He got this

Photo credit: www.roots-of-truth.com

First Brexit, now Trump, who knows, next Arsenal will be winning the EPL. Jokes aside, this remarkable turn of events has caught the world by surprise. Who knew it would come to this, certainly not, a wide section of the media and political analysts, pundits e.t.c. These outcomes were supposed to be improbable, so they said. Come D-day, they were proved wrong, terribly wrong.

The scarcely unthinkable is now a reality, one which we will just have to accept and move on. Whatever your opinions are about Trump or Brexit, you can agree with me, that we live in very interesting times, messed up even. Front-line headlines, you-tube videos, blog posts continue to document the bedlam as it unfolds. Sensationalist utterances by politicians, grand theft of money, the celebration of one undergoing a sex change, a student taking a drug in the hope of passing a national examination, for many things have hit rock bottom. Amidst the chaos, we are compelled to look up, fists clenched, crying out, "God, why don't you do something?!!!"

On the other hand, an atheist's conviction will only be emboldened, "There is no God, if so, how can he permit such decadence to occur at such a grand scale?" A second line of thought is to conclude that God is not as mighty as Christians claim him to be, but he is in fact a toothless God.

In the face of such adversity, these schools of thought are inevitable. As Syria, continues to be decimated by war, ISIS still looming large, South Sudan being on the precipice of destruction, it is hard to depict God as a God who is loving, merciful, gracious, peaceful.

As incredulous as it may sound, God is in control. As much as there is a bucketload of evidence all around us to suggest the contrary, God is still sovereign, God's got this. He isn't pacing up and down in heaven, distraught and tongue-tied that his good plans for this world have gone bust. I make this absurd claim because if there is anything that history has shown us, it is that history repeats itself.

For every Trump or Brexit, there has been far, far worse in Herod, Nero, Hitler, Israel splitting into two kingdoms, Exile to Babylon. Did God's chosen nation splitting signal the end of God's plan? Did the zealous persecution of Christians by Herod and Nero or Jews by Hitler put a stop to  the gospel of Salvation by Christ to all mankind?

The answer is negative. The gospel still spreads, it still impacts lives, scores of people continue to put their hope in Jesus with every passing day. Nero's efforts could not stifle God's agenda. Israel, still is on the global map, despite the gloomy split of the past.

A vast majority of the time, we lean on God's attributes as a God who is loving, who is forgiving, who is gracious, sometimes we may forget that this God is almighty, sovereign, infinitely powerful. It's easy to mistake him for toothless when he opts not to show his vast power and rid the world of evil in an instant. It's easy to label him docile when immorality and corruption are rampant. It's easy to lose sight of him being the perfect judge when all-around injustices are too numerous to count.

It's hard to imagine someone as all-powerful when they just seem to be silent or passive when circumstances call for robust, immediate action. God has never been one to be easy to understand, Isaiah astutely says that his ways and thoughts are above those of our own(Isaiah 55:9). Unlike us, he isn't limited by time, space, gravity etc, he can act however he choses to act and it will yield his desired result.

I find God sovereignty and awesome power in his central quality of being love. God is love.(1 John 4:8) My guess is that is precisely why he created man in his image. He created a being, in his own image, not out of necessity or that he was imperfect and needed a being to complete him, but with the intention of relating with man in love. Love, as we know, is a commitment to the good of another person or thing. Commitment is about being dedicated or devoted to one person or thing. Commitment involves choice, since to be dedicated or devoted to someone involves deliberately foregoing other things or people and choosing, instead, to commit to that one thing or person. Plus, we know that choice involves free will, since only someone with a free will has the capacity to choose between committing or not committing, lack of a free will is compulsion/an obligation or slavery towards one specific object.

The thing that blows me away, to which I can't wrap my mind around, is that God, purposely, intentionally gave man free will to chose to love him or to chose not to. We, human beings, create stuff to do things for us, never for themselves. We create machines, devices, robots(out of necessity) to do our bidding not their bidding and it bothers us when they don't fulfill that purpose. God, on there other hand, did not need man to complete him or make him feel fulfilled, but he chose to create man with the intention of loving man and man loving him back, but since he wanted us to love him perfectly, he gave us free will to chose to love him.

Free will, means that we have the capacity to chose to love him, obey him and reflect his glory but it also means we have free will to chose to ignore him, forsake him, spite him and go against everything he stands for. Apparently, God didn't see it as a risk. He wasn't terrified by the probability that he could create man to love him but man was free to chose and could in fact end up hating God. That didn't faze him. That too me, speaks volumes of the level of power and control God wields, if he wasn't frightened at the thought of his creation going against him. That too me, says all there is to know, God is in control and nothing that occurs here on earth really surprises him, neither is it too much for him to handle despite him not choosing to do so.

To me, that is scary, scary in a good way because I used the free will he gave me to chose to love him and accept his son Jesus as my lord and savior, whose death and resurrection, reconciled me to this God and made it possible for me to relate with him just the same way Adam and Eve did, before the fall. Thus, I can be convinced, whether good or bad, God loves those who love him and can be trusted. In the face of adversity or difficult moments or imminent doom, like Eli, I can say, "He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes."(1 Samuel 3:18)

I'm confident that this all-knowing God knows all the possibilities regarding our free will. He is sovereign and fully aware of how capable we are of being unloving towards him. This God, looks down and is powerful enough to handle anything and everything we throw his way. He may chose not to act, not because he is powerless to, but for reasons we don't know and can't really explain. With the free will he gave you, you can chose to point an accusatory finger at him, and label him as cold, distant and heartless, a God who is indifferent to our suffering and injustice desiring to punish those who reject him with an eternity in hell.

Conversely, like me, you may also wonder; why did this God create us if he didn't need us in the first place and why does he still commit to love us even when in ourselves we possess absolutely nothing to endear us to him? Why does he still commit to love us, when we forget him time and time again? Why does he continue to be patient with us like Peter inferred in 2 Peter 3:8-9.  Despite our numerous shortcomings, how do verses like Ezekiel 18: 23 stand true, which reads, "Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?"

My take home, from all this, is that despite the pandemonium going around, the manner which God created us, has me convinced that he is in control. For some divine reason, he is permitting the pandemonium to happen. I won't  claim to know why. What I will claim, is that he got this. Brexit, Syria, Donald Trump, he got this.  He's seated on his throne, in abundant in control, to which you can keep calm, trust him and say, "He got this."

Park the Bus

Photo Credit: Sky Sports

" We won the tie in Barcelona, but everyone talks about Barcelona winning and says we parked the bus in front of the goal. We didn't park the bus, we parked the airplane and we did it for two reasons. One, because we only had 10 men and two, because we beat them 3-1 at the San Siro, not by parking the bus, or the boat, or the airplane, but by smashing them at the San Siro."

That was typical Jose Mourinho, on the back of a dogged, resilient defensive performance by Inter Milan to eliminate Barcelona at the semi-final stages of the 2009/10 Champions League season. Critics came out in full force to condemn Mourinho and Inter's defensive approach to the game and the current united manager, in bullish fashion, delivered a fitting riposte to them. In truth, who could blame him? 3-1 up, playing with only 10 men, away, against Barcelona with more than a hour of normal time to play, playing any other way would spell doom.

Instead,  He made Inter park the bus, which is to play with a lot of men behind the ball, limit spaces at the back and defend like your lives depended on it. His tactic worked like a charm. Despite relentless pressure, Barca labored to break Inter down, the normally effervescent Messi was kept quiet, and although Pique managed to score in the last ten minutes, Inter would lose only one-nil on the night but win 3-2 on aggregate. Organized defense triumphed over phenomenal offense.

Not for the first time has this worked and neither will it be for the last time  as Mourinho proved again against Liverpool, this time as manager of Manutd. The 0-0 draw at Anfield was largely in part to United parking the bus against Liverpool, with the hosts struggling to carve out clear chances. The plan was basically the same against Chelsea, although after only 30 seconds, the plan blew up in Mourinho's face and failed even more spectacularly over the course of game as Chelsea cruised to a 4-0 drubbing of United. Perhaps parking the bus against a team also known to park the bus has a cancelling effect of the strategy; this could explain why Smalling and co's defending was so shambolic. Generally though, it is an effective strategy, and one Christians would also be wise to deploy when coming against the devil, principalities or people keen to attack their faith.

It is no secret that as Christ seeks to establish his heavenly kingdom, the forces of evil are working around the clock to counter it. They will stop at nothing to disrupt the advancement of his kingdom and this spells imminent danger for the evangelical, disciple-making, righteous, God-loving christian.

The christian must be prepared to erect a strong line of defense, he/she must be willing to park the bus at all cost, because the enemy is on the prowl, ready to attack and he doesn't play fair. Matter of fact, he has a broad arsenal of weaponry to chose from,  a diverse range of strategies to deploy and if we aren't on our guard, we will be on the losing end pure and simple.

All it takes is a momentary lapse in concentration, negligence in one single moment and you're defense line is breached(just ask Chris Smalling). The late Jim Rohn astutely stated that everything affects everything else, just the smallest neglect of a discipline, and you have started an infection, insidiously it becomes a disease ravaging your soul where you have lost the said discipline with it a crucial part of your identity.

It applies to the christian this way, on one Sunday you decide to skip church on a whim, suddenly you're skipping it for a couple of Sundays, soon you're not going to church at all. Decide to skip having a devotional in the morning in favor of reaching the office on time, soon your quite time becomes thrice every week, instead of the whole week, in the end, it becomes difficult to read your bible more than once a month in the morning.

Just a small lapse, just a small compromise and your consistency goes.  One stare at her body, one look at the raunchy video, one night of passion, one drink too many and you give the Devil a foothold to enslave you to lust, porn, sexual promiscuity, drunkenness. It always starts small. It always starts simple and then he has you hook, line and sinker.

Parking the bus, on a football pitch requires that you curb your natural attacking instincts and line up in defensive tactics. Same thing with the Christian faith. Parking the bus will sometimes require you to repress your natural tendency to focus on your self and your body's desire. Repressing your desire to ogle, to drink, to have sex. This may mean suppressing your desire to live for yourself, to focus just on advancing your career. Parking the bus, to defend your relationship with Jesus may mean saying no to a host of opportunities if those opportunities amount to you being unavailable to serve God, or to fellowship with other believers.


Naturally, we want to be secure, we want to lead a comfortable life but if attempting to secure a comfortable life means saying no to the calling Jesus has for you, no to serving the body of Christ, no to fellowship with other believers, no to using your talents, spiritual gifts and your unique personality to build up the body of Christ; then your defense line is highly vulnerable to an attack that will prevent you from experiencing a deeper intimacy with God. Evil will just use his strategy of distraction, keep you busy on your interests and divert your attention from focusing on God's interests, in the end making you a luke-warm believer or causing you to gradually drift completely away from the faith.

In the book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes how Satan can allow you to experience victory over a temptation if doing so allows you to fall into a subtle but greater temptation or bondage. Busyness, the corporate world  does just that. You may not be involved in drunkenness or sexual promiscuity or a double life as you were before but it's even better for the devil, if you're now not serving God, if you're now not witnessing, if you're now never available for fellowship, if you now never have quiet time with God. Why? Because slowly your fellowship and closeness to God through these activities dwindles, and soon, he has you isolated, and weak to submit to him in any way of his choosing.

Isolation leaves you open, therefore parking the bus will demand the opposite and require you to be involved in community. God, made man a social being, it is not good for man to be alone was not just the context for a wife, but the need for a friend, the need for community, the need to do life with somebody,which is especially true for the Christian life. This life of faith requires community, accepting Christ as one's Lord and savior inculcates one into a body of other believers and it is imperative to stay in that body.

Parking the bus, means having a strong emphasis towards fellowship. Fellowship not just being about going to church but also being active in a small group of Christians whom you study God's word with and encourage one other in your walks of faith. The defensive line formed by a group of Christians against evil is much stronger than one put up against a solitary Christian. Therefore, seek fellowship, go to church regularly and enjoy the fellowship of other believers. Be in a small group and share burdens and encouragement, aside from God's word. Have an accountability partner, to whom you should share your progress with Christ and also your stumbling so that you can muster strength to pick yourself up and start again when you fall. Alone, you will just crumble into shame and self-condemnation and the devil will have a field day accusing you primarily by magnifying your deficiencies. Park the bus by being in community and he will have a hard time breaking you down.

Parking the bus is not an option, it's a necessity. Working out your faith with fear and trembling demands it. Scripture's guide to parking the bus comes in the form of Ephesians 6:13-18 which gives us our weaponry to park the bus and stand our ground when evil comes knocking. Starting from the top is the helmet of salvation.

Evil will try to attack your head or mind, and accuse you the moment you slip back to that dreaded old habit, the moment you fall into temptation, he will be filling your mind with doubt, accusing your status as God's child. The helmet of salvation is your defense, salvation is putting your faith and trust in Jesus as the only one capable of saving you from sin, forgiving you for it, reconciling you to God as a result. A genuine confession and acceptance of this from the heart, declared by mouth and action through willful submission to the Lordship of Christ is your helmet and it is a robust foundation even if you fall from time to time. As the parable of the prodigal son exemplified, distancing yourself from God by indulging in sin doesn't change your status as his child, it doesn't take away your salvation as evil tries to convince you it has. Therefore, park the bus with the helmet of salvation and be confident in God completing the work he started in you regardless of the Devil saying otherwise.

The crux of our spirituality is our hearts, and so they need a lot of protection. Think of the heart as a computer, a reservoir of data. Think of media, books, people like friends, family being flash disks. It''s hard to think of someone as a flash disk but kindly, work with me here!!! Sometimes flash disks have viruses, sometimes books, media, people carry with them virus-like philosophies, themes, convictions, like bitterness, hatred, profanity, and the like, once they plug in into your heart, in with the bad stuff making your heart corrupt, bitter, perverse.  A corrupt, bitter,  perverse, unforgiving heart will spew out corruption, hatred, vengeance, bitterness and perversion in thoughts and actions. The breastplate of righteousness parks the bus by choosing to do right regularly and  doing right with the help of the Holy Spirit. This may mean limiting contact or access with some people, TV programs, songs e.tc. It may also mean just doing righteous acts- offering help to someone, refusing a kick-back, or a one-night stand, giving to the poor, volunteering at a children's home. Since an action is immanent, meaning as much as you do it externally, it kind of stays with you, and remains internally as a memory. That memory of the action of good, of right is stored withing your heart, the more righteous things you do and choose, the more it is in your heart, the less space for evil and it also enhances your capacity to chose to do righteousness even amidst heavy opposition in the future.

The belt of truth, God's word, God's promises, give you the stability to stand firm amidst shaking principles, relativism and fluctuating emotions, or feelings, especially fluctuating feelings. Our feelings  sometimes get the better of us, and out of hurt, anger, jealousy, envy, lust, we end up doing things we later regret. When we park the bus basing our confidence on truth, we are able to demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself against the knowledge of God(2 Corinthians 10:5) We are able to prevent evil from swaying us with lies, because of the truth of God's assurances to us.

The shield of faith is our defense against his lies, and works with the belt of truth. An unwavering belief that God is able to do what he promised, a belief in the things he has promised for you, like a job opportunity, a spouse,a house will prevent you from falling to the evil arrows of lies thrown by the evil one, telling you that the only to get these blessings is by compromise.

The sword of the spirit, may be used for attack, but it is also handy in defending when fending off thrusts from the evil. God's word is strong, living and active, (Hebrews 4:12) coming to life at the exact moment you're in need of it when facing doubt and is useful for every good work(2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is the sure and trusted weapon of defense so read, it, meditate on it, memorize it and the devil will just keep firing blanks because of the impenetrable wall of defense based on God's word.

At the bottom, we have feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. What better defense from being consumed by this world than by being eager and rushing to share this gospel of peace. One rushing to advance God's kingdom and usher in eternity will be able to withstand the devil's desire to preoccupy his mind with just living for the here and now.

Last but definitely not least of all, occasions. pray. Pray thanking him for the good. Pray when you need help, Pray for wisdom, pray for courage, pray for healing, pray for self-control.Pray when you're sick. pray when you're healed. Pray for a friends salvation. Pray for more people to know Christ. Pray for God's grace and mercy to bounce off you to others when you're struggling to love them as Christ loved you. Pray even when the cancer doesn't get healed. Pray even when the previous prayers aren't been answered to your liking. Pray for someone who hasn't forgiven you. Pray for those who ill-treat you  Prayer is not just praying to get things, it is pouring your heart to God and when you speak to him, he speaks back, not always as you would like but he speaks back all the same, and that's important, because you need his word and you also need his peace which besides transcending understanding, makes it incredibly difficult for evil to shake your confidence in |God.

Barcelona. complained of anti-football tactics, pundits say Mourinho ruins the game as a spectacle with these negative football.the bottom line is that Inter won on aggregate, the bottom line is that we win our fight against the devil and the other principalities  even if it means parking the bus at times and in doing it and looking boring to the outside world because our treasure is our faith, and it must be guarded at all costs from the thief.

CAT-ECHISM

Photo Credit: www.esarcasm.com

Experience has always been known to be a good teacher, nature, in my opinion, makes a worthwhile substitute. Ants teach us hard work, dogs teach us about loyalty, eagles teach us about the painful yet necessary cost of renewal, then there's my dear cat, Mystique. Mystique has been an integral part of the Minishi household since as far as I can remember, which is 2003. That would make her around 13 years old at the very least, she is a teenager, perhaps this could explain why these days she just starts howling spontaneously craving for attention.

Mystique was not named after the shape-shifting X-men character, if she did possess shape-shifting powers, me and brother would be in serious trouble. I shudder to think what retribution she would serve us for the way, shall we say, 'mishandled' her in the past. She is Mystique, because she is a mysterious cat whose whereabouts before the Minishi household shall forever be shrouded in mystery. Mysterious she may be, but in all those years she has been with us, I have drawn some vital lessons from my life with Jesus just by observing the life of our 4-legged family member.

As scarcely believable as it sounds, it's true. Matter of fact, here are 5 lessons my cat has taught me about my walk with God;


1. Food is a big deal

Our beloved cat is very particular when it comes to food. She likes Whiskas or Go Cat cereal in meat flavors like rabbit, beef, veal, chicken. She likes cat jelly like FELIX- Purina as well. In spite of the pack or can containing chunks of cat food with the jelly, she opts to slurp up the jelly and leave us with chunks of jelly because she is a kind-hearted soul who loves to share her food.

She loves lungs, yes you heard me lungs,  they are her favorite and mean that  I have to go to Kawangware every once in a while to buy them for her from the Butchers who sell matumbo. Try feed her cereal with a vegetable flavor or fish flavor, omena, ugali, chapati, bread and she will give you that cold icy stare of  "seriously, seriously, chapati, seriously, smh." Before, she  sashays  away thinking how her human masters just wasted 10 seconds of her precious cat life.

When she does get her food, she is not the kind to chomp it down in a minute, unless it's lungs or she's ravenously hungry; she normally eats in installments.

Mystique taught me that my spiritual food is a big deal. I should dig in with relish the same way she does, not just the 1 spiritual, happy meal of Sunday, but in installments, day by day, a chapter of scripture in addition to my Daily Bread devotional.

I'm also allowed to be choosy. I'm not compelled to consume whatever the media or contemporary culture feeds me in terms of fads. I must chose my music, movies, television viewing, philosophies, not everything I see is palatable for my spirit. Brazenly, I slurp the soup in music or movies I consider not bad which are mostly animation flicks and then leave out chunks which everyone sees as the main meal like Game of Thrones for example.


2. The door will be opened

Our cat will sit close to a door intently fixing her gaze on the door knob. This is not to say our cat wields extra-ordinary tele-kinetic powers but she trusts that the door will be opened for her. She has an unwavering conviction that simpleton Ken will notice her desperate telepathic pleas for the door to be opened and I will very much oblige.

At times she may let out a cry or a whimper, but rarely. she has taught me that I have to possess a similar, unwavering trust in God to open doors. I need to be still and in due time, he will open the door of a job, open the door of a healing, open the door of a relationship amongst other doors.



3. Some people will think you've lost it

Mystique has the curious habit of 'being in the moment' at times. Unfortunately for us, there is no preview to this state of being, it just happens.

During this period, our cat loses all sense of dignified calmness and scampers across the room like a lunatic.

Her dilated pupils, coupled with the intense look in her eyes paint the picture of a deranged cat. She looks left, dashes to the corner. Takes a breather, scurries off to the opposite side of the room, as the sound of her claws scratching across the wooden floor punctuate the air. Sometimes she tries to catch her tail, attempting in vain to bite it. One would be forgiven for thinking that our cat has lost the plot. Sometimes I think it to be the case, but for the most part, I realize Mystique is just being Mystique and she's not crazy regardless of what people think.

People might think me a fool/lunatic for believing in a God I can't see. People may find me weird or crazy for opting not to compromise on my integrity because I'm trying to practice what Jesus said and did. People may see me as insane for choosing not to follow the crowd. I know who I am, I'm not crazy, my identity is in Christ, not in my looks,  possessions or a job. I'm not insane, it's just that my love for Jesus makes me do things which appear insane to an unbelieving world and I get it. I will just keep on, no matter what people think, I'll be in the moment.


4. Cool, calm and collected

Mystique is generally calm under pressure. Well, that's if pressure isn't a another cat(no matter the size) entering her territory or the sound of a water tank pumping water, or when she is hungry, on those occasions she is definitely not calm. Usually, she just has the knack of taking things casually, purring heavily, as she curls herself up on her bed.

The electricity bill is not paid, our water tank is running on empty, the gas is about to finish. Mystique won't care one bit. You will find her just frolicking in the sun or lazing in bed the whole day. She will make you wonder whether having a conscience and the ability to think rationally is way overrated. Looking at her sleep the whole day can have you wishing God made you a cat.

This penchant for staying cool, calm and collected isn't just the preserve of our cat. As a Christian, possessing God's holy Spirit, and committing things to him in prayer, a far greater peace is within my grasp. Colossians 3;15 cites that as members of one body we were called to peace. Christ give us peace that transcends human understanding when we pray to him, focusing not to be anxious about anything, but offering our requests and petitions to him, with thanksgiving.

It's a peace that gives problems a cold shoulder. A peace that doesn't have us running scared or panicky when a job doesn't seem in sight, marriage and life with children looks a far way off or financial stability is just but a distant dream and just getting by is the norm. It's a peace so strong that it is comfortable not placing security in money, a career, a prized possession but is comfortable because of placing one's trust in Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.(Hebrews 12:2)

"Be still and know that I am God."(Psalms 46:10) You can argue that it's easier said than done, but when the storms of life rage around us, and you know Jesus is in the business of calming storms not necessarily removing them from your life, it's definitely possible to be cool, calm and collected.

5.  I am prone to forget

Ripley's believe it not, take a bow, Mystique has just served us something special.

The setting was the kitchen. Ivan the terrible(I will bestow on the mouse/rat a name befitting for the misery it caused us) was finally reeling from the effects of consuming the rat-poison tablets. Ivan lay still on the floor, in almost plain sight, the poison had ravaged his body so he couldn't escape at will like he did so many times in the past. He was breathing heavily, gasping for air, counting down the days or hours to his demise.

As he lay helpless on the floor, rather curiously, the disdain I had for the pest disappeared. In it's place was pity, pity that Ivan had to depart from this world in such an undignified manner. Feeling woiyee for the rat, and not having the guts to put him out of his misery, I did what only any sane human being would do; I summoned Mystique, the undertaker, to carry out the execution.

Since I have never been a fan of horror flicks, I was naturally apprehensive about the blood spilling that was sure to follow. I tried to contemplate what would be Mystique's method of choice, would it be strangulation? Would she slowly torture Ivan  to death or would she give him one of those fatal feline jabs like those ones Simba gave Scar(Scar, that's what you get for killing Mufasa). As our cat sauntered into the kitchen after I coaxed it out of it's sleep, you could feel the tension, the room was on a knife's edge as I looked on waiting for it all to unravel.

Then Mystique did the unthinkable. After I directed her to Ivan( she didn't even pick up his scent, smh), she took one glance at the rat, a sniff at him, and then casually walked out of the kitchen to bask in the sun to my utter bemusement.

Dear friends, was Tom and Jerry a sham? Were we so gullible as kids as to believe the lies we were fed by Cartoon Network? Seriously,  when did cats lose interest in rats or mice? Maybe Garfield is based on a true story? There has to be a reason for this!!! Maybe, just maybe, Mystique possesses a conscience so clear that killing  Ivan in the state he was in was sinking to the lowest of lows.  It seemed to her downright pathetic. Perhaps, she strongly believed in a code of honor, ascribing to it so passionately that violating that code for a cheap meal was nothing short of distasteful.

However,  my imagination is large, sometimes larger than life itself. In formulating these far-fetched explanations, I seem to be running away from the obvious truth. Mystique has lost her cat-ness. She has lost her identity as a cat, which is to hunt, stalk and kill vermin. She has forgotten her intrinsic predatory, feline instinct and has become a cultured cat, in dire need of refresher courses on how to be a cat. Although she may bare semblance of a cat; whiskers, paws, tails and all, she doesn't behave like one.

Mystique is not alone in this. Many times I forget my identity as a child of God, heir of God, co-heir with Christ.(Romans 8:17). I forget I have been forgiven of my sin of seeking to be independent from God or my occasional wrong-doing. Instead I opt to wallow in shame and regret over my sin of lust, stalking someone on social media, my lying. I beat myself up for my past mistakes,my failed relationships, my words of hurt to others not realizing my identity as a forgiven child of God for those many mistakes.

Like Mystique, I may look like a child of God, praying, reading God's word, having fellowship with other believers but I may  forget my Christ-ness. I may forget my Christ-ness which is firmly entrenched on the solid foundation of Christ's love, grace and mercy for me, which was made very apparent on the Cross, when he shed his blood for me, eager to reconcile me to his father.

He bridged the gap that my sinful nature and sin had created between me and God, which no amount of righteous living could ever hope to fill by offering himself as a mediator between me and God. I forget because of what Jesus did, God sees Christ in me, perfect and  sinless because with Jesus my sin is cancelled. He doesn't see me as the guy who just lusted at a lady, who has entertained bondage, domination masochism fantasies in his head, who has been pharisaical, cynical towards the growth in other believers' lives but he sees me as his child whom he still loves in spite of his mistakes, his sins and is making him into the likeness of his son day by day.

Like Mystique, I can become cultured. I can tend to focus on building my career, making investments, living just for the here and now and forget I have a God-given calling to love God, to live for him, to live with eternity in mind, to witness his grace, his love and share the gospel. I lose my Christ-ness when I focus on building my own kingdom rather than God's, sashaying away from reaching out to unbelievers, shying away from telling others about Jesus, opting to live the easy life of a job, marriage, kids and retirement.

Yet, despite all this, Jesus is still patient with me, Jesus still graciously gives me job opportunities, health and second chances galore to live for him and his will, to serve him and others by using my spiritual gifts and abilities. I need to get refresher courses of my identity, which the Holy Spirit does a splendid job of teaching. In applying John 14:26, He reminds me of what Jesus said to me through stirring sermons or talks, his word, songs, movies and rebukes from family and friends to get me back on track.

There are plenty of lessons to learn along the way when it comes to this walk of faith. I am thankful to God for showing me some of them through our cat. No-doubt he will show me plenty more through his word, through people, through life and circumstances. For now, like the  student I am, I will learn and hopefully apply these lessons to grow and succeed in my walk with him. Thanks Mystique, class dismissed since you can say the word yourself our dear cat.

A case of mistaken Identity

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For the umpteenth time I have been mistaken for a supermarket attendant manning an isle. It's no longer even funny. It's a disturbing trend that should stop. In my attempts to look dapper, but not too dapper lest I appear on Fashion Watch because I don't desire too much attention, my ensemble has mistakenly being viewed as 'supermarket uniform'. Why people see me in a sweater, shirt and tie, looking at a row of items and conclude that I work there is beyond me? Maybe I should drop the whole tie, shirt and sweater thing, and carry a trolley for good measure.

Away from my supermarket chronicles, with even more regularity, the Christian faith has been mistaken for something it's not, a religion, when it is in fact, a relationship with Christ. Christianity, not a religion you say? I know, I know....it sounds preposterous, but let me try my best to explain.

You see, like so many, I had that view of the Christian faith, as a religion. I didn't outright label it as a religion but it was evident in my outlook and my behavior. When I gave my life to Jesus as a teenager, my main reason for doing so was for fear of spending my eternity in hell.

I watched the play, "Heaven's gates, hell's flames, and I just didn't like the thought of spending eternity in an inferno with the Devil, so I got 'saved'. I honestly couldn't grasp the gravity of my decision at the time. I just feared hell, so I chose the better option( not Safaricom, but life with Jesus).

Before I reached a point of discovering Christianity as a relationship with Christ, I made the honest mistake of viewing it as a religion. I was a young believer. A kid. I thought that Christianity was about keeping a balanced score-card with God, so for every lie I told, I needed to drop a coin in a beggar's bowl, I needed to pray,  I needed to read the bible, I needed to faithfully give offering. My righteous acts were my security or down payment to God, in exchange for consolidating my place in Heaven.

Moreover, I viewed my righteous acts as the basis for feeling entitled to God's blessings of success, prosperity, finances, good health, a girl-friend. When I didn't get them, I whined and complained that God was unfair. When I did get them, I felt God owed me more.  My Christian faith was purely about going to church, seeing what right I could do to earn God's favor.

Then, gradually, as I grew in the faith, it all unraveled, rather dramatically I may add. When God purposes to make you his, he makes you his, but he does it in his way that just leaves you awestruck at the change he can produce in an individual, even yourself.

That's God's love. He loves us too much to leave us just as we are so as I continued to follow him, he continued to change me; my altitude, my thoughts, my mentality, my heart. I guess the first part was realizing how much he loved me.

It began with the sermons on love, that slowly become embedded in my mind. Thereafter was the visual illustration of that love, cue in, Passion of the Christ and the John 3:16/Train video which you can check out through this link click here

However God wasn't finished there. Then came the big one. The experience. While I was in campus, I got insanely attracted to a lady, let me clarify what insanely attracted to a lady..is. By insanely attracted, I mean when I saw her time seemed to stand still for a fraction of a second, when she smiled at me and said hi, right there and then, just that one moment made the whole day perfect.

For the longest time I struggled to understand why her? Sure she was pretty, light and voluptuous at that, smart, witty....but there were other ladies like her, so why her? Why did my heart go gaga for her? When recently I stumbled upon the story of Samson and his first wife in Judges 14, in particular verse 4, it hit me, perhaps God was scripting this love story with a greater purpose in mind and as you will see from this subsequent explanation, it's easy to see why.

I tried a poem, I tried chocolates, I tried surprising her with a bouquet of flowers on Valentines Day. I tried compliments,  showing her I care through texts, whether it was her birthday, or she was due to defend her project but to no avail. My attempts hit a brick wall, or as we would say when I was bush, ' Niligonga Ukuta!!'

Worse, that she would never call or text. It was frustrating. Being consigned to that zone, the friendz...., it hurts just writing about that forsaken place. I took solace in some Rock/Pop songs like Franz Ferdinand's- No You girls. Katy Perry's-Wide Awake, Bruno Mars and Cee lo Greene's-The Other side and the feeling's- love it when you call, which, dominated my playlist. With it, they gave me untold bitterness and resentment towards the lady in question.

All the while, God was still working behind the scenes. A convicting Sunday Sermon about getting rid of all malice and bitterness(Ephesians 4:31) had me deleting the above songs from my playlist. Perhaps this was to marinade my heart in preparation of the barbecue of God's scorching love which would follow soon after.

True to form, soon after,  I watched the movie, Fireproof and In main character Caleb, found someone I could relate to. Like him, I was trying to show my affection for a lady and like him my attempt to show my affection hit a brick wall. Like him, the lady in the question just so happens to also be called Catherine, coincidence? I think not!

One day, upon having my Quiet Time in the morning, I realized what Caleb went through in the scene as he talks to his father was the story of my life, click here to view the Fireproof scene.

I realized that God relentlessly pursued me in love in spite of me rejecting him, ignoring him and taking him for granted. Like Caleb, that realization brought my knees, because it became crystal clear that God loves me a lot and I could only respond in tears, saying 'Thank you' amidst the sobs.

From that point on, My faith became a response to that love. Jesus gave his life for me, I give mine back to him in return. Sharing Notes on Facebook about God was my thanks to him. Giving that tithe, whether it was 10 from 100, 20 from 200, 350 from sh 3500 was out of love just showing my appreciation for all he had done for me. What does a God loving a man and a man doing things to love in him return spell? R-E-L-A-T-I-O-N-S-H-I-P, that's what.

A mother does not wake up at 2 am in the morning, to tend to her baby because it is stipulated. " that when baby cries, thou must cease all things sleep and take care of baby." Neither is it stipulated in the book of matrimony, "thou husband will make breakfast and serve breakfast to bae when she is in bed." Both instances aren't obligations, both mother and husband do such loving acts because they are in a relationship and wouldn't have it any other way.

The mistaken belief is that  the Christian faith is just about religiously sticking to a list of do's and dont's lest your place in heaven goes to the dogs. Sometimes Christians themselves can ascribe to this belief, and their life with Christ is just one of going through the motions, just serving God in the choir, or as an usher, because it's what church expects them to do. Sometimes attending church is just an obligation for some, it resembles more of an appointment with the Dentist, act all nice and promise to follow his advice to keep off sweets, then upon leaving his clinic, sugar rush pap. The Christian goes to Church on Sunday, sings the songs to appear religious, promises to repent then scurries off after the service to do the exact opposite of repent till the next Sunday appointment.

The Christian faith is not about what doing what the Church says, nor doing what the Pastor says,nor is it about doing things so that other people see that you're spiritual;  it's about responding in love to a loving God dying on the cross as an atonement for your sin to reconcile you to God.

People do all manner of things in the name of love, or being in a relationship. The Christian faith isn't any different. As relationships are based largely on honor and  trust, so is a Christian's relationship with Christ, which will reflect how he/she responds to God's love.

Fat pay-check, fame, success, yet he leaves it all behind because he feels called to help the less fortunate in Africa and be a living vessel reflecting God's love for the downtrodden, who honors God by caring for the plight of the less fortunate. That's a Christian responding to God's love not the church.

Or perhaps take a Christian, who decides not to bet, because his relationship with Christ, based on trust, has him trusting that God will provide money for him in other ways than gambling.

Maybe, it's a Christian who chose not to sleep with every Tom, Dick and Harry, striving to honor God with her body  as her way of saying thank you  to Christ dying for her. She trusts him to wait and while feeling the need to work on herself in preparation for when God gives her a man, because the relationship she has with Christ has proven time over that God is faithful.

I can list a host of responses in love, like me typing this long blog-post because I just want Jesus to be known. No need for that though, because ultimately , the bottom line will be that, for the christian's faith and subsequent behaviour , a relationship with Christ is the motivating factor. The focus is a love relationship between God and the Christian.

 As I said earlier, people do all manner of things in the name of love, or being in a relationship, Christians are no exception and that is Christianity for you, not religion, but men and women who realize God loves them and respond to that love as a result of their relationship with God.

I Love You too

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"I love YouTube." Quite frankly, It's hard to find anyone who doesn't but many people wouldn't mind uttering these words for entirely different reasons. Were one to say, "I love YouTube", really fast, it would sound as if he/she said, " I love you too." I can't say I have flirted with the idea of using that line, but the YouTube reply would be convenient for somebody not too keen on commitment and comfortable being in the relationship just for the benefits.

I wouldn't be crazy enough to pull this stunt on a lady but on introspection,  I did something far worse..... I pulled this stunt on God and not even the thought of being just one of many to do it, offers scant consolation.

God said, "I love you" to us, when he gave his one and only son, Jesus.

The first man, Adam, sinned, leaving a trail of sin, brokenness and fallibility in his wake. It has been a trail we have inevitably followed for years. Judges, Kings, Prophets, Priests could only do so much before eventually man wandered away from God's commands. Man gravitated to sin, the very thing that was displeasing to God.

Despite casting Adam away from the Garden, God still longed to relate with man. He always has. God still pursued man even when man was pursuing what God detested. Sin had created a gap between man and God. It is said that love makes a way, indifference an excuse. Rather, than giving up on us, and citing our sin and our total disregard for him and his holiness, which would have been a valid excuse; God out of love, made a way to bridge that gap.


Enter Jesus Christ, the living atoning sacrifice for the world,(1 John 2:2) who gave himself as a ransom for all men, mediating between God and men to this very day. (1 Timothy 2:5-6) What we lacked in holiness, Jesus compensated for in grace. He died the death that we were to die, so that we may live the life that was always beyond us because of our sin. His sacrifice paid the full penalty of our sins so we owed God nothing.

He was insulted, rejected, battered beyond recognition, nailed to a cross so that in dying on that cross and resurrecting from the dead, we would be reconciled to God, so long as we believed and accepted that we couldn't save ourselves but that only Jesus could. He didn't need to go through all that hardship but he chose to, and in going through it, declared to us unequivocally, "I love you!!!"

That was a massive statement of love, that demands a massive, "I love you too God." Love is one of the hardest things to define, let alone illustrate, more so to God. Thankfully scripture spares us the headache of figuring it all out by ourselves in John 14:21 by saying, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father and I too will love him and show myself to him."

Thus, to  love God is to obey God, it sound's simple enough but it isn't. Well, humans,have never been  big on obedience, as Adam and Eve so wonderfully demonstrated . It's made the more difficult when the picture you have of obedience is that of God as a tyrant like Loki in Avengers, perched on his throne,wielding a large scepter, demanding that we kneel or fall prostrate before him in complete reverence. We think he delights in nothing more than taking away our freedom, consigning us to a life of  utter boredom and slavery. We think of obedience as merely following a litany of do's and dont's, but it really isn't.

Loving God is more than that and it isn't always the same for everybody. God speaks to us not just as a  body of believers but individuals as well, giving us commands for the whole body to follow, but also giving commands to be carried out by a specific individual.

To the body of Christ, he commands us to do many things. Psalms is littered with the command to praise him and worship him in song, therefore we love him by singing to him and declaring our love and adoration for him in song. However, worship is more than just a song, it is a lifestyle of showing reverence to God, and this can be achieved in many ways.

We love him, by  learning to do right, by seeking justice,by encouraging the oppressed, defending the cause of the fatherless and pleading the case of the widow. (Isaiah 1:17)

We love him by acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with God. (Micah 6:8) We love him by seeking him while he may be found, calling on him when he is near.(Isaiah 55:6)  We love him by not only reading but meditating on his word, day and night(Joshua 1:7-8) and also praying(Philippians 4:6-7), and by committing not to give up meeting each other in fellowship but to encourage one another, spurring one another on towards love and good deeds(Hebrews 10:24-25)

We love him by giving him honor, honoring him with our money, by spending it not only on ourselves but the less fortunate as well, by cheerfully giving our tithe not robbing him. (Malachi 3:8, 2 Corinthians 9:7-12). By not loving money and viewing the acquisition of it as an end, instead viewing it as a means with which to serve God(Matthew 6:24)


We love him by honoring him with our body, by being mindful of how we dress and dance, by not giving in to bodily urges of sex or sexual perversions like lust, masturbation, bondage domination masochism as a result of remembering that our bodies are not our own, that we can do anything we want with them, they are temples for Christ(1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

We love him, by trusting him with all our heart, not leaning on our own understanding and acknowledging him in all our ways and he will make our paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6). Trusting him even when the situation looks bleak and opting not to take the easy way out of compromising on our integrity by bribing, cheating, gambling, canvassing, having sex for a good grade or promotion, a kickback for a service but by trusting God to make a way even where there seems to be none. We love him by seeking first his kingdom and righteousness, and trusting God will provide for our needs instead of worrying about tomorrow, when each day has enough trouble on its own.(Matthew 6:33-34)


We love him by choosing not to be friends of this world (James 4;4), by not conforming to it and its ways of doing things but being transformed by the renewal of our minds(Romans 12:1-2). We love him by not being of the world and yet not isolating ourselves from it but being in it to influence it for Christ(John 17:14-15)

We love him by not being drunk on wine,(Ephesians 5:18) and being intentional about not causing our brother/sister to stumble by drinking, eating or anything that might encourage them to sin but opting to do that which leads to mutual edification (Romans 14:1-21, 1 Corinthians 8:9-12)

We love him by using the talents, abilities, spiritual gifts he gave us not primarily for our glory but for his glory by serving others in church, by seeking to be used by him  whether he calls us to the corporate world, entrepreneurship or  the mission field.(Matthew 25:14-30, 1 Corinthians 12:7, 1 Corinthians 14:12)

We love him, by loving other members of the body of Christ, loving them just the way he loved us,(John 13:34) bearing with one another in love and forgiving the grievances we may have against one another, as Christ forgave us (Colossians 3:13-16) and thus fulfilling his very important prayer request that we may be one.(John 17;20-23)

Most important, we love him by accepting his free gift of salvation and then considering everything as of little importance than knowing God and becoming like him,(Philippians 3:7-11) which makes us tell others about him, his love for us, and striving to help people become like him, following his commands and thus make disciples for it's what he commanded us to do.(Matthew 28:18-20)

Arms outstretched on a cross, giving his life for us,Jesus was essentially telling us, "I love you this much that I will die for you." The very least we can do is love him back through obedience, both general and individual. Love him with all your heart, your mind and your unique being as only you can. Ditch, the I love YouTube in favor of, "I love you too."

The struggle is real

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Pogback. Utd have finally landed their man, or re-landed as some would rightly argue, given the French midfielder is returning to the very same club that sold him in the first place. His transfer fee is off course, ridiculously high, an indication that the beautiful game has become ugly when it comes to money; not that United will care one bit.

A few weeks prior to his signature, United made it plainly evident why they needed to make his signing priority numero uno. For all the talk of Mourinho, coming with new signings, tactics, what have you; it was old problems that resurfaced against Borussia Dortmund in pre-season. United were run rugged by a sharper, quicker Dortmund side that laid bare their shortcomings in the middle of the park,  and were deservingly handed a 4-1 pasting. It was a chastening experience for Mourinho's charges, which served to highlight that they were far from the finished article, in spite of Jose's arrival.

Far from the finished article, is a term a lot of sons and daughters of God can relate with. They are a work in progress whom Jesus will complete as per his timing. He doesn't complete it in an instant. Upon receiving Jesus Christ as savior, one's struggles with sin do not automatically do a disappearing act.

Indeed God gives us a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), with a desire not to sin but to walk in God's ways. He also gives us a helper, the Holy Spirit, who also emboldens us not to sin(John 15:26). However, sin's presence still hovers around us, stalking us, crouching at our door like the way it did Cain, waiting for the  slightest drop of our guard, to devour us at the opportune moment and boy oh boy, do we drop our guard.

We often fall short of his glory or holiness. Too many times to even count.This means that, as much as our noble goal, is to become like Christ, we still have our flaws that our loving savior has to chip away till he crafts the final masterpiece of his image. That we are still flawed or struggling with certain sins does not make Jesus a quack of a doctor neither does it make our salvation a sham. Rather, it just serves to illustrate the gradual process that is salvation, as opposed to the one-off event many see it as.

Our healing, molding into God's character from our diseased sinful self requires time, patience and effort it isn't a one-time thing that happens overnight.

Therefore, the struggle against sin is real. One that will be your faithful bae till death. The cast may change in that your struggles will be vary over the years but it will be the same script of struggling to overcome sin till the grave. Therefore, keeping it under wraps for fear of being labelled a back-sliding Christian is in my view, out of place. It only eats you up inside and stifles you from experiencing the true freedom that God has given you with Christ.  God's grace and mercy was not just to forgive us and to reconcile us with God. God's grace was for those moments, and they will be many of them; when we slip back to sinful habits and need his grace to remind us and reaffirm us of our identity in him in spite of the slip. Our identity is that we are sons and daughters of God, co-heirs with Christ, sin doesn't change that one-bit.

Someone who has believed and accepted that Jesus died for his/her sin and has saved him from eternal death is a child of God. He is a son/daughter even if he struggles with substance abuse be it alcohol, cocaine, weed. He is a son even if he struggles with porn, sex addiction, masturbation, same-sex sins. She is a daughter even if she struggles with leaving the club life. She is a daughter even if she is struggling to let go of her sponsor.

Sin's constant influence or our sinful tendencies mean as children we are susceptible to get sick, that's why we need constant grace not  the 'one-time, we got this' grace. As has been said, the Church, the body of Christ(not the building) is not a club for saints, it is a HOSPITAL for SINNERS and guess what, everyone is sick.

 It is a hospital, because we are sick, and if we claim that we are not, that we are without sin, then we are lying and living in denial. (1 John 1:8) Church is a hospital, where we acknowledge we are sick and seek God to heal us through his word, through fellowship with other believers who encourage or rebuke us when they have to and  through prayer by candidly telling him about our iniquities.

There is no shame in going to hospital because you are sick, that's what sick people do. Duh!!! "I'm sick, I can't let them see, what will they think of me?!!." Seriously. Seriously.That's as counter-productive as it gets. Hiding your infirmities won't make them go away only seeking treatment will. You're sick, go to the hospital to get well and the first starting point is to admit you are sick.

 It maybe customary to hide one's struggles but it shouldn't be. Confess it. Confess your struggle or sin to an accountability partner, someone whom you trust. Confess it to an accountability group or a small group or a bible study. Will it make you any less of a child of God? No it wont. I'll tell you what it will do, it will make the guilt, the burden, the shame  go away. It will clear your conscience, give you peace of mind. enable you to experience closer fellowship with God and give you the confidence to approach his throne of grace. The heavy load on your shoulders will be no more and with that give you the chance to start over again rather than live your life of faith with a perennial noose hanging over your neck.

Life with Christ is confessing and repenting, not struggling and hiding.  Confess and Repent, is the broken record whose cover you can do even Jimmy Gait, because of your sinful inclinations that will get the better of you once in a while.

Sin is a part of who you are but  isn't it refreshing that God still loves you and me at our worst. That iniquity/struggle we have is not news to him, Our sin doesn't cause him to reel from his lofty throne and fall backwards in total shock over our shortcomings . Our loving father is well aware of our shortcomings and longs to help us overcome them if we let him, if we confess them to him in prayer and confess them in private to a fellow christian or even confess them in public.

I know it's human nature to resist disclosing one's flaws because we want to present the best/ most beautiful picture of ourselves. Ladies go all out on foundation, concealer to hide those flaws to feel beautiful. Funny how God makes us beautiful not by hiding but by revealing our flaws. Zacchaeus knew it, the Samaritan lady and Paul knew it, When we show our flaws we reveal our broken human nature but in doing so allow God to reveal his abundant grace which embellishes us by showing the world that we are not defined by our flaws but defined by our relationship with him.

Our identity in Christ plus those flaws shows the full extent of God's grace to a world who struggle to understand this divine grace of God. They get it, when they see the imperfect in us and God still loving us and are emboldened to pursue Christ, because believe it or not, who wouldn't want to be loved and accepted and affirmed in spite of the skeletons in their closet.

Therefore, child of God don't living in silent suffering, speak it out, lay it bare. God knows your struggle, It was not for the well, he came for, but the sick, there is no shame in confessing you are, neither is it sinful to struggle. The struggle is very real, and Jesus, his spirit, will in no way distance himself from you because of revealing it but will stand by your side, till that day of glorification when the struggle will be no more.

It's not as hopeless as it looks

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Unless you've been living under a rock, it is inconceivable that sporting events in Brazil have passed you by unnoticed. Whether it's Bolt bolting to victory in the 100m, Phelps adding to his record medal tally, Rudisha proving that he is King David in the 800m and Jemima Sumgong finally claiming a a medal for Kenya in the Ladies marathon, Rio has been at the center of it all.

The Olympics or sports as we know it, in my view, give us a well-needed break from the circus of the political scene, harrowing tales of domestic violence, school fires left, right and center and the endless drama that grips our country. As a people, we have naturally and assiduously grown cynical, resigning ourselves to the conclusion, that ours is a corruption-rampant country whose leaders will never do anything to break us free from the cycle of theft ; if anything, they will only propagate it further.

The Olympics paints a rather different picture from the one we have been accustomed to as Kenyans. This global showpiece of sports reminds us how life ought to be. It brings into sharp focus merit-based achievement, exemplifying that hard work in the gym or on the field training, actually translates to success not the buy/cheat your way to success model that has been accepted as the norm today. It also showcases the aspect of chance, as time and time again, athletes who aren't even given a prayer in the heats end up amongst those on the podium receiving a medal.

King Solomon, makes a very wise observation in Ecclesiastes 9:11 when he says, " I have seen something else under the sun. The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all."

Solomon's observation is not the preserve of the Olympics, it is of life. A thought that often escapes me when I read this verse; time and chance happen alright but I forget that there is one who is master over time and chance, that is God.

Jesus is often referred to as LORD of LORDS, not just a title that you use in prayer to sound religious but because he actually is the LORD of LORDS.  Colossians 1, speaks in detail of his sovereignty, verses 15 to 19 read," He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him."

John's description of Jesus in Revelations 1, only serves to illustrate the supremacy of Jesus even more. A similarity in Revelations and Colossians is that Jesus is the beginning, the first or the firstborn. In John 1, this is again highlighted, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Notice that in the beginning, God was already there!!! Jesus was there, before time even began, so how then can he be limited by time when he is the creator of time? I believe time and chance is subject to him.

That gives me the world of encouragement as a child of God. I have experienced God to be gracious and he has given me way more than I deserve. In Economics, ceteris paribus is a term denoting all factors remaining constant, isn't it stupefying that all things are never constant, and that we are loved by the very one who can either ensure all factors are constant, or at the very least, one or two factors change.

It's quite common seeing people doing life with a sense of non-entitlement, with a perennial frustration that it's all hopeless. You can assume a defeatist mentality; ruling yourself out before the competition even begins, an inclination to shrug your shoulders with indifference, wave the white flag and capitulate without as much as an effort.

The gracious LORD Jesus, who is LORD over time and chance, time and time again, tilted the scales and altered chance for his will to be done. Were it not so, David , the last born shepherd would not have become king. Moses, the kid who was placed in the river would not have been 'found' by Pharaoh's daughter. The Moabite lady, Ruth, would not have found Boaz, single and searching and would instead, be just one of the many thinking, "All the good ones are taken."

The Ninevites would not have been forgiven and saved, nor Rahab the prostitute, nor Zachaeus the reviled tax collector. The LORD of time and chance just happens to be the LORD of grace, the LORD of love, who forgives and gives us a hatful of second chances we scarcely deserve so long as it falls in line with his plan to reflect his glory.

No chance of nailing that job, no chance of moving out, no chance of hooking up to that guy or lady you dream of daily, the LORD of time and chance may have something different to say about that.

The Olympic games has shown that things don't always go to script, so has God. The script was that sin had condemned us to death but Jesus changed that script. He died in our place as an atonement for our sins, then resurrected  so as to reconcile us to God and save us from eternal damnation, to take away our shame and our guilt. Before that and thereafter, the LORD of time and chance has been changing the script at will, for his will to those keen on doing his will.  Therefore, run the race, knowing you don't always have to be swift to win it or have all the aces in your pack to win, time and chance can happen to you because you serve Jesus, who is LORD over time and chance, able to tilt the odds in your favor if he means to.