I Can Feel the Fireworks

I can feel the fireworks.

I can feel the fireworks like a lass feels when dipping her little hand in a cookie jar.

Like I feel when staring at waterfalls

Have you ever watched waterfalls falling? Right, I can feel it, and I feel it that way...

I can feel them staring at me, the fireworks.

I can feel them like I feel about free, fast wireless internet.

I can feel myself being "stupified" because of the wondrous enigma they carry.

I can feel it, err, them - the fireworks.

I can feel them stealing the very air we share as we hold this moment.

But, are we really sharing this moment? The fireworks? Because I am not sure if you love fireworks, leave alone staring at them...

See? I don't have your hand in mine, neither do you, but you know what? I can still feel us holding each other,

And I am prompted to think that that's what fireworks do to people, to people like us,  

People who come to stare at them...

I can feel them goofy and raffled.

I can feel them old and scanty.

I can feel them fluffy and real.

I can feel the fireworks like a monk feels when a wedding suffices or like a bird in a zoo. Do you love zoos? Never mind. I can feel them anyway.

I can feel them and their mockery and treachery.

Their mouths are hungry for my blood and their hands want my heart

So as I feel them, my blood runs in the inside of me. Raging. Surging. Pumping.

Only that it doesn't run away...

I can feel how stupid I have become because of the fireworks.

I can feel it. It is true.

I can feel the bluntness they weed in us as we watch them.

Reddish, yellowish, blueish, greenish thingys. I can feel those colors speaking to me.

Can you feel them too? Like I do?

I can see you by my side staring at them

Maybe you feel them like I do, maybe not...

But I love the way you stretch your neck to look at them - your beautiful neck. Has someone ever told you that you have a beautiful neck? Okay, never mind. You have it anyway.

I love the tweak on your mouth and the hidden wonder riding in your eyes.

I love this moment, this moment when I can enjoy two things at the same time: the fireworks and you.

But again I hate it when I look at you, at us, staring at them yet doing nothing, saying nothing

I would have wished that you say something. Anything.  

But I love these tiny moments we "share" just staring at these reddish, yellowish, blueish, greenish thingys.

I only hope you feel them too...

I can feel that we are so distant even though we exist in the same world happily "sharing" the same moments.

I can feel it just like I feel the fireworks.

I can feel that I am feeling warm even though I'm not wearing a jacket, and that you are feeling cold regardless of that fur pullover you have on you.

I can feel it.

I can feel our closeness and the distance between us

And that makes me feel the fireworks even more.

I am now lovehatric and desperate, and because of that, I have decided to enjoy the fireworks and [somehow] forget about you...

I now feel the fireworks even the more...

Bonface Morris.  

Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) Lyrics & free mp3 Download - Hillsong United

Download the song here.

Song: Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) 

Track no: 4

Album: Zion

Year: 2013

Artist: Hillsong United

Contributing artists: Matt Crocker, Joel Houston, Salomon Ligthelm & Taya Smith

Lyrics:

Verse 1:

You call me out upon the waters

The great unknown, where feet may fail

And there I find You in the mystery

In oceans deep, my faith will stand...

Bridge 1:

And I will call upon Your Name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise my soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine

Verse 2:

Your grace abounds in deepest waters

Your Sovereign hand, will be my guide

My feet may fail when fear surrounds me

You’ve never failed, and You won't start now...

Bridge 2:

So I will call upon Your Name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise my soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine...

Oooo, oooo, You are mine… ooo ooo ooo…

Chorus:

(Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters,

Wherever You would call me...

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my Faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior...) x6

Vamp:

I will call upon Your Name

And keep my eyes above the waves

My soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine...

Bonface Morris.

Music & Worship: The Power of A Song

I have heard it said that, "Religion is the opium of the people"(Karl Marx), but now more than ever, I'm convinced that it is not religion that opiates society, it is music.

If there is something everyone is so familiar with, something everyone loves, something that reveres and taunts both the old and the young, something that does not necessarily need a struggle to get along with; something sweet and comforting and memorable, something that gladly helps kill our sorrows and bury our pains, something that mediates the healing of our wounds and the clothing of our nakedness; something that echoes the un-echoed and verbs the unspoken, something that arouses feelings of peace and declarations of war, something that batters and scatters, while yet again, smothering and pampering; something that expresses our deepest fears and buries them altogether, that something should be music; yeah, it should be a song...

Who never sings a song? Who in the heavens and on earth never sings or loves a song? Who has no song to sing? Who is it that has no song they relate to? Who refuses a song its pious coddling upon their hearts? Who? Huh? I have not found one and there are not many, because even the absence of 'singing' is music in itself: the song of silence... ;)

Music is the art of the soul expressed in earth's most tangible and influential mode: words. The repetitiveness of a theme resounding in one's soul is what births a song, or in many cases, music. Music can be an impetus impeding or supporting the flow of emotion within someone. It is the best "psychological breather" so to say.

Sometimes music need not to be words. Sometimes it is just that sound of harmonious instruments bringing a melody that offers a stylized atmosphere. Sometimes it is just a moment - the stillness of a heart battling or rejoicing within itself...

I have a feeling that music, when endowed with the right words and atmosphere, has power beyond our natural understanding. I am sure that the combined influence of music to a given society has not been fully explored: it has not been fully known what a song can [absolutely] do to a soul, (but partially so, I will try to elaborate in this post) whether perishing or begetting life. It has not been fully understood, but allow me to somehow help you see it...

I am sure that if we were to anthropologically research on music and society, the outcome will be that, of all arts, music fits best, is the most influential and is the most adopted art in a society. Actually, almost every situation and/or season in life has a song attached to it regardless of the society one lives in: that is why Andrew Fletcher once said "Let me write the songs of a nation - I don't care who writes its laws..." That's how influential music can be - it defines a society... Maybe in my own small words I can say, "I will read through and sing the songs of a nation, then therein I will know the heart and mind of that nation..."

A good song or a reckless song forges a season and an atmosphere with it. There are songs of war, songs of peace, songs of celebration, songs of lamentation...

If one gets used to singing songs of lamentation, grief becomes his/her DAILY food; but if someone chooses to echo the songs of joy, joy will become their portion. If a young unmarried person loses himself/herself in songs of love, love will be stirred within them and uncontrolled passions may soon emerge. Happy songs CREATE moments of happiness and joy. If we sing songs about God and His faithfulness, Faith is built in us and we can start seeing Him as He really is and therefore make it easier to win our war against the enemy (Marvin Sapp in his song "Praise Him in Advance" says, 'Praise will confuse the enemy...'); but if we sing songs of despair and gloom, our hearts and minds will tend to move towards that direction. If we sing songs about clubbing, raping people (God forbid), fornication, adultery, drinking and such things, don't be deceived (and don't lie to us either): your mind will remain attached to and thinking about such things. Do not underestimate the power of a song.

We somehow have a lesser power when it comes to what we hum as determined by the kind of songs we listen to. Our subconscious creates rhythms within us that are transferred to our lips based on what we listen to. That is why when a worship leader tells me, "I can't remember any song to sing right now...!" I normally ask them, "What have you been singing from morning? What about what you've been singing the whole week long...!!??" Any music writer will tell you that above 70% of the music they write is influenced by the type and genre of music they listen to: to make music, you listen to music - unless you are super-creative... The best memorable songs carry the emotional turmoil or aptness of moments, telling stories the singer so dearly beholds to his/her audience; and when mixed with poetry, music (or songs) becomes a true definition of someone's (or a society's) inner being...

Side note (to the worship leader/song writer): We can't lead people to sing and love what we don't sing and love!!  

There is a reason as to why I post a lot of what I listen to on social media. It is not all about boasting that I know quite a bunch of artists and the great songs they sing, but the storyline is this: I create my mood for the day by the kind of music I listen to from morning right into the night. That music keeps on replaying in my mind all day long hence mostly influencing my thinking (and behavior) in that day.

A song with a theme of thanksgiving for my morning makes me have spontaneous moments of thanksgiving all day long - mostly happening in my subconscious, and occasionally exploding into loud singing. People will tell you that I mumble rhythms a lot...

There is one thing that I want us to understand: listening to music that buries your heart in sorrow and other negative behavior has been known to bring about suicidal tendencies. This article (please click on the link to read) tries to illustrate how listening to heavy metal music contributed to several suicide cases in a certain people who listened to that music.

The words in a song (because words carry a force - a force that is the basis of them being used) have so much power upon our being that we should not neglect them. Illuminati feeds on our ignorance of the power that words in music have on our lives (read: thoughts, actions and behavior) and has left many people (mostly young) to think that "a song and words in a song are just like words in every other song..." That is not true. Words influence you depending on who is/was their source and the purpose for which they were intended...

I know that the greatest and deepest songs have not been sung yet. Heaven has its endless songs and the earth too has its songs. Be it as it may, music, unlike most of us have been made to believe, is not a lesser gift - whether in Heaven or on earth - because it is the only art that is eternal. Music will he sung in Heaven as well as in hell; so, as we all know, eternal things are not "minor" but "major".

In Christianity, music consolidates all other gifts. Music is a gift that has its portion and a part to play in ALL the other gifts of the Holy Spirit. Side note: Bear with me on this one because I don't have enough time to delve into that for now...

Music, song and poetry are revealed in the following verses of Scripture:-
1. Shouts and music by the Israelites brought down the walls of Jericho and gave them victory (Joshua 6:20). 
2. The prophet Jeremiah (a renowned "man of grief") says this in Lamentations 5:14 [ESV]: "The old men have left the city gate, the young men their music..."
3. The Apostle Paul referred to music and poetry in many occasions:
(a) Acts 16:25-26 [ESV]: "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened."
(b) Ephesians 5:19 [ESV]: "...addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart..."
(c) Colossians 3:16 [ESV]: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."
(d) Hebrews 13:15 [ESV]: "Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name."
(e) Acts 17:28b [ESV]: "...as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring...'"

Although I don't have enough time to elaborate every moment as described by Scriptures above, we can all see that the Bible too is full of music and poetry. In fact, the Book of Psalms has the most memorable parts of Scripture (my own research) so highly beheld by both Christians and non-Christians and forms the central part of all Judeo-Christian faiths and worship. This means that music is as important to God as it is to man. He expects us to forge our lives around the right kind of music, and such that comes from deep within so that even if our mouths won't open to sing to Him or about Him, our lives can still be a song that is pleasant to Him - that which stirs Him up to action on behalf of His people, that which draws Him nearer to us:
John 4:23 [ESV]: "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him."

Have a musical day/night people! ;)


Bonface Morris.  

"Hello Fantasies!"

You are seated there staring at the wall, not actually serious about anything but just allowing a fulfilling emptiness to yell at you. You are unknowably moving from one side of the chair to another, or your hands, or feet or head, are obeying your mind in a way you would not want to confess exists - in a rather out-of-this-world kinda way. Your consciousness is somewhere between awareness and curiosity; between expectancy and anxiety...
You are in a fixed state and warring on in it with pomp and valor. While in that place of your "great" life, you are probably smiling sheepishly and having this goody-goody feeling about something - something you don't know, but are pretending to know and like, err, something you are loving so much. That something seems so real yet so unreachable. And because it is making you feel jilted and edgy, you keep on seating there and smiling, and obviously, someone looking at you would say that you are excited, are in a hysterical hyperbole and that you are enjoying every moment of it. Why? They can see it in the immense brightness of your eyes, the glittering of your outer countenance and, you look like you have found new love: you know how people look like after finding new love, right? Yeah, you look that way.
Seemingly, you are lost. You are lost in the combined angsts of your heart and mind which are combing through you and making you look lost and too happy.
Maybe, just maybe, you have been sitting (or "sleeping") there for a while already. And while seated/sleeping there, this is what is happening: you have probably "met" this hawt guy or lady who has swept you off your feet (literally). You've chatted them up and you feel interested. You now have a date scheduled out and have gotten dressed up to kill (literally) - for the date. You've looked up yourself in the mirror, done those face gestures and happy ninja moves that are your legendary trademark of, "Yeah, um looking cool, ain't I? I've got an animal to kill, yaaay!!" So, unknowably (again), in the real world, you are now smiling and tossing and turning on that chair or bed of yours... Back to your world: you've stepped out of the house with this swing vote look you always wear to mean, "I'm all this sweet and important, you know!?".
Mmmmmmmh...
You've gotten to the date venue, and, OH MY GOD! you've just had such an oooooooowesome date: Ooooooh! The arrangement! The beauty! The romance! You soooo feel that you're in love.
Meanwhile, you've dated this dude/dudette (dudine?) several other times (while right there on your chair or bed) and have gotten married: the wedding is off the chains - somewhere in Dubai or is it Durban or in the Caribbean... Barbados maybe? ;)
Okay. You've now come back home after the aaaaaaawwww!!! wedding (some guy says I shouldn't do that) and you and your "boo" now have these two soooo cute babies...
Mmmmmmmh... And you've given those babies really cute names... and they are now crying... they're crying really loud and you don't like it... that's when you wake upppp...!! Grrrrrr!!! Reality is still yelling at ya! ;) You realize that you are just on your chair/bed in your clumsy diggs. Nothing has really changed: there is no hawt dude/dudette, there are no dates (not even promising ones), no wedding, no sunshine on a beach... it is just a lonely you seated there wallowing in your hidden world... so you end up feeling bad and may choose to go back to "sleep"...
Or, ION,...
You are in school, it's your graduation day: you now have a degree... Oh my! You're having this tingly feeling you can't put on paper... so you together with your self-enfranchised buddies have organised this great get-together party and everyone that shrills in your life is there. You're feeling like yelling because, well, you are planning to propose to your "long time" girlfriend today in the so-called after party. Guy, you're feeling like a pumpkin amongst water melons! The day goes on as planned: people smile, guys laugh, the music is great [and sentimental], life is sooooo musical in that day - it is like it is singing to you; people give you gifts and say these well rehearsed sweet nothings, kisha they go away. *Sigh!* This is the moment you've been waiting for, right?   Ouch! You're now tipsy-ish (in the sense of emotion) and are ready for the evening date with your chiq (someone looking at you in the real world sees you turn about on that chair with a jolt), but, well, but... it seems that you never managed to travel with all your senses to that sweet world of yours, because, well, you can smell your tea in the real world on that gas cooker over there "burning"... so, voila! Aaaaaargghhh!! Your dream partially ends...
In short, you are fantasizing. Yes my friend, you are swallowed up in the fantasy world...
The reality of fantasies is so heavy in our world today. We seem to have gotten used to it. We even enjoy it. In fact, psychoanalytic research puts the number of people who fantasize (at least on a daily basis) at 9 out of 10. Which means that there is a very high possibility that each one of us fantasizes or daydreams daily. 
Psychological studies mostly bring out fantasizing as a symptom to most personality disorders - something which we may deny if told that it is part of us, but it is true - even though I ain't becoming some kind of doctor on this one.
Okay. Lemme throw away the psycho-bla bla card and come back to our world...   
As we've seen above, fantasies are normal. Maybe what we need to look at is the risk of our predisposition to them, because their occurrence is simple:
They arise when our desires start growing up in us with the support of our minds. Our minds pick up messages from the longing in our hearts and start creating images when we are in a status of "a paused consciousness of our immediate environment." These mind-images begin existing independently in our mind-world (formulated and created by our thoughts) and later begin acquiring faces and places, values and principles to a perfection that may be hard to override.
At the beginning, those images of our "dream world" are vivid and blurred, but with time, and when we allow it, these images start becoming real: they become so real that their existence in our lives is now tangible and unavoidable...
There's something about these mind- images (fantasies) though: they are not imagination(s). This is because imagination bases its strengths on wonder, awe and a longing to understand things; while fantasies base their strength on wishes, overrated desires and unrealistic expectations. Fantasies don't have wonder in them but a certain type of longing which if not well controlled, may be harmful to the host's relational life, thus becoming a personality disorder as described above. They seek to overdo and overemphasize certain aspects and qualities in people, things or situations. And sometimes, all these aspects and qualities are not possibly achievable in one person or instantaneous situations or things.  
Fantasies are a great fuel to shattering relationships that were otherwise doing well, and may also lead to the single person or single parent to remain "unattached", due to one comparing their partner (or potential partner) to the inbuilt mind-images of what the "right" partner has been conceived to be or to look like.
It has been proven that we mostly use fantasies as an escape way and a relief from the reality of lacking the things we would so much want to have in the real world - like in our relationships, leadership structures (in our organizations, families and nation), in our marriages, schools and working places... We use them as excuses and avenues to our own world - a world that only exists in our hearts and minds, and this causes us to set even higher standards for ourselves and those around us.
Although this makes us mostly dissatisfied and unsatisfied with life and what we meet and get thus shredding our levels of contentment (something God would so much want us to have), fantasies have some positive side to them too - the aspect of having a desire, a goal and a target to live for due to the longing, and may help in generating hope if channeled to the right direction.
Most of the good things we desire and want so bad (and end up fantasizing about) like good jobs, great families, a good nation, good girlfriends (read: Mrs Right) and good boyfriends (read: Mr Right) are victims of how our hearts and minds construe or misconstrue the realities and facts around us.
A possible solution to this problem may be to:-

1.      Look at one's self and gauge if one's expectations of others are genuine or overrated, and therefore guide their thinking in proportion to what others are able to do in their day to day relational lives.

2.     Look deeper at one's self and ask yourself these simple questions: "Am I being realistic? Am I being too overrated? Are these things possible in my world? Are these expectations of mine in line with the will of God upon my life?" When one starts looking at life with a rational mind, one is moved to differentiate between possibilities and dreams.

3.     Be keen enough to compliment and appreciate the few good things in the people around us. Not all people (read: men or women or leaders or country) can be serially bad. You, err, we need to learn to sacrifice and understand people as they really are and stop being obsessed with creating people into "what we want them to become." Fact: we can NEVER change anyone. We should leave that to God!

4.     Stop complaining of the little or minor inconsistencies one may be meeting daily in their lives and start appreciating every little thing they have (and meet) as a gift from God.

All I can say as my last word on this is: don't be too over your heels. Live life in moderation, think moderately and know that people are soooo different... and their lives are soooo different too.
Don't allow yourself to be stressed up for nothing: for a course that is nonexistent! You deserve a stress free life that appreciates the things you see and have... 
No one can ever be the same person or an equal replica of that person you keep seeing in your fantasies but we can just be who we are and what God created us to become... Give us a break by being real!
And by the way, this post is speaking to me more than it may even be speaking to you...

Have a great weekend guys!!



Bonface Morris.