And I fell in love with God.
Yes, the Living God. Who devotedly breathed The Breath of Life into me. The God Who daily loads me with blessings and new day presents. The One Whose attention I am, for I am, like you, the apple of His eye. The One Who has empowered me to multiply and increase; to live well, to live blessed. The only wise God Who has given me the liberty to live, liberty to love.
When He breathed the breath of Life into me, He empowered me to increase in all that He is - love, joy, peace, health, wealth, strength. The list goes on. What a privilege to be loved by Him.
But to realise that Love, to become conscious of that Love, I am having to die sometime, many a times, to myself - my own needs, my own desires, my own wants. That’s the notion of surrender. Succumbing, yielding, so that I might live – truly live, God’s way.
Galatians 5 verses 22-23 clarifies.
‘’But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.’’
Learning Love from Father Abraham
In the book of Genesis chapter twenty two, the Bible records Abraham’s celebrated odyssey and remarkable action of total surrender. Organized and set to sacrifice his son to the living God, Abraham astonishingly determined the sacrifice and passage as an act of worship.
What became Abraham’s recompense for this great act of surrender? Deliverance from having to physically sacrifice his son, and a special return from God. Verses 9-18.
The God Who ever lives to make us whole
One of the things that really blows my mind about God is that He ever lives to make us whole. He is absolutely and totally committed to our well-being, our healing, and our prosperity. That’s love with a capital L.
‘”Hardly,” I hear you say, “He never saved my marriage. He didn’t prevent that rape. He didn’t prevent that bankruptcy.” Very well, God may not have prevented those terrible events from happening, but He is so totally and absolutely committed to you being emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically healed from them so that you can know the blessed life that He has promised.
Sometimes in life we come into contact with tragedy because of the decisions we either made or did not make. Likewise, we also come into contact with incredible joy because of the decisions we did make. Sadly, we can often encounter tragedy through no fault of our own – the sexual abuse you suffered as a child which drew you into confused adulthood; the untimely death of a parent which saw you growing up at the mercy (or lack) of dreadful relatives; that stepmother who controlled your father and saw to it that only her own children, not you and your blood siblings, were sent to school. Where is The Love in all of this? Where is the God that is committed to making me whole and why is He has allowed this great pain in spite of His Love?
But this is where the paradox lies.
It is in the famine of our emotions, the dearth of our financial wealth, the incapacity of our human intellect to repair the gaping holes in our lives that we realise that we ourselves do not always have the answers, solutions and remedies for life’s pressing challenges. But there is a Living God Who provides freedom and liberty even in amongst the mess. His invitation was and remains “come unto Me all you who are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest.”
When God sent Christ from the majesty of heaven to planet Earth, He gave us, in Love, a Saviour. When the Saviour momentarily died, God felt yet more pain for His Son – imagine that separation. However, His pain was relieved by the great exchanged that took place at The Resurrection. Through that rebirth, God could have His Son back with Him in heaven, and He could also have us reconciled with Him.
But how does that translate into our every day living?
What can we learn from this and how do we cultivate the art of living from this insight? Perhaps we might try these: expressing love to family and friends through consistent acts of kindness; being available to listen, to advise, to laugh, to play. Choosing to appreciate their hope, their pain, their joy, their commission.
Being ready to forgive, to make that phone call, to send that email, to make that visit. It’s the notion of sacrifice again. It means being true to each of our calling to serve others in love – whether that is our calling as a friend, sibling, spouse, or parent. It’s hard, believe me I know, but I tell myself I must try, and try, and try again.
I Corinthians 13
One of the deeply celebrated chapters in the Bible is the love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13. The last verse of that chapter directs us to “Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” Love extravagantly. Galatians 5 verses 13-15 expands: “it is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom.”
Selah.
Thursday 26 July 2007
Home, sweet home
Back home now.
Back to power failures (funky name for it here is load management), less than clean tap water, pot-holed roads, hammering my broom at wild geckos who have dared to invade my living room...
Back to church, friends, the gym, to MBA studies, to demanding clients.
Home, sweet home.
Back to power failures (funky name for it here is load management), less than clean tap water, pot-holed roads, hammering my broom at wild geckos who have dared to invade my living room...
Back to church, friends, the gym, to MBA studies, to demanding clients.
Home, sweet home.
Saturday 21 July 2007
Living with Teenagers
I am spending the weekend with my eldest sister and her three teenagers - and I could produce a PhD thesis on what my ears have heard and my eyes have seen over the last couple of hours.
It's like a scene from the living with teenagers section of the saturday Guardian newspaper.
I've also asked my niece and nephews when they'll be visiting me in Ghana. Can someone set up a blog on The Art of Living with Teenagers? Help.
It's like a scene from the living with teenagers section of the saturday Guardian newspaper.
- I can't hear what they say - they speak too fast
- I can't understand what they say - they speak a different form of English to the one I know
- They spend an awful lot of time on the internet
- They spend an awful lot of time on their mobile phone
I've also asked my niece and nephews when they'll be visiting me in Ghana. Can someone set up a blog on The Art of Living with Teenagers? Help.
Monday 16 July 2007
French Gastronomy
I am heartened by Mireille Guiliano.
I am currently in the UK and walked into Waterstones the other day as excited as a child on Christmas Day - all those books! We don't have many good bookshops in Accra. In fact we don't have many bookshops in Accra full stop. But I am told that the Accra Mall (opening 'late 2007') will have a Nu Metro bookshop. Counting the days...
Mireille Guiliano - discovered her quite by chance in the Waterstones 3 for 2 section. Oh, the joys of French gastronomy.
Visited her website and found this interview on her second book, French Women for All Seasons:
French Women for All Seasons is about the art of living well. And, of course, it is filled with stories and tips from my personal experience.
A secret to enjoying life and discovering pleasure is cultivating a life of ongoing experimentation, exploration, enjoyment, and self-discovery. Whether it is living through a season or life, my principle is the same: embrace the seasons and seasonality and make savoring life a more intense experience.
The challenge for people is their lifestyle. Many people go through life on autopilot, paying little attention to their senses. They have a lifestyle of inertia and want a quick fix. Readers of my first book understood that changing a lifestyle is not measured week to week, but year to year. It requires effort and attention, yes, but the benefit is a more sensuous life, and a more fulfilling one. You learn to know yourself, develop a positive emotional outlook, and enjoy more of every aspect of life.
French Women Don’t Get Fat enabled millions of readers to enjoy a healthier relationship with food. My aim with French Women for All Seasons is to enable readers to enjoy a healthier relationship with life!
Voila.
I am currently in the UK and walked into Waterstones the other day as excited as a child on Christmas Day - all those books! We don't have many good bookshops in Accra. In fact we don't have many bookshops in Accra full stop. But I am told that the Accra Mall (opening 'late 2007') will have a Nu Metro bookshop. Counting the days...
Mireille Guiliano - discovered her quite by chance in the Waterstones 3 for 2 section. Oh, the joys of French gastronomy.
Visited her website and found this interview on her second book, French Women for All Seasons:
French Women for All Seasons is about the art of living well. And, of course, it is filled with stories and tips from my personal experience.
A secret to enjoying life and discovering pleasure is cultivating a life of ongoing experimentation, exploration, enjoyment, and self-discovery. Whether it is living through a season or life, my principle is the same: embrace the seasons and seasonality and make savoring life a more intense experience.
The challenge for people is their lifestyle. Many people go through life on autopilot, paying little attention to their senses. They have a lifestyle of inertia and want a quick fix. Readers of my first book understood that changing a lifestyle is not measured week to week, but year to year. It requires effort and attention, yes, but the benefit is a more sensuous life, and a more fulfilling one. You learn to know yourself, develop a positive emotional outlook, and enjoy more of every aspect of life.
French Women Don’t Get Fat enabled millions of readers to enjoy a healthier relationship with food. My aim with French Women for All Seasons is to enable readers to enjoy a healthier relationship with life!
Voila.
Learning From Dr Martin Luther King
One of the books I am currently reading is The Autobiography of Martin Luther King. If you ever wanted to read something inspirational, intellectually stimulating and immensely comforting as it is challenging, try this one.
A few lessons in living and quotes of worth from the book:
Budgeting (talking about his father): he knew the art of saving and budgeting. He has always had sense enough not to live beyond his means.
Getting along with people: My best friends were in Sunday school, and it was Sunday school that helped me to build the capacity for getting along with people.
White people: the Intercollegiate Council (at Morehouse College) convinced me that we had many white people as allies...I had been ready to resent the whole white race, but as I got to see more of white people, my resentment was softened and a spirit of cooperation took its place.
Black ministers: I had seen that most Negro ministers were unlettered, not trained in seminaries, and that gave me pause. I had been brought up in the church and knew about religion, but wondered whether it could serve as a vehicle to modern thinking, whether religion could be intellectually respectable as well as emotionally satisfying.
Ministerial spellbinders: the minister must be both sincere and intelligent...we have too many ministers in pulpit who are great spellbinders and too few who possess spiritual power.
The usefulness of preaching: Preaching should grow out of the experiences of the people. Therefore I as a minister must know the problems of the people that I am pastoring. Too often do educated ministers leave the people lost in the fog of theological abstraction, rather than presenting that theology in the light of people's experiences.
The status quo: religion should never sanction the status quo.
Gandhi: my study of Gandhi convinced me that true pacifism is not non-resistance to evil, but non-violent resistance to evil.
Niebuhr: Reinhold Neibuhr had over-emphasized the corruption of the human nature. His pessimism concerning human nature was not balanced by an optimism concerning divine nature. He is so involved in diagnosing man's sickness of sin that he overlooked the cure of grace.
Coretta: my wife Coretta, without whose love, sacrifices, and loyalty neither life nor would would bring fulfillement.
Rediscovering lost values: I'm not going to put my ultimate faith in the little gods that can be destroyed in an atomic age, but The God Who has been our help in ages past, and our hope for years to come, and our shelter in the time of storm, and our eternal home. The God I am talking about this morning is the God of the universe and the God that will last through the ages. If we are to go forward this morning, we've got to go back and find that God. That is the God that demands and commands our ultimate allegiance.
The individual: a religion that ends with the individual, ends.
A few lessons in living and quotes of worth from the book:
Budgeting (talking about his father): he knew the art of saving and budgeting. He has always had sense enough not to live beyond his means.
Getting along with people: My best friends were in Sunday school, and it was Sunday school that helped me to build the capacity for getting along with people.
White people: the Intercollegiate Council (at Morehouse College) convinced me that we had many white people as allies...I had been ready to resent the whole white race, but as I got to see more of white people, my resentment was softened and a spirit of cooperation took its place.
Black ministers: I had seen that most Negro ministers were unlettered, not trained in seminaries, and that gave me pause. I had been brought up in the church and knew about religion, but wondered whether it could serve as a vehicle to modern thinking, whether religion could be intellectually respectable as well as emotionally satisfying.
Ministerial spellbinders: the minister must be both sincere and intelligent...we have too many ministers in pulpit who are great spellbinders and too few who possess spiritual power.
The usefulness of preaching: Preaching should grow out of the experiences of the people. Therefore I as a minister must know the problems of the people that I am pastoring. Too often do educated ministers leave the people lost in the fog of theological abstraction, rather than presenting that theology in the light of people's experiences.
The status quo: religion should never sanction the status quo.
Gandhi: my study of Gandhi convinced me that true pacifism is not non-resistance to evil, but non-violent resistance to evil.
Niebuhr: Reinhold Neibuhr had over-emphasized the corruption of the human nature. His pessimism concerning human nature was not balanced by an optimism concerning divine nature. He is so involved in diagnosing man's sickness of sin that he overlooked the cure of grace.
Coretta: my wife Coretta, without whose love, sacrifices, and loyalty neither life nor would would bring fulfillement.
Rediscovering lost values: I'm not going to put my ultimate faith in the little gods that can be destroyed in an atomic age, but The God Who has been our help in ages past, and our hope for years to come, and our shelter in the time of storm, and our eternal home. The God I am talking about this morning is the God of the universe and the God that will last through the ages. If we are to go forward this morning, we've got to go back and find that God. That is the God that demands and commands our ultimate allegiance.
The individual: a religion that ends with the individual, ends.
Friday 6 July 2007
Biblical Girl Power: lessons from my sisters of ages past
On the Shunammite woman, the Syrophenican woman, and Hannah, mother of Samuel
One of my sisters recently asked me who my favourite female characters in the Bible are and why. I hesitated to give a true and genuine reply, and was slightly surprised by the response that I later came to give her: the Shunammite woman, The Syrophenican woman, and Hannah, mother of Samuel.
If I am to state the order of preference, I think my first favourite character would be the Syrophenican woman whose story is told in the book of Matthew chapter 15, and then again in the book of Mark, chapter 7. Desperate for the healing of her daughter who had an unclean spirit, the Syrophenican woman cried out to the Messiah for help. And The Messiah, the Saviour of the whole world, told her, ‘It is not meet to give the children’s meat to dogs.’ Unperturbed by His discourteous response, the Syrophenican woman’s own retort was equally curt, ‘But even the dogs can eat the crumbs from the children’s table.’
But even the dogs can eat the crumbs from the children’s table.
What my favourite character A reveals and shares with me about her relationship with The Messiah is this: ’Although I am religiously distant from You, although my culture brings a distance between us, although I am precluded from accessing You because of my Syrophenican genealogy, although You are God and I am man, I will, nevertheless, access You, I will beg of You and I will, I must, have my need met by You.’ The Syrophenican woman realised that her deliverance from what threatened to wedge a distance between her and the Lord could only come by her steadfastness of faith and her persistence – despite what others may think or say.
And indeed the Messiah, the Syrophenican woman’s Messiah, our Messiah, responds to her that even amongst the Jews He had not seen such faith. Being a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him, the Messiah meets her at the point of her need, healing the woman’s daughter in turn.
Spiritual Comas et al
The testimony of the Shunammite woman blows my mind no end (the book of 2 Kings, chapter 4). My biblical tutor here, the wealthy, generous, middle-aged, God fearing woman, has gone into a spiritual coma.
She had grown so familiar with her barren womb that she cared not to remember that she was barren at all, preferring her focus to be on honouring God and supporting the ministry needs of His prophet, Elisha. God was distant from her in that one significant area and she had closed the door for any form of restoration. What she failed to remember though was that one of the many ways in which she could honour God was also to believe in His Word that He could speak and breathe the breath of life into her barren womb.
On being known among your people but dieing inside
Touched by the generosity of the Shunammite woman, Elisha enquired of her on a pressing need. Like the Messiah, he wanted to reward her in God and show her the power of His love. But the Shunammite woman gave Elisha a loaded, abrupt, almost dismissive reply: ‘I am known among my people.’ Never mind me, she seemed to say, I do well. I don’t need and neither do I want to be reminded of my shame.
Elisha came to know that this my biblical favourite character B had no child, and he went on to prophesy to her womb saying that within a year she would give birth. Scornfully, the Shunammite woman asked Elisa not to toy with her emotions. God had seemed so distant that she would not even perceive deliverance when it knocked at her door.
The Lord's ever present mercy
But such a reverent and kind heart does not go unnoticed by the great God we serve and I am certain that the Lord needed her to know that He had heard all of her prayers, even the ones she had failed to utter to Him but which had been written all over her wounded heart. And of course she went on to have a child.
The reason why the Shunammite woman impresses me is that even when God seemed distant, she chose still to serve Him. The Bible records that this was a wealthy and respected woman. She dwelled among her people and did good. She appeared not to have let her overwhelming need engulf her life. She moved on in life and in God despite her need. What a great testimony.
And finally mother Hannah
All those years of waiting and trusting God to make true her desire to conceive. All those many long years of enduring mockery from Peninah and her children.
And Hannah just kept going to Shiloh. She just kept on going to Shiloh. She kept praying. She would not, she could not, let Him go. She had to keep trusting – even if it was for her own sanity. She had to believe that her story had to change. That’s the notion of desperation again.
When it seemed like the storm would never end she prayed a desperate prayer during one of those trips to Shiloh. ‘Give me a child, and I will dedicate him to You’. What sacrifice. And Hannah laid with her husband, Elkinah, the bible records.
Now the rest is history.
One of my sisters recently asked me who my favourite female characters in the Bible are and why. I hesitated to give a true and genuine reply, and was slightly surprised by the response that I later came to give her: the Shunammite woman, The Syrophenican woman, and Hannah, mother of Samuel.
If I am to state the order of preference, I think my first favourite character would be the Syrophenican woman whose story is told in the book of Matthew chapter 15, and then again in the book of Mark, chapter 7. Desperate for the healing of her daughter who had an unclean spirit, the Syrophenican woman cried out to the Messiah for help. And The Messiah, the Saviour of the whole world, told her, ‘It is not meet to give the children’s meat to dogs.’ Unperturbed by His discourteous response, the Syrophenican woman’s own retort was equally curt, ‘But even the dogs can eat the crumbs from the children’s table.’
But even the dogs can eat the crumbs from the children’s table.
What my favourite character A reveals and shares with me about her relationship with The Messiah is this: ’Although I am religiously distant from You, although my culture brings a distance between us, although I am precluded from accessing You because of my Syrophenican genealogy, although You are God and I am man, I will, nevertheless, access You, I will beg of You and I will, I must, have my need met by You.’ The Syrophenican woman realised that her deliverance from what threatened to wedge a distance between her and the Lord could only come by her steadfastness of faith and her persistence – despite what others may think or say.
And indeed the Messiah, the Syrophenican woman’s Messiah, our Messiah, responds to her that even amongst the Jews He had not seen such faith. Being a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him, the Messiah meets her at the point of her need, healing the woman’s daughter in turn.
Spiritual Comas et al
The testimony of the Shunammite woman blows my mind no end (the book of 2 Kings, chapter 4). My biblical tutor here, the wealthy, generous, middle-aged, God fearing woman, has gone into a spiritual coma.
She had grown so familiar with her barren womb that she cared not to remember that she was barren at all, preferring her focus to be on honouring God and supporting the ministry needs of His prophet, Elisha. God was distant from her in that one significant area and she had closed the door for any form of restoration. What she failed to remember though was that one of the many ways in which she could honour God was also to believe in His Word that He could speak and breathe the breath of life into her barren womb.
On being known among your people but dieing inside
Touched by the generosity of the Shunammite woman, Elisha enquired of her on a pressing need. Like the Messiah, he wanted to reward her in God and show her the power of His love. But the Shunammite woman gave Elisha a loaded, abrupt, almost dismissive reply: ‘I am known among my people.’ Never mind me, she seemed to say, I do well. I don’t need and neither do I want to be reminded of my shame.
Elisha came to know that this my biblical favourite character B had no child, and he went on to prophesy to her womb saying that within a year she would give birth. Scornfully, the Shunammite woman asked Elisa not to toy with her emotions. God had seemed so distant that she would not even perceive deliverance when it knocked at her door.
The Lord's ever present mercy
But such a reverent and kind heart does not go unnoticed by the great God we serve and I am certain that the Lord needed her to know that He had heard all of her prayers, even the ones she had failed to utter to Him but which had been written all over her wounded heart. And of course she went on to have a child.
The reason why the Shunammite woman impresses me is that even when God seemed distant, she chose still to serve Him. The Bible records that this was a wealthy and respected woman. She dwelled among her people and did good. She appeared not to have let her overwhelming need engulf her life. She moved on in life and in God despite her need. What a great testimony.
And finally mother Hannah
All those years of waiting and trusting God to make true her desire to conceive. All those many long years of enduring mockery from Peninah and her children.
And Hannah just kept going to Shiloh. She just kept on going to Shiloh. She kept praying. She would not, she could not, let Him go. She had to keep trusting – even if it was for her own sanity. She had to believe that her story had to change. That’s the notion of desperation again.
When it seemed like the storm would never end she prayed a desperate prayer during one of those trips to Shiloh. ‘Give me a child, and I will dedicate him to You’. What sacrifice. And Hannah laid with her husband, Elkinah, the bible records.
Now the rest is history.
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