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| Image courtesy of www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk |
I want to get a job straight out of campus, make my first
million two years later, own a car and buy a house one year after that, marry
the following year and be blessed with two wonderful children soon after.
Sounds familiar right? It is because this is a brief representation of the common dreams, goals, and aspirations people have for their lives. Life though has a wonderful sense of humor and has a way of throwing those well thought out plans down the drain. Even funnier, is that people around you will be attaining those very same goals you have and leading the charmed life you dreamed of. Your facebook feed will be inundated with all their photos about
their upgraded cars, and their jobs, their colorful wedding, and
cute babies thereafter. What seems to be my problem you ask? Like Charles Righa aka Rigga, you ask, "God, umenisahau for real?!!!" Others seem to be cruising on the
fast-lane of life while you seem to be stuck in the traffic jam of life, worse than
the kind motorists have to put up with with on Mombasa road and Langata road daily. It’s
like your life resembles a rocking chair, full of activity but in a constant state of stagnation.
Many people spend sleepless nights, agonizing over their
futures whenever something doesn’t go as planned. The levels of stress and
depression today are testament to this. Many times, people being fearful of the
future fervently pray to God to bless their plans instead of asking God to
reveal His plans because they are already blessed.
The alarm bells are set off when one’s plans go bust but it
shouldn’t be. Thumbs up to the man or woman who said this, “This is God's universe and he will do things his way, you
may have a better way, but you don’t have a universe." In as much as this statement pours cold water
on our courses of action, it explains just who is in charge and who knows best.
After all, God was in the beginning, he is in the present and he knows the
future so he is best placed to know how our lives will unfold and whom we
should trust.
I know I’ve wanted
answers to my future pap!!! I’ve wanted a validation from God but God as seen
through scripture desires people who trust him unwaveringly without answers. He
loves people who, through faith, follow his lead. He desires that we let go of
our anxiety and trust him.
I guess it’s why Jesus lauded the
centurion for his faith. The centurion didn’t need Jesus to go with him, he
didn’t need an explanation on how he would heal his servant, he was sure he could
heal him by just a word.
For others it was different , for the Israelites God’s command was to move and walk into the
water. For Abraham, it was to move into a new land. Sometimes God desires
transition from our part, moving to new surroundings, moving on from a dead
relationship, moving to a new job. Sometimes staying in the comfort zone
fearful of the future actually ushers in a grim future instead of avoiding it.
Sometimes it is staying which is required. You need to avoid changing tact or moving even amidst hostile conditions. It’s
resolutely abiding by the same course of action with no progress in sight. Some
call it madness while others call it faith. I think of Daniel still resolving
to pray when knowing fully well he would die for it. He didn’t complain to God about the
decree, he didn’t try to reason with God, he just stayed to his convictions and
trusted in God and inevitably God delivers him.
However, unlike Daniel, for
others it seems that time has stood still or God has forgotten us after either moving or staying. It seems
that we are stuck in a rut. Imagine how it must have felt for Joseph,
presumably wasting away in a dungeon after having dreams of people bowing to
him. How about David being chosen as a second king of Israel and then having to
live the life of a fugitive for years. What about Abraham who was promised a
son, yet 1 year, 5, years, 10 years down the line no son was forthcoming.
Waiting on God was their fort.
Waiting isn’t easy but it
displays your trust in God. Waiting though, doesn’t mean you sit and do nothing
but it requires you to make the best of your circumstances. It forces you to
ask what God desires to teach you during this period of stagnation. It compels
you to grow in the quiet, at a slow, steady pace when all around you things are
growing at an astonishing rate. Most of all, waiting is a school, a school to
learn a host of things about yourself and the world that when finished prepare you
for your inevitable calling.
It may appear as suffering but God being God uses suffering as starter to the delightful main course of your life. It was through suffering that Job
finally experienced God. It was through a long period of suffering that Job
really got to know God. It was after suffering that Job was blessed more than before(Job 42:12). It is when we
know God that we can trust him, that we can chose not to be anxious about
anything and let go and let God and thus experience a peace that transcends
understanding. It is a peace which acknowledges that sometimes God places the
believer in a storm to galvanise them not destroy them.
It’s easy for frustration to
build when things don’t go your way. It’s easy to be anxious when success seems
so far. I take comfort in the fact that God is in control. You have no control over the seasons of life
but God does. You don’t need to know the HOW of your life; what's important is knowing the WHO-God.
Focus on God. Don’t look around
at others, look up to God. Peter walked on water because he focused on Jesus
as soon as his focus drifted to the waters and the wind, He sank. Be concerned
about your life but don’t sink into worry and depression, focus on God and
trust him because He is there and he is in control.
God has a plan for you, a
plan that rarely goes as per your expectations, a plan with more twists and
turns than a telenovela and afrosinema movie combined but a plan for your life
that is good and full of hope that will require you to trust him even when life tells you otherwise.
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