When I lived on the cocoa farm village with my parents and siblings, we occasionally travelled to Lake Bosomtwi on foot.
We walked along the bush path over hills and down into the valleys, carrying loads of farm produce.
In those days, people living along the lake claimed that their lands could not grow crops.
Therefore, those of us who lived on the fertile farmlands needed to transport foodstuffs to them in exchange for their fish.
Tedious walk
Every time I recall those Lake Bosomtwi journeys, I don’t remember much of the fish or the wrangling of the barter trade.
Rather, I recall the tedious walk up the hills and down the valleys.
The foodstuff I carried was heavy, literally breaking my neck and splitting my head!
My 12-year-old knees wobbled terribly and my arms grew feeble with every step.
All the trekkers walked in a single file on the bush path with my father, who carried his load, walking directly behind me.
“Be strong, son,” he would say through encouragement, “we’ll soon be there.”
Do you realise that when you are in deep pain, sometimes encouraging words seem unattractive?
Yet, everybody needs encouragement!
I was a boy with lanky arms and slim legs and the constant endurance of the trip to Lake Bosomtwi was not my idea of fun.
So I dreaded those journeys and would have refused to make them if I had the choice.
Strategic tenacity
Since I didn’t have the choice, I needed to adopt a strategy and that strategy was not exciting either.
The strategy was tenacity.
I resolved to brave the Bosomtwi journeys, pretended that I liked them and even looked forward to them, to avoid being written off as a weakling.
Now there is this other journey, not to Lake Bosomtwi or to barter for fish.
It is the journey of life, travelling over “hills” and down the “valleys” on our way to eternity.
Here, the hills and valleys are the up and down struggles we encounter as we journey on.
Life’s struggles are heavy and when we encounter them, we cry like the Apostle Paul who wailed, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
He felt the weight as he struggled between serving God and serving the law with his flesh.
That is our “hills” and “valleys” as we walk along life’s narrow way, battling with the cares of this world.
Grief, pain
Solomon the teacher captures humanity’s struggle this way: “For what do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labour under the sun?
All their days, their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest." (Ecclesiastes 2:22–23).
Solomon’s description is a reality, but Paul’s experience is preferable.
When he asked, “Who will deliver me from this body of death,” he answered confidently, “Thanks be to God, through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 7:24, 25).
Therefore, when we face the pressure between our desire to obey the Lord and the lure of our sinful nature, our mindset must be the salvation we receive through the Lord Jesus Christ.
When the disciples once succeeded in their evangelistic missions and were rejoicing, the Lord told them, “. . .
Rejoice rather that your names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Salvation must be the leading reason for our joy and why we endure the hardships of life.
For, as Jesus said, “In this world you will face trouble, but take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
Be strong
The trips to Lake Bosomtwi taught me about feeble arms and weak knees because I felt them in my bones.
Now, walking with the Lord all these years, I also know about feeble arms and weak knees because I can feel the pressure as a Christian.
This is the experience of every child of God and Paul noted it when he wrote to Timothy, “Everyone who wants to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (or face hardships) (2 Timothy 3:12).
Two places in Scripture hammer home the need to “strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees” (Isaiah 35:3 and Hebrews 12:12).
“Both verses,” as one Bible scholar puts it, “encourage believers to be strong and courageous, especially during difficult times, and to encourage others who are struggling.”
Like King David, who used to strengthen himself in the Lord, we also must strengthen our weak hands and firm our feeble knees so that we do not give up.
Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
He who called us to be set apart for himself will also strengthen us to fight the good fight, run the race and keep the faith.
The writer is a publisher, author, writer-trainer and CEO of Step Publishers.
E-mail: lawrence.darmani@gmail.com
