the ‘Rothmans-esque’ lad engaged in a 'passionate romantic session' with the football. His style of play, as I recall was synonymous to what is being exhibited by Andres Iniesta today; as if he owned the ball and the very pitch we were training. An absolute talent to behold, he was.

A Gomoa-Fetteh based team; Feyenord F/C had a lond-standing arrangement with the club to ‘supply’ it with very young but talented footballers. Under this arrangement, players were invited to partake in a training session dubbed ‘Justify Your Inclusion’, which is akin to the pre-selection exercise at the annual MTN Soccer Academy aired on our TV screens, at the bigger club’s station at Fetteh. Players who were able to justify themselves were camped and educated at the club until such  a time when they were sent to Feyenoord F/C in Holland.

Excitement mixed rather energetically with tension filled each one of us when the news was broken to us about 2 weeks before the exercise. Feverish preparations were made by all, including the purchase of new cleats for the fortunate lads. Richard trained and played with very worn-out trainers [not cleats!]. He was the son of a poor charcoal seller, who could not even afford to send the boy to school. Bro Karim, as our coach was known, decided to buy a pair of brand new cleats for our winger, much to the jealousy of almost all the other players.

Babalanga played football with some form of nauseating pride which usually resulted in very vicious tackles from opponents, but our key player graciously refused to be hurt by any of them whether in training or league matches. Time and again, Karim had warned him to shun his ‘teasing’ footballing skills, but to the latter, Karim seemed like the mentally retarded man who walks about exposing his genitalia around the Ring Road overhead bridge much to the amusement of little kids, it seemed to us.

A Dutch Feyenoord official stood up and clapped for a defender whose pulled a 'Carles Puyol-esque' tackle that prevented what would have been a very good assist from Richard leading to a goal on the D-day.The tackle on first sight looked ‘clean’ and very necessary. It was not after a few minutes after that seemingly good tackle that the signs started manifesting. Richard could not run or walk like he used to. He turned out to have ‘tore a ligament’ in the thigh or ‘pulled his hamstring’ [I don’t recall the exact term used by the grey – haired chief Physiotherapist from Feyenoord Academy]. Indeed, few or no eyebrows were raised by Karim and his management team. As sad as it looked, Richard Babananga was not selected as part of the top 3 players at the trials as he only spent about 10 minutes on the pitch. He couldn’t justify why he should be included in the trio who eventually were drafted into the academy, and neither could I, lol! [This is where I rather reluctantly confess that inasmuch as I was talented, there were ‘more gifted’ players than I was at the time].

The nostalgia that accompanies my recount of how Richard had to learn to heed the advice of his handlers the hard and painful way is only to set the tone for my main theme which is in relation to our Christian walk with God. We are all witnesses to the happenings in the world which are strong harbingers of the imminent loud trumpet – sounding episode on the last day when Jesus will return to the earth to take those who are His into the New Jerusalem, entering through the Pearly Gates and walking on the ‘famous’ Streets of Gold. I subscribe to the three-fold Salvation theory: Our Spirits haven already been saved by the redemptive work of Jesus on the Cross at Calvary, Our Souls ‘being’ saved, and our body which ‘will be saved’ on the last day when the dead are resurrected.

The present-continuous soul saving exercise is by the quality conduction of our lives as sojourners in this world. Indeed, that is why the Apostle Paul strongly admonishes us in Philippians 2:12 to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”! He lays that responsibility squarely on our shoulders i.e. it requires our personal conscious efforts. The task is very onerous, I readily admit, but don’t you think that is the reason the Bible tells us in James 1:5 to ask for wisdom to lead our lives from the giving God who gives to anyone who cares to ask liberally and ungrudgingly?

So I ask this question; When the Director yells “cut” and the movie edited, will your name be found rolling upwards on the screen as part of the cast? Would you be found to have JUSTIFIED YOUR INCLUSION in the final selection in the Book of Life? The Lord is indeed our strength!

PS: The last time I saw Richard Babananga, he said to tell you to watch out for him as he plays more ‘technically’ now……. lol