A news which trended in the closing days of March into early April this year was that of Anita Ofili. Unfortunately, it was for the wrong reasons. She was nabbed by the police and taken into custody after she gruesomely murdered her erstwhile friend, Glory Okon. Her dastardly act had a 10-year story behind it. She claimed that 10 years earlier, her friend snatched her boyfriend from her. That led to a parting of ways between them until she feigned reconciliation about two weeks before she struck. The story of Anita will readily evoke the memory of Cain who killed his brother. He was angry because God accepted the offering of Abel but rejected his. We do not know the time frame between when his offering was rejected and when he killed his brother. His was a case of a man who got offended for no just cause and would not let go.
“If we fail to forgive, we set up ourselves for terrible consequences.”
Anita’s story also reminds us of Absalom. He waited two whole years after his sister was violated by her half-brother before taking revenge. None of the Biblical examples cited ended well. Cain became a vagabond and a wanderer while Absalom died in his
prime. It is left for the courts to decide what happens to Anita, though the court of public opinion has already condemned her. Jesus taught an important preamble before prayers. If you nurture an offence against someone, forgive them before prayer. Anything outside of this is an empty religious exercise. If Anita believes in God, she would have made ten years of ineffectual praying because she refused to let go. If we fail to forgive, we set up ourselves for terrible consequences.