Tell us about your style: “I’d describe it as ‘grunge with pops of colour’, which is a recent thing as up till uni I only used to wear dark clothes. My friends tell me I still only wear dark/monochrome things, but I’ve got pops of colour, mainly from my Nigerian clothes which I’ve been quite into over the last few years. However, I also love to dress up when I can, so yeh I kinda touch a lot of bases with my style. I like the fact I can’t quite place it, there’s a freedom to it.”
What are you doing right now: “I’ve just finished my 3rd of 6 years of medical school and am on my summer break before I start my clinical years in September. I’m passionate about helping people and injustice and particularly BLM, which is of course super relevant at the moment and a bit of a new passion since I’m finding my voice in that, but also for the homeless. I love youth work and feel that teenagers are awesome, moody at times, but awesome.”
What is giving you life and joy at the moment?: “During this time of isolation I’ve struggled, but in that, I feel like for one of the first times in my life I know that only Jesus can satisfy me, absolutely nothing else in this world can. I know it and truly believe it, not know it because I know it is the ‘right thing’ to know if that makes sense. And I think knowing that and coming to this realisation not only in my head but in my heart, for lack of a better phrase, is both scary because vulnerability isn’t my favourite thing, but also the most exciting thing ever.”
What do you struggle with?: “I think I struggle or have struggled with not being perfect whether that’s in mine, others or God’s eyes but God is teaching me and reminding me that he loves me and loved me before I even knew what love was, even when he knew what a mess I could be. He loves me, all of me, and so knowing that I can allow myself to accept his grace and can give myself grace too.”
What worship song do you have on repeat?: “Out of Hiding – Both the original by Steffany Gretzinger and the Gospel Medley version by Tye Tribbett and Lena Byrd-Miles.”
We’d love to hear something transformational God has done in your life: “Freedom. I am living in absolute freedom and stepping into new freedom with each season that comes. From freedom from anxiety, to lies of the enemy, to hurts of the world, God has set me so free and I’m loving learning to live in that. He’s been working on this, on me for years, and I’m still being transformed, but man, freedom is good. God is good.”
Do you have any tips you’d like to share that have helped you in your journey with God?: “Know that he loves you and give into that, don’t fight it, accept it, don’t try and do good things to earn it, he loves you because he loves you because he loves you.”
The most relevant thing that has helped me with that is an analogy of our relationship with God kind of being like that with a perfect boyfriend/girlfriend/partner. If you kept messing up in a relationship, you’d expect to be broken up with, but God doesn’t break up with us. If you were in a relationship with someone who was perfect and never did anything wrong you may feel unworthy of them or like its not a great match and so want to break up and they may let you do just that, but God doesn’t do that. Imagine you break up with your significant other and try run away by flying to the middle of nowhere. Jesus is at the airport of that random place holding a placard with your name on it. He doesn’t give up on us and he knows we’re not perfect, but he wants to be there for us.
The way this relationship works is realising your significant other chose YOU and loves YOU no matter how much you don’t feel worth it or don’t feel like you deserve it. This is how it is with Jesus. Running away from it is exhausting; sinking into it and accepting it, now that’s what is good. And gradually you stop doing stuff you know is wrong because you grow more and more in love with your partner, and don’t want to hurt them, not because you have to and it’s a rule of the relationship. It’s the same with Jesus. That’s what God gave me to remind me of how he loves me, and it’s really helped. So yeh, approach him from a place of love, it’s a relationship not a religion.”
