In her quest to escape the debasing life her mother and siblings live, Kaine decides to live a godly life. Far from seeing an immediate improvement in her life, however, she immediately begins to experience severe trials and tribulations.
From being raped to suffering an unwanted pregnancy and being expelled from school just as she is about to take her final secondary school exams, her life after making the decision to follow God is far from what she dreamed of.
Will her faith in God buckle in the face of the trials and hardships, leading her back to the life she wanted to escape, or will she remain steadfast in her walk with God, holding on to past miracles and being sustained by His grace?
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In the month of May, we took on the novel “Morning Does Come” by Rita Okoroafor. We met Kaine, a sweet little girl who happened to be a victim of wrong choices and a bad environment… Not her choices in the beginning, but those of her parents, elder siblings, and other influences right from her childhood. Yet she’s resolved to be different. As she struggles hard to stay on the radar, after finding Christ, we find that everything doesn’t all of a sudden become rosy for her and it becomes up to her to either cling to grace or walk away from all that Faith represents.
In the novel, we find that Kaine’s misfortune began when one of her friends connived to have her raped, just because she started to feel jealous of her “over-righteous” lifestyle. You see, Kaine is like the only ‘good girl’ in her committee of friends. The only one who believes that following her family’s footsteps would lead her no where. The only one who was bent on keeping her sanity no mater how tough things got financially. But having a friend like hers? Who’s no longer on the right path… A friend who constantly sees her as ‘holier than thou’… A friend who has either given up on a fair chance at life or believes in one that’s always cruel, where nothing comes for free. With such a friend, Kaine was bent on getting into trouble some day, it was just a matter of time before that happened, and when it did, all hell broke loose.
Sometimes, we find ourselves with friends whose values are totally different from ours and then we’re left to wonder, how do we deal with such friends? We got to chat about it on #ThePraiseworldShow with TOLA & A’Cube on PraiseworldRadio, and here are a few comments that were sent in…
@PRAISEWORLD_ I’ll Better leave that kind of friends and move on with ma life #ThePraiseworldShow
— Ádeola Ádemola Jose (@AdeolaJose) May 10, 2016
I don’t need them around o….. I let them be #lifeNohard https://t.co/9SAe4EjOxJ
— IG: @chukwuemeke_ (@Chukwuemeke_) May 10, 2016
@PRAISEWORLD_ Difficult. But the friendship started in the first place for a reason.
— Olorunnisola Olatide (@ola_tide) May 10, 2016
temiladesoji – Make sure that your friends get it, who you are, why you are who you are and what you stand for; they would try to persuade you and even advice you on why you shouldn’t be what you “claim” to be, but if you are properly grounded and know what and whom you believe, with time, they would either walk away, switch your way or just leave you to be who you are. Although, this doesn’t work for everyone, worked and is still working for me. “To thyself be true” if you know staying away is better for you, then by all means stay away.
Even though we got diverse opinions, the part about holding on to your values, and not compromising one bit stood out, and seemed to be a best way to deal with friends with opposite values from ours. Just maybe if Kaine wasn’t at the wrong place at any point in time, she would not have been raped.
Kaine got caught up in a place we always find ourselves when the going gets tough… The “Why Me” phase. And constantly, we find that God placed someone in her life to take her through most of those phases, if not all. His name is Walter. He shares a story with her during one of their chat periods that we’d love to highlight.
“In my first term in senior school, I wanted to earn all A’s. Now there was one exam I took, in physics, which I was not comfortable with. So I prayed that I would pass that exam. As the results were coming out for the other subjects, I was getting the scores I needed to give me an A. But the result had not yet come out for the one exam that I prayed about.
Then two weeks before the term ended, the physics teacher called me. He said he was ill and needed help with marking the exams. He wanted me to help him, because he trusted me. So I had a preview of the answers to the exam. I later on went and changed some of my answers in the objective session… When he marked my exam, because I could not mark on my own, I got twenty-nine out of thirty correct. This, combined with my grade on theory section gave me the score I needed to give me an A. So I got all A’s in my first term exams.
But that was surely not how God wanted to answer my prayers. When we got back from the first term holidays, I was surprised to hear that everyone in my class needed to return their report cards. They said there was a mistake with the physics results. They remarked and I ended up with a B. The answers I had initially written down were the correct ones… Each challenge we will have in our walk with God will require complete trust, patience and belief. Though difficult, if you just let Him do His thing, you will never regret it. And when you look back you will see that He ALWAYS has good plans. Always!”
Finding God doesn’t mean smooth paths and calm seas… Faith is just Trusting God over and over again to come through in the small things… And big things too! And if only we get a sneak peek into the last chapter of our story, we’d see what it was God had planned after all.
How many times have we found ourselves in situations we either permitted or didn’t?
Temptations are everywhere… And when we’re faced with these shackles that are threatening to keep us bound, it’s not a time to wonder how and why we got there… But to flee!
Simple right? No!
But to deal, takes discipline, fear and reverence for the One we’re about to grieve when we allow ourselves a few moments of satisfaction.
Temptations are meant to strengthen our cords, stretch our faith and test its limits… And you know what? There should be no limits to our faith, ’cause our God is FAITHFUL… And He will not give you more than you can take!
It’s a new day… Maybe you just can’t see the rays of sunshine because you’re still cuddled up in your duvet, comfort zone, hurt, pain, and miry clay. Maybe you’ve still got the dark shades on… Trying to protect your eyes from the scorch or you’re trying to keep the world from seeing the hurt in your eyes, the tears and vulnerability in you…
But those dark shades? Are keeping you from seeing the light, the opportunities that come with a new dawn… What is it that you’ve been a victim of? Disappointment? Incest? Addiction? Lack? Rape?
You’re still here… So there’s HOPE!
Take off the shades.
Wake up.
Open the blinds.
Look out the window.
Take the first step.
Find HOPE again.
Open the blinds dear one… Let the streams of today’s light wash over you and illuminate the darkness that has creeped into your soul.
Morning is here!
Author Chat
Here are her final words…
“When I read Morning Does Come, what appeals to me is the inspiration from the lives of others associated with the story. They are minor characters but major things happen to them.God remains a faithful friend and father, a miracle working God and a story changer. It is my prayer that anyone who reads the book finds something inspiring if not from Kaine’s life that indeed joy comes in the morning, but from the lives of the other characters associated with hers.”
Meet Rita Okoroafor
Rita Esuru Okoroafor is a petroleum engineer with more than ten years working experience who is passionate about writing.
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