Taking a place in the sun

Sorrow is better than laughter for sadness has a refining influence on us. Eccl 7:3

We cannot run away from the negative situations that comes with simply living. Even the Kardashians have not found a way to avoid this yet. When they come, we can chose to stay sad and play the victim or we can chose to see the refining influence they are supposed to have on us. It’s all about falling forward. Own that situation, make it work for you, stay on top of it and chose to not go down. That God loves us too much for words doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen to us and that we are faithful to Him doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen either. Those are facts.

In the spirit of this, I decided to get my bucket list on. I have about 40 on my list so far, things I have never done before, things I find totally scary or things I turn up my nose at. But it is about living this life to the fullest and I am going to start doing just that, not live a part of life. And since negative situations are going to come anyways, it is time I design it. I have always been a drama magnet, in recent times though, drama has decided to let me be, now I am just going to create some drama of my own. So, even if things don’t work out fine or go according to my plan, thanks to the Preacher, now I know it’s okay. It’s all part of life and I get the opportunity to be refined.

As I tick off stuff on my bucket list, y’all will get an earful of it all.

Living Life

“Two years after the great flood, when Shem was 100 years old he became the father of Arphaxad. After the birth of Arphaxad, Shem lived another 500 years and had other sons and daughters. When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah…he lived another 403 years….When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber, he lived another 403 years….When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg, he lived another 430 years…Gen 11:10-16”

This is one of the ‘boring’ portions of the Bible, very uninteresting and we always skim over parts like this to move on to more intriguing stories or to promises. Interestingly, what is key to note here is that all these men being mentioned were mentioned and noticed when they started having children. We were not told anything about their lives before the arrival of children, as far as the Kingdom is concerned, their lives did not start till they started having children.

Our lives do not start until we start having children to show for it. And here, it is not physical children, God is referring to spiritual children, He is referring to our seeds. It is the seeds we sow, that grow to live on after us. That’s what becomes our legacy. We really don’t start living until we start working on that legacy. Right now, it might seem that those things we are chasing are the important things, but the question we need to ask ourselves is that, will those things live on after us? Will we be remembered for those things? There is a need to reassess and evaluate our position.

So stop dilly-dallying, start that project you keep pushing ahead, stop procrastinating, get some fresh ideas and don’t just get ideas, turn them to reality. Until we do that, we actually have not started living as far as God is concerned.  I’m gonna leave us with a quote by an amazing lady

Being intimate with God is our purpose in life. God did not create Adam to tend the garden but to have fellowship with Him, we are human beings not human doing

photo credit – belfastcityvineyard.com

That Personal Nemesis

Hi fine people of this earth. Quick question, what do y’all think of Siri? I asked my dearest Siri ‘Search for Mountain Ararat’, and he (I chose a male voice…can’t have a female voice in my head and on my phone too) promptly replied,

‘ Okay (like he understood perfectly what I asked for), I found something for Mountain Alright in the web’.

C’mon Siri, this is serious business, no time for jokes. I tried asking again and this time he said,

”Okay, I found something on the web for ‘Muncie in a donut’, take a look”….Like for real?!! Is that a me thing or a Siri thing? Pray tell folks.

Anyway, to the matter at hand, I met a girl. My personal nemesis. It was a fine morning and my day started really well. I went through my to-do list smoothly, everything worked out well, clicking into place like I was using a wand. Shortly after noon, my next point of call was the gym. And I was really excited about working off some of my love handles *wishful thinking* Then I met her. I went to the weights section and proceeded to pick up the 2kg dumbbell (I can’t shout pls). At the exact moment, this chick reached out for it. Our fingers met on the weight and she said turned to me, calmly said ‘Get your bear hand off please’
I went ‘whhaaaaaaat’ in my head, my eyes reflexively going straight to my hands to verify if they are really bear-like while mentally giving her points for a well-aimed barb. I wanted to scream ‘that’s completely unnecessary’ at her but she looked so calm, pretty and well-toned in all the right areas that, to onlookers, I would have come off as the fat, mad-at-the-world one. Okay, is this how you wanna play it? Fine, I dey house for you. I promptly braced up to give her a piece of my mind in the very language she will understand. You know how you can not convey some things perfectly unless you go native. And just at that moment, I remembered something from one of the numerous chick flicks I’ve seen, that ladies don’t fight with their fists or words, but with their eyes (bull right? I know). For the life of me, I do not understand why that fact will rudely pop into my head at that time, so annoying. I was hoping to get back in there and do maximum damage. And for some reason, that thought took over and my actions became a slave to it. So instead of using words to fight I went on to use my eyes. I proceeded to roll my eye balls, as far as they could possibly go in all directions, to deliver the biggest, baddest eye roll ever.
Well, as you can imagine, I think I only succeeded in looking like an ogbanje on a mission. *sighs* so much for wanting to win a fight. Blasted chick flicks! Not only did I lose the battle, I also lost the dumbbell and my calm. Working out did not get rid of my sheer annoyance, I was so mad at myself for not stepping up. Kept thinking up all the various scenarios that could have played out in my head, of course with me winning and sashaying off with my mental trophy. Needless to say, I stayed mad all day long. The day that started out so beautifully turned sour and stayed sour. Why will any human being be so unkind anyways??? To what purpose? I know the world is mean and harsh and crazy and all those bad stuff but why me?? WHY MEEEEE????

”A messenger soon arrived in Jerusalem to tell David, ‘All Israel has joined Absalom in a conspiracy against you” 2 Sam 15:13

The conspiracy that got him running out of his own city, a conspiracy by his own son. If this can happen to wonderful David, Friend-of-God David, do I really need to ask ‘why me’? I am sure there are lots of wonderful people out in our world, better than I am that worse things (like cancer, loss of a loved one) are happening to.

Is this is the rising-above moment?

photo credit- dollarstorecraft.com

The Little Foxes

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it…Gen 3:6.

We are most easily swayed (convinced) by what we desire or covet the most (the woman coveted the wisdom she was told the tree would bring her). That is why great warriors can be felled easily by frail, ‘powerless’ women. Its those thing our hearts desire that we should be most watchful and careful about.

THE FIRST MIRACLE

He could not get the letter he received earlier today out of his mind. The letter came like a form of proof that all the phone calls he had been fielding in the last few months were no jokes. The government meant what they said. They wanted Tommy. He looked across the table at his son as he is being fed. His seventeen-year old son. The first phone call came a little over 3 months ago, a government facility wanted Tommy, they believe he is special and he might help with a breakthrough experiment they are working on. They claim he has intelligence that is quite rare in his particular disability and they will like to help him expand his intelligence and abilities. Even though he could not articulate it into words, they could see it in his eyes and in his creations. Due to a fall from his tree-house when he was 5 years old, his precious Tommy was changed. Seems like it’s only his quick mind that was left unchanged by the accident. He lost all physical functions, unable to feed himself, bathe or groom himself, he had been on 24-hour nursing care ever since. His mom left two years after the accident. Brad knew it wasn’t her fault, she didn’t sign up for that reality. He became both mom and dad, fighting to ensure his son enjoys a full life, and now he’s being asked to hand him over. Tap indeed! They will cut up and mutilate his son, he is sure his son won’t be coming back to him if they ever get their hands on him. Letting them have him is not an option.
‘Please Karla, finish up with his feeding, I need to go over some things with you’ he told his son’s nurse.

She has been in charge of him since he was seven years and she took care of him like her own child. Sometimes, he wonders how she does it, selflessly catering to a big baby like so. She finished feeding Tommy, left him with a happy, small grin and went off to tidy up. Tommy looked at his father intently, seeing the pensive expression on his face. He did not know why it’s there but he understood it meant all is not well. He muttered some words, making Brad look up at him. He beamed a smile at his father, hoping his father heard the words of assurance coming from his heart. His father looked at him, returned his beam with a sad smile filled with all the love in his heart.

Brad said ‘Tommy, I live for you and you alone, don’t ever forget that’.

Even though he didn’t get a tangible response from his son, he know he understood.

Shortly afterwards, there was a loud knock on their door. He resolutely went to the door and opened it wide, he knew who would be at the other side of it. Contrarily though, he saw uniformed men. ‘We are here for Master Thomas’, the man leading the group informed him. This is not good at all, Brad thought, reflexively swallowing the sudden lump that grew in his throat.

‘He is not here’, he responded. ‘I was expecting Mr Barnes, he said he will personally come for him’.
‘We are here instead and we have express instructions to come with Master Thomas without fail’.

Brad simply shrugged and calmly told them Tommy is not available, brilliantly masking the turmoil going on in his belly. There is no way he is releasing his son to them. They don’t want to help him, they want to use him and there is no way he is subjecting his son to that.

‘We are to bring him or you will have to deal with the consequences’, they told him. Aha, now he understands the reason why the uniformed men came instead of Mr Barnes. He simply stood there not making a move. He was shoved aside, the men marched into this house and searched for Tommy. After about 30 minutes of fruitless search, they turned on Brad, demanding to bring out his son or face the consequences.
With a calm smile, he told them, ‘Let’s just move on to the consequences’.

The uniformed men looked at each other and the one closest to Brad suddenly hit him across the face with a huge whack. Brad fell on one knee under the impact of the slap, trying to clear the stars off his line of vision. ‘Oh boy!’, he muttered. Before he could recover, he got another whack on the back with a tactical baton. He grunted as he went down on his other knee.

‘We have our instructions and we are leaving here with someone either way’, one of men quietly informed him.

Between short breaths, he responded, ’You want my son, you will have to go through me’.

‘Very well’, came the reply.

Three men proceeded to simultaneously beat him up, kicking him on his head and lover back for maximum effect. He knew he could not fight them so he didn’t even try, just stayed down taking all the beating. He thought of Karla and Tommy, almost halfway out of town by now, in his dark blue SUV with all his financial information, all they needed to start afresh in another city. The longer they wasted time beating him, the farther away from them Tommy gets. They beat him till they were tired and then proceeded to drag him by one ankle out the door to take him to their facilities. The authorities will decide his fate. They won’t be happy, that’s for sure, they desperately wanted the boy. He is handicapped and useless anyways, why won’t his father release him…

This night centuries ago, a young man was having his last meal with his friends. In a few hours, his life would be brutally cut short in the most inhumane way imaginable. We that are considered useless are thought of as precious by Him and for that He willingly allowed himself to be taken instead of us. He was aware of what pain was to come, yet He went willingly. We are currently not different from the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, yet no brimstone has been rained on us. It is because He went out for us all.

For that singular act, I (we) now enjoy liberty to hope, to love and to dream. Enough ‘Thank you’ can’t be said for that selfless act borne out of the purest love.