STROLLERS

Whenever one moves from a familiar terrain to a new one, he/she is bound to experience culture shock. Some people try to prepare for the new environment beforehand by reading books and gathering information about the place on the internet, watching some movies or even acquiring a new accent or learning a new language entirely. From my experience, you’ll never be fully prepared. Hence the difference(s) between your old and new locations leads to a culture shock. One of such I experienced is parents pushing their babies and little children around in strollers. Don’t get me wrong it’s not as if I had never seen kids been pushed around in strollers before but this is quite different from what I was previously used to. Here and there you see mothers, fathers, grandpas, uncles etc. pushing the strollers about. I mean in shops, town/city centres, on the bus etc. You find strollers that take two children. The other day at Primark, I even saw a stroller with three compartments! It had three lovely babies in them. What amazes me the most is that these children are always at peace, no matter is happening around them. It’s a common sight to see a child fast asleep in her stroller in a noisy town square. They ever seem to be in a world of their own oblivious to the chaos around them. For me, this is the picture of peace we’re supposed to always experience as God’s children. For most people, peace is the absence of war but for the Child of God, it is the calmness we experience at all times not because everything is going the way we planned but because we have a Father who’s never out of control. Dear friend, I don’t know the turmoil you’re going through but remember that as a Child of God you’re able to face the storm because God is pushing your stroller and He’ll never put you in harm’s way. He cares for you too much to do that. Peradventure, you haven’t given your life to Him, there’s no better time than now to do that. He loves you more than you’ll ever know. Why don’t you hand over your life to Him and let Him push your stroller? “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don’t forget to thank Him for His answers. If you do this you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:6&7, The Living Bible

MEASURING LIFE PERFORMANCE

A life without direction is a disaster going somewhere to happen. It’s like a ship without a rudder or a car in motion whose steering wheel just got damaged. God created every man, woman, boy and girl with a particular purpose in His mind for each of them. He placed dreams linked with those purposes in their hearts which supposed to define their direction. Those dreams can only be clarified by coming into an intimate relationship with the author of life Himself, Jesus Christ. As we trudge down life’s road we come face to face with issues that tend to distract us or totally remove us from the road leading to fulfilment of God’s purpose for our lives. Many times these are subtle and gradual – such that one doesn’t even know that he/she has veered off. In other cases pressures of life snuff out the passion to pursue God’s purpose for one’s life. Eventually only very few are able to pursue and fulfil God’s purpose. How then can an individual know where he/she stands with regards to fulfilling God’s purpose? First you’ll need to sit down and check your priorities. What takes most of your time, attention, money etc? What are values? You may need to ask yourself if you still carry the same passion you once had for things related to fulfilment of purpose. Your sincere answers to these questions would give a clear indication of where you stand. If you find yourself defaulting in anyway, go to God prayerfully and ask Him to guide you and teach you what you do (Psalm32:8). Peradventure you’re not sure of what God purpose is, seek His face in prayer and be sure that He’ll answer you (Matthew 7:7-11, Jeremiah 33:3). If you haven’t given your life to Christ, you can’t even talk about discovering and fulfilling purpose. My dear friend, only through discovering and fulfilling purpose can you live a fulfilled life and only through accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and cultivating a relationship with Him can you discover your purpose. So, why don’t you make that decision today? You need to take some time out, particularly as the year draws to a close, to evaluate yourself to know where you stand. True success in life isn’t measured by what you have (Luke 12:15). It can only be measured in relation to how much of God’s purpose for your life that you’ve fulfilled.

VIRTUE

Character is like smoke
As smoke reveals the presence of fire
So does character reveal the state of the heart
Character is the very fabric that holds our very beings
Whether  it's one filled with virtues or vices.

Virtue thrives on effort
It flourishes on practice
Like a young seedling
Virtue requires watering
Like a fruiting crop
It requires pruning

A man of virtue is a noble man
A woman of virtue is the envy of her peers
Living a life of virtue
You can NEVER go wrong

For Love Alone

Do you sit by yourself
And wonder what life is all about
If there's a purpose or a plan
Or does it happen by chance?
Do you ever think why it always turns out right?
No matter how bad you find your way again

I've learnt how to keep all together
'Cos now I know nothing else matters...

For love alone
I live my life
From this moment on
I vow to never lose sight
If I ever die
The reason why I did
I'll stop questioning my fears
And know it's for love alone

Times flies so fast
Live each like it's the last
Cherish what you have
'Cos when it's gone you can come back
At the end of the day
When we are face to face
I won't be afraid
I am glad to say

I've learnt how to keep it all together
'Cos now I know nothing else matters...

SONG BY CECE WINANS

Living with Eternity in View

In Secondary School, my physics teacher taught me that a scalar quantity is one that has magnitude and no direction. I also recollect that a while back, people who didn’t seem to have focus and direction in life were referred to ‘No Future Ambition’ (‘NFA’). Humans place a high premium on living a life with direction and focus.

For instance, a student is expected to have an idea of what kind of grades he/she wishes to get at the end of each semester and at the end of his academic pursuit. This will in turn determine the type of disciplines he /she would subject he /she would subject himself/herself to. It would determine the kind of sacrifices he/she would have to make. The expectations are same for anyone intending to run a career and in fact just about any human endeavour. I once heard someone say: “The why of a demand determines the intensity of pursuit”.

I strongly believe that this should also apply to our lives as Christians. As a matter of fact, we (Christians) were created to fulfil God’s purpose here on earth and reign with Him in eternity. Jesus said in John 14:1-3(NIV): “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will take you to be with me that you may also be where I am.”

Sadly, even with this promise coming directly from the mouth of Jesus Himself, many of us continue to live as if it all ends here. As if after our sojourn on planet earth there’s nothing to look forward to. Many Christians have allowed pressures of life to choke out this reality from their psyche. To some others it has been reduced to a mere myth or fable.

Friend, the truth is that more than ever before we’re closer to the end of age. The pointers that Jesus gave to us are becoming more and more evident. Jesus said this about the end time: “You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are beginning of the birth pains” (Matthew 24: 6-8). You’ll agree with me that all these things are happening around the world almost on a daily basis. The coming of Jesus would be so sudden and unexpected (Luke 17:20-37).

In the light of this, how are expected to live our lives as Christians? The first is to “… seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…”(Matthew 6:33). The second is to live every moment as if Christ or death could come the very next moment.

And if perhaps you’ve not given your life to Christ, there’s no better time than now no better day than today to make that decision. Accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour guarantees you abundant life here on earth (John 10:10) and eternal life with Him hereafter. Friend, why don’t you make that decision today? Who knows, tomorrow might be too late.

MY HEART, MY LIFE

Have you ever responded to a tense situation, say for example a vehicle runs into a ditch thereby staining your clothes by using words that are derogatory. If you’ve ever had such an experience, you were probably shocked by our own choice words because you don’t use such words.
I remember an e-mail a friend sent to me a few years back: a pastor brought two jugs of the same kind and placed them before the congregation and tell the contents of jugs. Of course they couldn’t. He tipped the first one out of which water poured and then the other from which vinegar poured. The moral of the story is that our true personality is who we are when we’re under pressure – how we reflect under pressure is a true reflection of the state of our heart.
The state of our heart is a function of percolations – things that have crept in and settled into our hearts without our even noticing it. Proverbs 4:23 (The Message) “Keep vigilant watch over your heart that’s where life starts”. You see, we have to play an active role in keeping watch over what enters our hearts. There are three ways by which information filters into our hearts. They are:
1. The things we hear
2. The things we see
3. The things we read
These three go a long way in determining the state of our hearts and the output thereof. Many times, we unconsciously act out those things that have settled into our hearts.
Whatever we hear and keep on hearing in no time becomes a part of us. That’s why it’s important that we’re careful of the kind of music we listen to because a song always takes us back to its source. What we watch also influences the state of our heart. For instance, people who watch pornography wouldn’t be able to have a healthy relationship with the opposite sex because they can only view them through the pornographic lens in their hearts. The same applies to those the books we read. They influence us in more ways than we could imagine. A person who reads some type of books is very likely to become manipulative – without even realizing it.
“A tree is identified by the kind of fruit it produces. Figs never grow on thorns, or grapes on bramble bushes. A good man produces from a good heart. And an evil man produces evil deeds from his hidden wickedness. Whatever is in the heart overflows into speech.”
– Luke 6:44 & 45,The Living Bible
Friends, it doesn’t matter how long mask the state of our heart, the truth is that one day under some circumstance, it will be revealed. It’s just like in microbiology when you’re culturing microorganisms, it looks like you’re not doing anything. But once you put the freshly transferred organism into the oven at the right temperature and pressure after the recommended amount of time, the organism becomes visible.
So, what’s it going to be?
I encourage you to culture a good heart with God’s help – and the result would be a great life. Romans 12:2 says we should renew our minds with God’s word; Joshua 1:8 encourages us to meditate on God’s word. The truth is that the heart is always meditating on something whether knowingly or unknowingly. No wonder the Psalmist says in Psalm 19:14 (KJV) “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” Phillipians 4:8 (The Living Bible) “…Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be proud be”.

IT’S ABOUT TIME!

A few days ago, I read the story of a 22 year-old student of a university in the South-West of Nigeria who hung himself. In his suicide note he wrote that he felt like an old man and didn’t see any purpose in living anymore.

It gives one cause for concern. I begin to wonder how much of life an individual has experienced for that amount of time that qualifies him to make such a conclusion. As far as I’m concerned that incident had a deep-seated underlying cause.

Such is the world we live in. This sort of occurrence for similar reasons is particularly common in the western world. It’s just a reflection of emptiness. There are a lot of people around today who have similar perceptions about life and don’t have the ‘courage’ to take such drastic action.

Not a few people ponder their continued existence as a waste. A lot of folks live life with the “let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die” mentality. There are others who see life as a vicious cycle of repeated events.

Some people try to find meaning in life by immersing themselves in work – using workaholism to cover a problem lying at the very core of their being. Making it an end in itself and not just a means to an end. Similarly, some others involve themselves in charity work just for the same reasons.

Emptiness is the cause of many things we see in our world. It manifests itself in body piercings, orgies, addictions, substance abuse etc. In my opinion, these amounts to running a tap of water at full speed into a basket – water flows into it but it never gets filled. An exercise in futility.

We often talk about square pegs in round holes and vice-versa. It is also a principle of life. God created us and put in us a craving that He alone can fill. A God-shaped vacuum that he alone can adequately occupy. In the words of Saint Augustine, Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.”

Jesus said in John 10: 10 Amplified Bible: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have {and} enjoy life and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows”). Of course, we Christians have tapped into this (and that’s the essence of our faith anyway).

Unfortunately, when we observe products of emptiness as evidenced in the lives of those around us we either turn a blind eye or just look at them in pity or worst still criticise them.

In Matthew 5, Jesus refers to us as salt and light of the world. I’d like to relate this to a lighthouse. A lighthouse is a navigational tool used at sea. It is actually a powerful light that gives them signals particularly at night to make them aware that they are close to the river bank to avoid accidents. In the same vein, we Christians are lighthouses that are supposed to warn people and encourage them to leave their wrong lifestyles.

This is particularly important as we move closer to the end of age. We are called to change are world. We have been commissioned to bring others to Christ. We have been seasoned for influence.

So, what are you waiting for? If not you whom? If not now, when?

It’s about time!