Seasons

[Image by Getty]

There would be seasons

There would be seasons you would have to wear the same tarred clothes for a long time

And walk in old shoes till they are due to have holes

Don't worry He would keep you

And Don't worry if the holes do not appear

There would be seasons you would be like a channel, you just can't store anything for the future

Somehow the future comes and you are replenished

You have enough to feed your household

There is no plenty but you are not empty

There's joy and enough food on the table

Sometimes we need to live like the sojourner that we are to remind ourselves that our God is faithful

When we trust him even when we wear the same clothes for a hundred years, they don't grow old

When we trust him even when we wear the same shoes for a thousand, they don't have holes

When we trust him even when we have nothing in our store houses at night we need not worry about breakfast

With the dawning of a new day he would rain enough manna for us and our household

 

The beauty of these moments

The beauty of these seasons is the beauty that springs forth in our souls

We are truly beautiful once again

Like how it was meant to be, we can't do without him in the 'evenings' once more

 

We trust

We long for his presence

We stop the 'Gomer' parade and find our rootings like cedars of Lebanon in the One by which we've been named

And somehow that's all we need

For a world that nothing in it remains when all is said and done

His presence sustains

P.S. - This day, my heart goes out to everyone (reading this) who is in a hard place. There might not be enough in the storehouse but look at the breakfast table. He has been faithful. Say 'Thank You'.

Epilogue

'Don't keep' I heard

'Take enough for you and your family'

'Eat and be merry'

Some kept it till the next day and there were worms at their table

(to be contd.)

Laundry Services

[Image via flickr]

He sat on the street bench aiming at the next act of wickedness and depravity. Tangled up in all that had gone by, each action seemed like digging a deeper grave and called for a stronger pull. All the sex and the drugs, “I give up and I’m not even trying again” he said to himself

“No one believes I can be good, everyone would even laugh at a though of me being good, even I . . . So what’s the point?” 

That was when he made up his mind to travel down the wide road. Five years later, he’s a pimp and a hustler. He’s rising as the second best party-club manager in his community.

But five years later could have been different. He could have been whole and holy if he only gave up the dirty laundry he kept wearing which he called designers.

 * * *

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us – Psalms 103:12

I pray Jesus keeps showing us (or rather show us) how far the east is from the west is just how far he has separated the person we use to be from the person he makes us in him.

Most times, we don’t accept the change he offers with his nailed scarred hands because the new person he offers us is simply unrealistic. And sometimes it just cause we can’t see who He says we are in Him. But choosing to trust him with who we would become is the first step into freedom.

No stains are too hard for Him. I absolutely believe that. As I write, my mind flashes on stories of people accepting their ‘stubborn stains’ and wearing them like designer clothing because they believe they were ‘born this way’ but sincerely I beg to differ. If you are in a hard place, hang on! Jesus Christ is your righteousness, let him work his righteousness through you. Let him. You can be all he has said you can and more. And if you don’t know him please bring your ‘laundry’ (your life). There is forgiveness no matter what you’ve done. I repeat, there is forgiveness no matter what you’ve done. And my God? He is crazily in love with you. He’s waiting for you.

The Lord has appeared of old to me saying:

“Yes I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you “ – Jeremiah 31:3

So come.

We hear lies every day, from the media, TV and even the world around us that we can never change but Jesus offers change.

Like the character in the story we read, five years down the lane, whole or still broken, a pimp or a peculiar person who has been chosen by and doing great things for God, It really depends on a choice and only you is ‘powerful’ enough to make that choice.

Would you let Jesus come in and do your life laundry? His services are absolutely free

A new you awaits you.

"Scrub away my guilt

Soak my sins in your laundry.

I know how bad I’ve been

My sins are staring me down" – Psalms 51:1 (The Message)

"Soak me in your laundry

And I’ll come out clean

Scrub me and I’ll have a snow white life "– Psalms 51:7 (The Message)

“Come now, and let us reason together” says the Lord

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow

Though they are red like crimson

They shall be as wool” – Isaiah 1:18

The Story You Are Choosing

 [Image by James Sagi ]

There are two sides to every story. In fact that includes our story. There’s a story we know. The one we are familiar with, our history, the platforms we are used to performing our everyday life.  “I am. . .”. “I am  . . .”

But wait a second ‘who are you?’ Don’t bother you don’t have to answer that. You answered already. Yes, we answer every day as we journey through life. And we are always very careful about answering. We look at what has gone before us. We look at the past. We look down history and pick finely with glee from our past like a child offered several options for a birthday dress ‘I am . . .’

Answering the ‘who are you?’ question by looking behind might have hindered destiny for a man called Moses in the bible. Down history’s story Moses was a murderer and he wasn’t a fine speaker too. But my question is; how do murderers become deliverers? Or how stutterers do become persons who command kings with the hardest of hearts?

How?

They choose. . .

They choose to hear another side of their story.

We say we are guilty. He says we are forgiven

We say we are lonely. He says he is with us

We say we have a marred history.

He says all has been wiped away by his blood

The world is telling us a story about us. God is telling us a story about us through Jesus Christ his son.

Which are you listening too?

Or rather which are you choosing to be your story?

On Motivation And Waiting For The Big Moment

[ Image by erinrena ]

12:48 am

Saturday

Tonight I curl up lazily with cold hands in front of my computer wondering my motivation and the driving force of my conscious steps towards the successful life I want to lead. It’s been cold and rainy at my corner of the world, and I call it night though it’s morning because this is my night. My eyes have known the light of day for the past long hours. Far from my home with a couple of church friends on a retreat, it’s been a tedious day of giving and receiving. Oh yes tedious. At a point during the ordeal, I wanted to hold my eyes and cry hard while sharing with the group at a point, but a thought that swam in my mind for some hours some days back just seemed to surface instantly, showing up it head: we can’t give what we don’t have but sometimes it’s a hard process giving what you already have.

Right now that the day is over and I’m at a reading desk deep into my night, a friend which I’m sharing the room with is playing off Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on the iPad and seriously I want to scream from my desk to the only Friend I know that would understand such a question of the heart. I want to scream ‘Why do I feel that way at times? Why is it sometimes hard to process the treasures of knowledge gleaned from the house whose foundation is built in wisdom? Why? But two things stop me. One, I would be screaming at the wall and that is a situation in itself. My friend would just simply freak out. It not so good screaming at walls when it’s not only you in a room, ask those who have tried it, honestly you wouldn’t find them. In fact if you do, you might just not get an answer to your question. You might just get a scream. And two, why scream at the wall? My Friend who understands the deep questions of my heart no one might understand is not the wall. He is Jesus. Though I might not see him with my eyes, he is not the walls. He is beyond the walls and He will be even when these walls have fallen.

I will wait for another day to see why sometimes it’s a hard process giving what we have. But why do I do the things I do. What’s my motivation? Why have I chosen to take the hard walk on the road to success? Why have I and am I choosing to do the hard things very few people are doing? Why am I still awake, reading blogs and typing away when my contemporaries are fast asleep? Why? Sometimes I feel foolish and I just stop. 'Nobody is doing it'. 'Life is not that hard'. I whisper to myself. But it’s in moment like that I receive grace to remember that I haven’t been to the end. But the ones who have been to the end I have consulted.

I remember inviting Barack Obama into my bedroom one cold evening. The monsoon rains were lifting and I was caught in a cold that was not my own. It just didn’t fit me. I am always rendered useless when I have a cold. I crawled under my carton colored blanket and I picked up a copy of Dreams from my father (President Obama’s Memoir which he wrote and published when ‘no one’ knew him). I was in a strange land serving my country which is required once one graduates from college or university or else I would have preferred by chocolate brown duvet a gift from my paternal grandmother (who is now late). It is thick and fluffy and would have absorbed more of the cold the rain brought but the idea of always considering it smart to travel light made me switch for the carton coloured blanket which was less bulky and also a gift from her. So on that very day I cherished it. I folded my legs in and cherished it as Barack Obama came in to my room to tell me how he gave voluntary service without end in the neglected suburbs of Chicago. How he heard the voices of those whose cries had been neglected by the government. How he encouraged when no one knew. How he gave hope to mothers with troubled sons when no one cared.

Please tell me friends, who doesn’t start small? Please remind me, which farmer reaps in a farmland he hasn’t sown. I remember that day, as I closed the book, night was setting in. I stepped to my window and looked out at the forming moon. Shaken by Barack’s story, I whispered in to the night “whatever it takes. I want to be’.

Several months have passed by now and I’m still contemplating an old question. The old question that made me curled up nights upon nights with Rick Warren’s purpose driven life. The old question that made me pledged that I would read it at least once a year. And somehow, just somehow, this writing brings the answer to the surface again. I find out here in a room far from my room ( my friend’s still playing Hot Pursuit on the iPad) that the best way to answer this very question is to tackle first head-on the ready answers I’m given by the world. So here we go.

Is it because some don’t believe that I can and I want to prove that I can?

That’s a no no for me. Sometimes back it used to be why. I wanted to show the people that didn’t believe in me that they were liars. But I can’t. That’s a cheap dream to waste a life on. I have learnt from a wise sage somewhere somehow; haters are to be pitied and sincerely prayed for and seriously I have started doing that and honestly, I’m on it.

I could go on, listing the answer choices the world gives me but tonight I’m thankful that the truth surfaces. Simple reason to the question is because ‘I want to’ and that friends changes everything; the desire that keeps burning in me to be all that I can be. On evenings after some stormy days after I have struggled on my life’s significance and the chaos is resolved, my eyes sometimes suddenly open to the truth that I am significant, my life matters, in the words of C.S. Lewis, I have an unique answer to a unique problem that would remain unsolved if I don’t step in and save the day. It’s in moments like this I know with a certainty that this desire wasn’t placed there by me. There’s a greater power fueling this burning desire. God has set me in motion to settle a part of the commotion.

It’s this drive that drives me to make every moment big in preparing for the BIG moment. Friends, our big moment would come but I must say ; if we haven’t learnt the art of transforming our most mundane and ordinary moment to big moments in the place of preparation, our BIG moment might just pass us by. Reason: We could not realize it for what it was.

"The ability to see the dream we have been given is refined in the hidden place. The man who wants the dream to become a reality keeps seeing even when others can't see a thing. And preparation helps us see better"

Question Of the day:

What seeds in your hands are in need of sowing or are you a farmer expecting to reap in a land you haven't sown?

Privilege

[Image by cubagallery]

I tip toe into the T.V. room

‘Will He come today?’ is the question that hits hard at my heart

A sense of confusion awakens me from the hands of the night and pulls me in still

So what am I to do?

I have come

I find my place on an empty side and seat still

My mind is sour

I want my bed

I doze a bit

I snooze for a while

My attention thaws

My mind wanders

And it’s then I remind myself I’m not an alarm

Why should I snooze in the first place?

And it’s then I am alarmed!

Alarmed by the truth that it’s a privilege

It dawns on me twenty five minutes into the ordeal that he’s been waiting for me long before I came.

And I came 15 minutes late

Actually I woke up 5 minutes late

I struggled with the inevitable hand that invites us to nature’s rest for the next 10

And finally I threw back the duvet, found my bedroom slippers and walked over like a knackered fresh army intake invited for his first drill

This is not a drill, I have to remind myself

It’s a privilege

An invitation to meet with the King of all the richest kings of the earth and more is a privilege.

I wouldn’t mind a morning with the Sultan of Brunei

In fact a couple of mornings

Guilt flushes my face as I think on that

When the Divine invites me on mornings and I feel jaded about it ; I need to see

Maybe I’m blind to who he is

He is God

The sultan would one day pass and shouldn’t be compared to the One whom he will one day answer to

Last time I heard

He’s bigger than this room

He’s bigger than this earth

He’s finger span is bigger than entire universe

 And last time I checked

He’s been waiting for me long before I came in 20 minutes late

And I’m wondering

How does a big God fits himself into my ‘tiny’ TV room to talk to little me?

Stepping Out:

The Christian is peculiar. He has a God that wants to meet with him or her, A God that wants intimacy and wants to know the individual personally, the real God. But most have made him into a ‘Sunday’ God, a God who is lofty and doesn’t indulge or isn’t concerned with our affairs. Or like the character in the verse above, some see relating to him as a duty.

But seriously, I beg to differ. . .

There can be expressions. There can be a dance. There can be a song of love. He can be a best friend and I’m learning that too. But wait. . . Like all relationships, our relationship with the Divine requires time, openness and some other things we overlook. And it's important to note that quantity does not equal quality but quality has to be consistent to retain quality.

So what can you do today to increase the quality of your time with God? Who knows you might just be starting out or you might have stopped overtime due to not ‘meeting him there’. I want to encourage you, it’s not too late. God would redeem the lost time and draw you close. So back to the question: what can you do today to increase the quality of your time with God?

It might be simple as resetting your alarm wake-up time.

Till Next time

U R LUVED



Can I Listen To Your 'Art' ?

[Image by andreamoody ]

Can I listen to your heart?

Cause that’s all you’ve got

Can I listen to your heart?

In it is something unique

A story maybe

A song maybe

You’ve got a great voice

But can I listen to your heart still

You got an amazing persona

But can we get a glimpse of your heart

You’ve got a skilled public speaking style

But can I hear your heart beyond it all

In the heart live the treasures of darkness

Some hide their heart for the evil it might reveal

I say reveal your heart for the glory it might redeem

In the heart is something priceless

A gift for all men is kept in there by God

The unwise try to preserve the heart by keeping it locked up

But to reveal the heart is to preserve it

To reveal our hearts is to keep us going

I know a writer somewhere far away who keeps forging from her heart

It doesn’t bring the money

But somehow she isn’t going to leave the earth with what she was meant to give

when she leaves, she is a fulfilled being ready to rest

I know a superstar, maybe here, maybe there

Who keeps it all inside and sells all on the outside

The last I heard of her, she laid in a pool of her own blood

She sold her soul but never gave her heart

Can I listen to your heart?

You who sing beautiful songs with no beauty

And speak holy words in an unholy manner

In your heart is a gift

Cause when it comes from the heart there is a shift

Cause when we speak from the heart

Our words are worth more than works of art.

P.S. – For everyone who cages art in professionalism, it would do us good to ask ourselves from time to time ‘Where is the expression when it is caged?’

Stepping Out:

‘The creator and his work are one’

Are you are writer, singer, artist or someone involved in creative processes?

Do you see a part of you in your work?

Or better said does your work reflect what you believe?

When an artist doesn’t reflect his work it might point to some things much deeper. He is probably hiding behind his work. He is not comfortable with the story he has found himself in, so he seeks to paint a picture perfect story for a world that hungers for his own unique story.

In what ways can you communicate more from the heart through your art?

What chains are holding you down in doing this?

What are you doing about it?

"For art to speak, It must be from the heart."

ON BEAUTY : MUSINGS OF A SAINT

[Image by Enjoythelittlethings]

She’s quick to say beauty is beyond skin deep because she isn’t

But beauty that which is skin deep sure opens doors

But wait. . . .

Isn’t it fleeting?

It is a blessing to be beautiful

They that know that don’t suffer from the disease it brings

Cause they have found its everlasting cure

It’s a blessing not to be beautiful

They that know that don’t die of the shame it brings

If you say you are not beautiful, you haven’t found your purpose

Some need that which is skin deep and that which isn’t to fulfill their life mission

Some only need the later

None can fulfill it without the later

She who stands amidst a sea of faces to boast that she can fulfill hers only with the former is one who abuses beauty.

IM ( A CHANGE IN THE MAKING :)

Status- He’s carving out a place in me, that I may contain His glory

- I love the status

- ! !

- He! True

Yes bro -

He’s carving it out - 

And it’s not easy for me to take -

But His Will will be done - 

-          Hey you aren’t alone

-          Same here

-          These past few days have just been like I’m walking on rubber feet

-          You know the feeling?

-          Numb!

-          I can’t just feel my face

-          I’m screaming ‘What’s up Lord’

-          He’s Whispering ‘I’m changing you, son’

-          It’s in times like this deep holiness is wrought

Wow dats deep!-

I feel like . . . he wants to change me-

But I’m adhering to my opinions and emotions too much-

In certain areas and stuff-

And I need to realize dat God’s word prevails-

I’ll get there anyway-

-          Yeah God’s word prevails

-          God’s word must be the absolute

-          And that just rocks our boat

-          You know

-          :D

-          We want it our way but he wants it His way

-          He wants it His way cause our way would hurt the beloved

-          The one he left his throne and crown to come save

-          Us

Yup-

Yes Bro-

-          Yeah

-          Our hope – we will one day be like him

-          That gets me dancing

-          \=D/

Dis is somthin my friend jst sent me-

-          Oh! Would go through it in a min

Ok, its nt long at all-

I read a scripture and thought to share it with you. Its Proverbs 12:14 and declares that the work of a man’s hand shall come back to him as a harvest. Meaning, as you sow and invest your time and effort into what you want to achieve, in due season your efforts shall pay off and it shall bring rewards. So don’t give up and just be patient knowing that what you put in, shall surely come back to you. Why? Because God said so. God bless-

-         Hmmmm

-          True

-          So true!

Yup-

-          We shouldn’t lose heart at all

Yup-

P.S.- A big 'THANK YOU' to my friend  Rotimi whom I had this conversation via (Black Berry Messenger) with on one of those ‘cold nights’ of the soul. The blue boxes are for his words and the yellow for mine. I recall him replying me after I proposed to share this on my blog ‘This could bless someone’ and I hope God uses it to do exactly that and more. I hope this refreshes a weary traveller on a journey to a place ordinary eyes can’t behold. I hope a soldier finds renewed zeal to stand in his or her liberty.
In the making of beautiful, there’s something called ‘process’. When we go through process we make  progress. Never lose heart. You are a change in the making.

P.S. Rotimi writes for Yada (which I also write for) and also runs a fashion blog. You can check him out on Thinks I Like . Get ready for a surprise, this guy is a box of creativity on a whole new level J

 Till later, always remember
U R LUVED