Unlike most African kids that are christians by default mine was by choice, I have willingly gone to church throughout my life without being told by anyone. I know I can take or leave Christianity without having relatives camp at church or have all nighters with the reverend about me on that matter but I continue anyway. I’m not trying to convert anyone nor try and convince anyone on how good Christianity is but there are a couple of things I have come to learn through my walk in life and especially with my trying to discover myself. I went on the walk trying to find myself and instead I found God.
There have been numerous studies on people who believe in a higher being living longer etc and I could refer to those but I bet someone will also find a study that proves the complete opposite; that’s modern day science. Instead I’ll use my own experience to try and explain what I want to explain.
A while back there was a mad craze about The Secret, it took me a while to finally watch the film; like it always does when everyone is talking about something (if everyone is talking about it, I usually skip it. Can you imagine I’ve not yet watched Slumdog Millionaire and not because I don’t have it, been carrying it around in my external hard disk for the past 5yrs). For those that watched The Secret, you know it talks about energy flowing from nature and when you want something really bad, you have to claim it and start radiating that energy back to nature so as to achieve whatever it is you want. If you’ve read the bible you’d know that Jesus taught his disciples to believe in God and have faith in God, following in the teachings of the bible through their days and whenever they would Ask they would receive, if they knocked the door shall be opened unto them and if they seek they shall find.
Unlike The Secret where it’s just you and nature without any stipulations on how you live; Jesus’ teachings included teaching people to live in harmony with one another and follow in the teachings of the bible. But with that aside, I’d like to focus on the energy, faith, nature, actions and getting what you want.
I believe faith without action is dead and also that the energy you emit to nature isn’t necessarily going to get you what you want not unless you work towards it. God helps those who help themselves (always thought this verse was in the bible…lol). You have to believe in something, whether it’s God, Nature, or Energy request for what you want and work towards that.
I’m a hopeless optimistic always believing that the best is yet to come. Romans 8:28 “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” .
All’s well that ends well; and if didn’t end well then that isn’t its end. You have to keep your eyes on your goal without letting stuff distract you from that goal, make short term and long term goals that will help you achieve that final one. Everytime you achieve something you were working hard for, celebrate. Whatever that means to you, celebrate you every single day of your life and salute yourself because sometimes people will never discover what you have gone through nor what you have achieved. Others will underestimate your achievement because they can do better, but we all have stuff we struggle with that won’t necessarily be easy to conquer. Know that (Romans 8:37) you are more than a conqueror through Christ who loved you before you even knew Him. I saw a Khanga written “Jipe Moyo, Utashinda” (Take heart, you’ll conquer).
I don’t mean to preach, I’m not a preacher either. But I write this especially for all those here in Germany who come to crossroads and think that’s their end. (2 Kings 20:5) The Lord has heard your prayers and seen your tears, He’ll heal you. There’s a story before glory and a night before light. You’ll never appreciate peace until you’ve had war, nor laughter until you have tears. You might not be where you want to be but you’re definitely not where you used to be.
The students that have exams that literally “sit” on you till you feel like you’ll go mad. Take heart. Celebrate the far you have come, remember when you got here and could only say Guten Morgen? But now you can carry a conversation confidently and even read letters from the Behörde without a translator to help, why don’t you toast to that? Remember you were in first semester the other day, now you’re in your 5th with just 10exams left and still sane. Remember the days you were in Kenya hustling? Now you can afford to go to Mombasa and chillax. I know you might have wished to achieve more within that time, but you’ve already achieved something celebrate that and work towards the next vision. Keep moving, get going. Even on your knees try and move, you don’t have to stand but keep moving.
Look on the bright side of life, and don’t try to compare yourself to others cause you don’t know how they got to where they are nor do you know what they had to give up to get what they have. Sometimes we all try and do what everyone is doing coz it seems cool forgeting that our destinies are different. We all think when you fall you should get up, but do you know sometimes you fall so that you can see your problem at a different angle? Sometimes you fall so as to avoid colliding with something that was aimed directly at your head. Look at your situation and try to solve it with wisdom.
(This post is sooo long)