On his mother’s passing, Pastor Jimmy Odukoya said, “It was either a middle finger to God or just cry.”
On his mother’s passing, Pastor Jimmy Odukoya said, “It was either a middle finger to God or just cry.”
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Following his mother Pastor Bimbo Odukoya‘s untimely death in 2005, Nollywood actor and now-pastor Jimmy Odukoya has shared his dramatic journey of navigating faith and personal loss.
Jimmy discussed how his loss affected his trust in God on the first edition of the Truth Table podcast, which is hosted by his sister, Pastor Tolu Odukoya.
Pastor Jimmy Odukoya said:
“The difference between when mum died and when dad died was that with mum it was very sudden and no one saw it coming. I think that my biggest fear in life at the time was losing a member of my family and mum was the most important woman in my life.”
Jimmy said that he had reached a crossroads in his grieving process, when he had to decide whether to give up his religion or confront his suffering. In the end, he decided not to give up on his religion but to confront his suffering.
He remarked:
“When it happened, I felt like I was at a crossroads with God and I had two choices. It was either the middle finger to God and saying, ‘You know what? I’m done. This is not what you promised, this isn’t what you said. I’m leaving, I’m not doing this anymore. Where has this gotten us? And the other option was to stay there and just cry.”
“I thought to myself that if I take the other option where I walk away, I’m still going to come back eventually so why waste my time walking away? Let me just stay here and cry,”
The pastor likened his own suffering to that of a wounded soldier in the heat of combat, but he took solace in a word from God.
He remarked:
“It was one of my biggest fears at the time and you know scenes in movies where you see soldiers in war-battered and broken; his shield is somewhere and he’s pretty much lifeless. I felt battered and broken at that time and I remember God saying, ‘Get up, soldier. Don’t you realise that you’re fearless now? The worst has happened so what can the devil use to threaten or scare you anymore?”
