Your Designer Cross

If you are anything like my friend, Bola, then your favourite pendant is a cross. I can tell you free of charge that the only time a cross looks cute is when you wear it as a pendant. If you have to carry it, it is anything but cute.

Everybody has a made-to-fit cross. They come in different materials and sizes and are delivered at different seasons of life. These crosses could be made of wood, bronze, iron, silver or gold. Some crosses are crudely finished and others are tastefully finished but they all have some common denominators. They represent shame, pain, reproach and humiliation.

Some crosses are less obvious than others. We talk about some crosses openly and some we carry in the innermost recessions of our hearts. There are some crosses we are touchy about and there are some we have gotten so accustomed to that we don’t even remember they exist.

For every kind of cross, Jesus set a precedence. As God-head as He is, He submissively carried His cross. At the point where He couldn’t take one more step with it, God saw from heaven and sent Him help in the person of Simon from Cyrene.

Only God knows the extent we can cope with our various crosses. He can choose to intervene at some point and he can choose otherwise. If He chooses not to relieve you of a particular cross, He will make His grace available to you. Peter is a living witness to this. He recorded in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 that:

“Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me and He said to me, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness”

Concerning your designer cross, God’s response could be Jesus’ style or Peter’s style. Any how, Jesus was the first person who, blamelessly, carried a cross and may I submit to you that He did a fantastic job of it. If that is the case, who else but Him has the sole right to say “I’ve been there, done that and have sole distributorship for the t-shirts”

The t-shirts in question are not plain. Inscribed on each one are these words…”TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME”. (Mark 8:34)

If you noticed, He did not say follow your pastor, parents, clairvoyants or any human being whatsoever. This is because He knows that the amour of flesh will fail you even when that was not the intention.

P.S...It Comes With Fine Prints

I vividly remember the day I gave my life to Christ. It was an indescribable experience…simply “euphojoyous” (trust me to make up words). Words cannot adequately describe that experience.

I did not get serious with God because of any challenges, it was a decision born out of a deep longing and hunger for God. Looking back now, I’m convinced someone somewhere was praying for my salvation.

Even though I knew very little about the word of God, my heart towards Him was pure and genuine. God pampered me silly. It was a season when everything I touched turned to gold. The people in my fellowship group said that my mouth was very close to God’s ears because He answered all my prayers.

As far as I was concerned, relationship with God was strawberry for breakfast, frilly curtains, permanent twinkle in my eyes and loads of giggles. It was simply pure and undiluted bliss!

I should have known better. I should have known there were some fine and invisible prints.

The fine prints had it that I would have accommodation problem for 6 years during which I would squat in 18 different places including people’s stores with no toilet or bathroom facilities..

Part of the fine prints stated that career-wise, it will take over 15 years to achieve what ideally I should have achieved in 3 years.

Of curse, I didn’t see the part that stipulated that I would nurse my brother through a two- year battle with lung problem.

It was written in fine prints that I would spend 12 years praying for another brother who was hopelessly prodigal.

A paragraph in the fine prints had it that I was going to pray for healing for my father but instead have him die in my arms.

The finest of the prints was that I would nurse my mother through cancer and then loose her to stroke.

If I had seen the fine prints, read through and understood them, do you think I would have signed on? My answer is NO…spelt NO and pronounced NO!!!.

God knew that if I saw the fine prints, there’s no way on this mother earth I would have given Him any time of the day.

It is not recorded any where in the bible that God is a fair God but it is recorded that He is a just God. It is also recorded that a soldier does not go to war at his own expense. In my case, God was my sponsor. Though there were times I felt like an unloved step child, God was there and He walked me through every painful step. The times when I was too weary to catch up with Him, He carried me.

Because God is the author of my fine prints, He made grace available for me to outlast the challenges.

If you are in right standing with God and your life is senseless at the moment, could it be that you are living out your own fine prints?

If your issues are fine-print-related, surely… even if you sway, even if you are stretched thin and transparent, even if you are bent over, God will never allow you to break. How do I know? I know because, the bible records that God will never put more on you than you can bear and that for every trial, He will make a way of escape.

If you have never experienced a "fine print" season, I have this to say to you...keep living and also, remember to save this blog because, you will need it some day.

Happy Resurection Sunday

Its Ok to say "I Don't Know"

I know a good-looking, godly and very gifted gentle man. He is what I’ll call a 3-G guy. Each time I see him, my heart breaks afresh. Uju, but you just said he is a 3-G guy (good-looking, godly and gifted). What is heartbreaking about him? I guess I forgot to mention that he is blind!

Whenever he’s seated ahead of me in church, I loose focus because my mind goes into an over drive. I ask God tons of questions; I try to reason out why God has not restored this guy’s sight. I try to get into the guys head and think like him. I sit there and wonder…

Would he have preferred to be ugly but have his sight?
Would he have preferred to be an average Joe, with no form of giftedness but have his sight?
Would he have preferred to be very poor but have his sight?

I sit there and my thought goes like…“but God all power belongs to you”, “all it will take is one touch from you”, “but you know that more than any thing, this guy would love to have his sight restored” etc.

In between trying to focus on the sermon, I sit there and agonize over this guy’s situation.
The irony of it all is that this guy’s situation seems to be lost on him.

Why would God bless a man this much and not give him sight? The truth is that I DO NOT KNOW.

Usually, when we come toe to toe with any situation that defies all our theology, we do some or all of the following:

pretend that we know what God is up to

try to make excuses for Him

offer some baseless explanation to justify why God appears to be “slack” concerning His promises.

use some clichés that we don’t even believe.

Let me mess up your theology just a bit.
You don’t know what God is up to. You don’t have to make excuses for Him. You are a mere mortal dealing with an infinite God so, you can never justify most things that He does.

My suggest is… quit trying to understand God but if you dared, be my guest and start with these:

His thoughts are not your thoughts
His ways are not your ways
As far as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than your ways and His thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa 55:8-9)

Let’s face it; God will not always reveal everything to you. Things will not always work out the way you want. Everybody will not live in a mansion. Some people will never have their own children. There are people who will never be healed. Just pause for a moment and look at Mathew 26: 11…"for you will have the poor with you always” (ouch!)

If God is infinite, has His throne in heaven, uses the earth as his footstool and you are a part of the earth, then you are part of His footstool and that logically means you are under his feet (no offense meant, please). Now if you are under the feet of an infinite God, is it possible that you can see beyond his toes?

God is so all-together-glorious that just a glimpse of his feet provides mind-blowing revelation and illumination. No matter how anointed, prolific or spiritually knowledgeable anyone is, all the person can see is just one very minute portion of God. No one can know God in His totality or understand everything He does.

When things don’t make sense it is very Ok to admit that you don’t know what God is up to or if He is up to anything in the first place. It doesn’t make you less spiritual or faithless.

There's a Remnant Somewhere

Once upon a time, my income was just enough to cover my transportation and toiletries. I could not afford clothes, shoes or luxury of any kind.

God was gracious enough to bless me with a line manager, who was the same size as me. She became my benefactor as far as wardrobe was concerned. What she gave me were her remnants but they were light years better than my best clothes.

When I look back over the struggles that I have been through, I can testify that no matter how horrid any situation was, God always left me some remnants...something to anchor my hope on while the storm raged.

God is so deeply touched by the touch of our pains that even when He appears out of site, out of reach and out of vibes, He is ever very present. What but the presence of God could have made Moses describe a messed up place as “a holy ground”? Jacob was in the middle of God-knows-where, using a stone for pillow; he couldn’t help but acknowledge that “God is here and I knew it not” It takes the presence of God to make a stone feel like a pillow.

When challenges come knocking, especially when they come with numerous company, we get so bombed out that we neither recognize nor acknowledge our remnants even when they come dressed in red hats.

The truth is that there is always a remnant and God is in the remnant. If you take a tour of the bible, God always left His children some remnants.

When God destroyed the earth, Noah and co were the remnants.
When Abraham’s barrenness went on for too long, his remnant was a covenant from God.
When God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot was the remnant.
When the Israelites were at the risk of being annihilated by King Ahasuerus, Esther was their remnant.
My girl, Ruth had Boaz give a command that remnants be left for her on purpose.
When Laban was cheating the living day light out of Jacob, his speckled stick was his remnant.
When Moses forgot what confidence meant, and couldn’t stick two words of Egypt together, a staff was his remnant.
How about the widow of Shunammite and her little jar of oil?
And the list goes on…

I don’t know the size or number of lemons life is throwing at you right now but, I know the God of remnants. Take a closer look and you will see what your remnant is.

It could be hope.

It could be a very minor miracle that is a pointer that something is about to happen.

It could be a word of encouragement from someone.
It could be a revelation from the word of God or from a least likely source.
It could be a still small voice from the Spirit of God.
It could be just one idea or an encounter that might not look like much.
It could be the ability to hold onto God even when your knuckles have all gone white.
It could be the ability to pray even when your words sound very empty.

God knows our limitations so, no matter how gruesome your trying moments are, if you look closely, you will find some remnant to hold on to. If you hold on and hold out, surely there will be the breaking of a new dawn. God will so mess you up with blessings that you can’t find the right word, song or body language to express your gratitude. Isaiah has a living word that summarizes all I am trying to articulate:

“Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah.”(Isaiah I: 9)

Look upwards with a heart of gratitude and God will show you what your remnant is.

Learning to Let Go When God Lets Go

I usually wear suits to church on Sundays. Some two months back, the weather became very hot. I went out of my way to look for dresses, specifically for Sundays. Being the princess of cheap, I got myself some very lovely cheap and cheerful dresses. A little vanity now and again doesn’t hurt anybody so, may I say that I know that I look gorgeous in those dresses and as such I like wearing them.

Last Sunday, I was planning on wearing one of my pretty dresses but at the end of the day, I had to wear a suit because, once again, the weather has changed…it was very cold.

Life is in seasons. Every season has a start time and an end time. Every season comes with its own peculiarities and demands (some good and some bad). Every season requires some level of adjustment on our part. No matter how much you like or dislike a particular season, you must recognize when the season is over.

There are times when we like something so much that we want to hold on for ever.
There are times when we like a place so much that we want stay there for ever.
Other times, we love someone so deeply that we don’t want to move on even after it is over.

As humans, we have the tendency to cling to things we love even when it is to our own detriment. A lot of us (including yours sincerely) run around with dead things in our hands or in our hearts. Others place the dead things in a tomb but never cover the tomb. Some place it in a tomb, cover it, but never walk away from the site.

Until you put it in a tomb, cover the tomb and walk away, consider it unburied. All dead things have a common denominator…they grow septic within days and then begin to smell.

You have heard of dead weight, I guess. Things are heavier and more difficult to carry around when they are dead.

Is it possible that you are moving around with some dead weights in your hands/heart? Is it possible you are praying for or mourning over what God is over and done with? I know exactly how difficult walking away could be but you must receive strength from God and move on.

Whatever your “dead thing” is… loved one, job, relationship, marriage etc, bury it and give yourself the chance for a fresh start.

Why hold on when God already let go? Let me show you something in the book of
Isaiah, precisely Isaiah 43:18-19. It reads:

“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth: Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert”

I don’t know about you but I sure can do with some new things. If your hands/heart are occupied by dead wieghts, where is the room for for God to put the new thing? Think about it.

Request Turns to Gratitude

I believe the first fruit principles so I know that my first salary for the year does not belong to me but to the house of God. I took my first fruit to church yesterday. Normally while praying over our offering, we are encouraged to tie it to a need.

When I was about to lift up my first fruit and pray, I had a litany of needs to tie it to. When I looked at the cheque, I forgot my needs. Something melted in my heart. I received a miracle. That miracle was illumination.

As I looked at the cheque, I was overwhelmed by gratitude. The amount on the cheque was not much but, compared to how far God has brought me, it is indeed much. I cast my mind ten years back and it dawned on me that my current one month salary was practically the same amount as my annual income 10 years ago. Things sure might be slow but I am definitely not walking backwards.

Before you get washed away by sorrow over where God has not taken you to, take a moment and contemplate on where He brought you from. Before you whine about what He has not done for you, remember all He has done for you.

If like me, you sometimes get carried away by the fleeting challenges of life, to the point of forgetting how far God has brought you, remember that the things you take for granted are actually someone else’s prayer points.

Slow down, take a deep breath, brace yourself, take stock and drink in God’s goodness.

Why do you think you survived the storms, earthquakes and fire you’ve been through? It is because God was in the fire, earthquake and storm.

He did not mean for the storm to sweep you away.
The earthquake did not come to displace you.
The fire did not come to destroy you.
They were meant to refine you.

Isaiah 43:2: When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee

What a promise!

When God Loves Me Enough to Say "No"

Some years back, I was in a relationship with a guy I considered cute.
It was not exactly a smooth relationship but we were in love. We were going to get married, ride into sunset and live happily ever after.

That did not happen because; we broke up shortly after he asked me to marry him. I actually called off the relationship because of some trust issues. Even though I was the one who called off the relationship, I was hurting so much I thought I would die.

I lost appetite, joy, sleep and of course a lot of weight (not that I weigh much). I prayed to God to heal my broken heart. I prayed for the heart to forgive him. I prayed for the strength to move on. I prayed to God to bless me with someone who is right for me.

It took time but God healed me and I had the strength to move on.

A while ago, I ran into the guy (ex-boyfriend), I almost did not recognize him because he has changed a lot physically but not for better. There were tell-tale signs that all was not well on the home-front.

I began to ask myself why on God’s green earth I felt bad about the break-up. I could not believe that my prayer point once upon a time was for God to heal our relationship.

When we had issues, I prayed fervently to God to heal and mend our relationship. Instead of the situation getting better, it got worse. I wept because I thought God did not answer my prayers but the truth is that He did. His answer was “NO”!

God always answers all prayers, the answer could be:

Yes
No
Not yet or
Never

The only time we tend to acknowledge God’s answer is when He says “Yes”. It is a difficult pill to swallow but there are lots of times when His answer to your prayers will be “No”, “Not yet” or “Never”! In those times, will you still believe and trust that God loves you and He loves you enough to say “No”?