BRAKES FOR THE MACHINERY OF LIFE

The machinery of life, like car and lorry, possesses its instruction booklet, gears, accelerators and brakes. No human being neglects any of these instruments with impunity in the journey of living.

A brake is an apparatus in a car, lorry or even motorcycle and bicycle which serves to control the vehicle’s speed and movement and can bring it to a halt as required at any moment. Without it the automobile risks a head-on collision with oncoming vehicles or with trees and rocks that flank some roads. Any vehicle without brake risks disaster and destruction.

This mention of brakes calls back into my mind a tearful incident I witnessed in 2008. The terrifying sound that afternoon was not different from the harsh boom of thunder during the early rains. It began like the cracking sound of an iroko tree helplessly falling under the pull of a violent wind. The noise was explosive and earth-quaking, being sufficient to send an infant into a sudden convulsion. No human mind could immediately reason out what the problem was. “Accident, accident, accident!” was the alarming cries which filled the air in the vicinity. The news followed that a lorry loaded with empty beer bottles tumbled beside a nearby carpenter’s shed. Some cabinet seats under construction were destroyed. Part of the fencing wall of a motor company in the vicinity was damaged. The two front tyres of the lorry pulled out in the fiasco. Eye-witnesses who spoke with me explained that the lorry lost its brakes some metres away before reaching the accident spot. Loss of brake is a terrible incident in the driving of vehicles. People and property are at risk in the face of loss of brakes.

In the same manner, human life without brakes is in danger of disease, backwardness, evil attack and untimely death. Human instincts generate drives that meet certain fundamental needs of man. Some of these drives are: the drive to get food; the drive to reproduce and have offspring; the drive to have shelter; and the drive to exercise dominion. Virtues like self-control and patience as well as temperance and moderation offer the possessors the needed brakes for bringing their natural instincts under check. They enable human beings to control themselves and live life within normal acceptable boundaries.

Like hand-rails that guard bridges, preventing people from accidents, self-control keeps people from animalistic tendencies. Lack of self-control soiled the records of Samson and Judas Iscariot in the Bible times, bringing them to disgraceful ends. No wonder the inspired author of Proverbs says, “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control” (Prov.25:28). Such a man without self-control, like the city without walls, lacks boundaries and is in danger of invasion and destruction; he is very vulnerable.

Patience is a virtue which fills a person with the stamina to wait without worrying even in the face of difficulties until one’s expectation is met. Patience provides the brake which keeps human emotions from going wild.

A brake in the machinery of life not only improves human health, human relationship and substance, but also lubricates human heart for godliness.