Pastor Jimmy Odukoya Speaks On Mother’s Death

 

Pastor Jimmy Odukoya has broken his silence following his mother's death.

 

Recall that Pastor Bimbo Odukoya suddenly died in 2005. 

 

On the Truth Table podcast, hosted by his sister, Pastor Tolu Odukoya, Jimmy opened up about how grief affected his faith in God.

 

Jimmy described his fear of losing a family member, particularly his mother, who was the most important woman in his life. 

 

“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,” he said.

 

Jimmy said when she passed away, he felt like he was at a crossroads, where he had to choose between abandoning his faith or confronting his pain. 

 

He then decided to stay and cry, rather than walk away from his faith.

 

According to him: “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,” he added.

 

Jimmy likened his emotional state to a battered soldier in the midst of battle, but found solace in a message from God, who told him to “get up, soldier” and that he was now fearless since his worst fear had already happened.

 

He added: “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?”