Today, I want to tell you the story of Mr Pesca. Don’t worry about the funny name as it has nothing to do with the story you’re about to read. It’s a short, insightful story of a man I met long ago.

Once upon a time in a small community of peace-loving people, there lived a man called Mr Pesca. Pesca was a fine young man who everyone in the city loved and cherished because of his wisdom and hard-working attitude. He was sort after always when there were intricate matters to unravel. Mr Pesca was in his late twenties when he got married to his heartthrob, Sara. Together they both have two beautiful children – Olamma and Hephzibah.

One day, Mr Pesca was asked to perform a function at a party in a neighbouring city. The organizers had bought many scented candles for the event and he was called to light them. Although the candles were so many, he accepted the job all the same because he needed money for his family.

On the agreed day, Mr Pesca arrived at the venue excited to take on the task. The candles smelled nice, and he was happy he had a job that would fetch him some money that day. So, he set out to give his best and impress his employers.

The organizers arranged the candles on a machine that makes each candle pass before Mr Pesca. He didn’t need to go into the store, get a candle, bring it into the hall and light it. No. All he was asked to do was to sit in a place, and as the candles pass before him, light them and they’ll proceed on their journey.

Mr Pesca thought it was an easy job for the wage he was promised. So, as the candles passed by, he began to light them. While some required trying twice or thrice, others took less than a gentle light for the flame to come on their wick.

After about thirty minutes, Mr Pesca noticed that he was getting weak with every light he ignited. He knew the number of candles that he was to light and how much strength it would require, but he didn’t envisage getting tired so quick. The event just started and the lit candles were necessary, how can he get tired now? That would mean forfeiting his pay. He tried to encourage himself to go on. But as the minutes passed by, he noticed that he was increasingly getting weak, and the candles kept coming non-stop.

At a point, Mr Pesca decided to check how many candles were left to be lit. All the while he had been focused on the candles that passed in front of him; he didn’t care how many were in the store nor how many he had lit. He was just interested in what passed under his nose. But more than 40 minutes have passed, and he wanted to know what was left.

When Mr Pesca turned to see, he was sadly shocked at what he saw. The candles that were to be lit were still many. He shook his head in disbelief; Mr Pesca was becoming discouraged. Then, he turned to the other direction to see how many candles he had lit and they seemed very few in his eyes compared to the ones in the store. The discouragement became even worse. “What have I gotten myself into?”, Mr Pesca self-questioned.

While Mr Pesca was busy looking at the candle in the store and the ones that are lit, he lost sight of the candles that passed before him. The candle machine that rolled the candles from the store was still working, bringing out candles that need to be lit. But Mr Pesca was distracted by his anxiety over how many candles were still left in the store, and his worry that he has been able to light only a few.

By the time Mr Pesca recovered himself, many unlit candles had passed before him unnoticed. He was now quite confused, to say the least. While he was busy looking at the much left to be lit and the few he had lit, he forgot to light the ones that passed in front of him. And now that they were passed, he can’t recover them anymore because the candle machine keeps bringing out candles.

Mr Pesca couldn’t handle the situation, so decided to quit his job. He lost his pay and went home feeling ashamed of himself for bothering about the candles in the store instead of being focused on the ones that passed in front of him.

Dear reader, many times in life, we are too busy with our anxieties of the future and our worries of the past that we neglect or completely forget the present. We consider our accomplishments so little in comparison to how much we are yet to accomplish. We think that we haven’t come a long way at all; that our destination is still very far far away.

You see, while we are busy considering what is left to do, we forget the little things before our eyes. If we focused on the little things we do every day, we’ll discover after a while that the mountain before us has become a hill and soon a valley.

While we are busy comparing ourselves to our mates who are ahead of us, we are actually wasting more time, and perpetuating stagnancy. Someone said that regret for wasted time is more wasted time.

While we complain about the much we have to do, we often neglect the things we should be doing now.

Dear reader, live in the present; do the job that is in front of you at the moment; Focus on today; do all you can do now and leave tomorrow to worry for itself.

Jesus said some interesting things in Matthew 6: 25- 34:

²⁵ Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

²⁶ Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

²⁷ Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

²⁸ And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

²⁹ And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

³⁰ Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

³¹ Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

³² (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

³³ But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

³⁴ Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Focus on the job at hand and leave how much that is yet to be done. Concentrate on doing the little things and stop worrying about how much your mates have accomplished. Forget about how many candles are still coming. Just keep lighting every candle that passes, and you’ll soon discover that you’ve lit everything.

Thanks for reading. If you found this story helpful, please share it with your contacts. God bless and keep you.

By the way, Pesca is the Italian word for Peach. That is an invented name I decided to give to the man, because while writing this story, I had a plastic bottle of The’ all Pesca (Peach tea) in front of me, although the bottle is full of water, not peach. Don’t ask me where the original content went to.