Nanoreflections

It is the holiday season again, and with it (never depending on which side of the coin of life you are), comes a whole bunch of possibilities.

Yeah, of course, most of us will say that it is time to relax, party and have a good time. We are right. We should all have a good time in a season like this. It is appropriate as long us our engaging in bliss is neither harmful to ourselves, God nor to those around us. It is acceptable.

But for me, unlike any other Christmas season I've spent, I have decided to take time this season and "nanoreflect"; meaning, piling up pieces of endless thoughts on how life was this year, and how I'll need to be "armed" for 2014.

And that does not mean that I'm not going out or "spoiling myself". Nah. It actually means that as I plunder bliss, my mind will not be left idle and wanting. I'll be thinking of all the places my life can possibly be, all the places I've already been to in 2013 (and years behind it too) and all the places I would want those around me to be in the coming year.

I've chosen to grow up just a little bit more: 2014 is going to take me further into the world of a saved young adult, and I'll need to place everything (and everyone) in my life right where they belong.

Mostly, I've realized that I've been childish as far as relationships are concerned (both with God and with mankind), so part of my reflections are hovering around how to deal with THAT boy in me that won't just grow up. (Yes, every man has THAT boy in him that needs to have boundaries and a legitimate MoU to operate by; unless we all want to hate the ACTUAL man that he really is).

One resolution I already made concerning this is: I'm not going to be in a relationship (read, engage in anything serious or even slightly serious with any female species) with the aim of making them my fianceè and/or wife-to-be. I am going to cool down (just as I have done for a while) and focus on myself.
Literally, I'm handing over all my "relationship keys" to God. They'll be safe in His hands... :-)

Another thing I'm pondering about (or asking myself) is, as a leader, what have I done that has changed where I am? Have I been influential enough as a leader? Have I, in the slightest sense of the word, changed a life or helped change a life?
I am thinking that if I've not done so, then my leadership in the year 2013 has been fruitless, and I'll therefore need to go back to the drawing board and ask God to help me do something about it. Yes, I'll need to do that.

Leadership may not be easy (but it's actually never that hard - it all depends on how you do it and the source of your motivation and strength), and in the course of leading, there are lessons you learn that have a relevance that is unmatched.
People have helped me understand [other] people. That's leadership. Issues have helped me deal with [other] issues. That's leadership too. I have learned to attack situations, pull some, leave some alone, ignore many, delegate duties... That is leadership.

With leadership comes an understanding that you always have to believe in people and in the vision and goals you create as a team. Everyone becomes a friend - even your enemies constitute to the mutual success of your team and prescribed goals...

Then along that chain of thoughts, I am realizing that most of us who are conscious about the "to's and fro's of life" are going to be preoccupied with some or most of the following thoughts (even as the partying and gathering continues). We are going to think of;

1. The many times this year that we have given out our heart(s) and effort(s) only to be betrayed and downtrodden by the other party(ies). We are going to imagine the hopelessness we felt during that time, but now that we are stronger by the strength of God, we will hold our heads up high and probably sing Never Would Have Made It (Marvin Sapp) or Imela (Thank You) by Nathaniel Bassey.

2. The regrets that fill our hearts for making all the wrong decisions this year. Wrong decisions are always a thorn in the flesh - a reminder of your once-stupid-self... And maybe we now are going to blame a few people (and/or even God) for these decisions - our own wrong decisions. SMH. How we're going to deal with such thoughts will determine whether 2014 will begin on some sort of quagmire or on solid ground. Yeah.

3. The many expectations that were fulfilled in the course of this year or several more that never even tried to germinate. Probably we never started that project we had promised ourselves to begin this year. What about our service to God? Perhaps, we had promised to serve Him more earnestly this year, but, yes, but, the year has just "disappeared" and we're still not that much of "faithful servants". What of our businesses that failed to pick up? Or the unfulfilled promise(s) to our spouses/fiance/fianceé? What of the other promise(s) we made to our mom(s)/dad(s) last December? They're still waiting for us to fulfill it/them...
All these are going to either cloud our excitement for 2014 or altogether wipe it away.

4. "Maybe a start-over in relationships?" we may be found thinking. Or going to the gym to trim that fat that has accumulated over time due to increased consumption of junk food? What about our friendships? Who needs to be cut away, and who else should now be fully "adopted" to ease our match into the next season of our lives? What of going back to school to improve our skills and enhance our relevance at our places of work and in our careers? Push it to next year, maybe?

And the more I think of all we are likely to be "nanoreflecting" about this season, the more I want to lean on this chair and just say, "Lord, because life is such a mystery to me and that only You are already wherever I am headed to, please lemme just play the background (of course as inspired by Lecrae in "Background") as You lead my way... I don't want to pretend to be wiser than You are in all matters of my petty life... You are allknowing, I am retarded in my knowledge of things... Have Your way..." Then I'll sit down and keep going - His way...

More and more, I think that this is a season of pulling out detentes towards all our "enemies" (probably created in the course of this year) in some sort of "getting our plates clean", and practicing forgiveness.
Guys, we need to start 2014 on a clean page. No baggage. No debts (mostly debts of love). No hypocrisy. No pretence. No grudges. No double standards. No unfulfilled promises. No false promises either.
All we need for this season is gratefulness for our past; and about this coming year (2014), all we need is just me/you, Jesus and that new year.
Yes, just that.
(Methinks.)

Bonface Morris. 

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Mere Objectivity

I must first swear that this blog post was overwhelmingly inspired by a book that I am reading, then after swearing, which is objectively different things in different contexts and to different people, I want to try and make you see and believe in things in a certain way (and I'm not saying that I'm the author of such a determined way, but that I just hope that you see them that way.)
Well...
People quarrel. People do quarrel and disagree all the time. I quarrel. I disagree. A lot. Sometimes for the "right" reasons, but mostly for the "wrong" ones (take the quotes to mean that the words carry their own differences in weight in matters of ethics).
Most of us quarrel (or argue) so that to [just] prove a point, not that [that] point is the right one, but just because the [point] being proven is our point.
But truth is that we cannot universally have the same opinion about everything. We should not. At least in certain instances. This is because (I think) the moment we mutually agree about ALL things, is the very moment we disagree in one way or another with another peoples' agreement elsewhere. I think that we always agree to culture a certain degree of disagreement.

We should quarrel (methinks) because we have the right to objectivity - especially the kind of objectivity that peripherys our "rights" and "beliefs." But this is not a [good] reason to why we should incline ourselves towards thinking that we ARE to win ALL arguments all the time. It is not.
Consider this example »
Two men are arguing over whether a given dog should be fed at noon or in the evening. Of course the argument is not about whether the dog should be fed or not - because they both, to a good extend, agree that this dog should be fed - but about whether one's time of feeding, with regard to another's (or to the dog), is the most appropriate, and probably most effective (although such a probability only creeps in later).
Thus such an argument (the one between these two men feeding that dog) is likely to remain unproductive as far as what time of feeding the dog is the most appropriate; but may be useful because it tendons itself somewhere between two views that are mutually beneficial to a hungry dog... but none of the two should want to win because, after all, the dog is being fed.
And so in a related way, when it comes to religious and philosophical contexts, consider the following arguments and possibilities with regard to fulfilling a certain angst in the human population about understanding and worshipping God, but which unlike in the case of the dog, remain hanging on a fence - neither satisfying the origin nor the course »

1. The atheist freely argues that there is no God. He defends it. In fact he arbitrarily feeds on his defense (so to say) and thinks that this is the best way humanity should figure out life (and God). He thinks that he is feeding the dog well, but is he? Well, he is not.
2. The pantheist says that all roads that are belief systems on this earth lead to one unspecified "God" or deity. He too claims to be feeding the same dog, right? But with useless food.

3. The scientologist and other numerous (and actually useless) New Age religions (and belief systems) elevate man above God. They think that man has soared above the galaxies of belief in one deity and have therefore made him the king of deities. Their dog is overfed, isn't it? Yes, but with trash.

4. The gnostic thinks that it is impossible for there to have existed, amongst mortal beings, a touchable and visible God. Yes, and objectively so, he denies the preference for belief in a once-fully-mortal-and-fully-immortal-God. Mmmhuh? I don't think I want to say much about their dog, these ones, because he's gonna end up crippled.

5. The idealist, realist, naturalist, existentialist and secular humanist
are all drunk with belief that the singular plurality of supernatural influence on this earth does not exist, and parallel themselves against God in a rather "queer" manner. Their dog is in trouble because it eats the same food all day long - deficient and facing malnutrition.

6. The traditional man is the clueless but most concerning type. As far as Africa is concerned, because he either is mostly (and falsely) obeying a deity he calls "God" or he is obeying some misconstrued rules within his culture that battle to put him somewhere near a certain [known] God, he makes tough cuisines for his dog, but I guess it is still craving for more - it is never fully satisfied.

7. The Muslim and most Eastern cultures and beliefs run on slippery ground while trying to feed this dog - one path which I prefer not to tread upon today - which has influenced a great percentage of the "Theo-seeking" group of mankind. His dog is the sleepy and sickly one.

The Christian, being the one on the most extreme end - his own end - somehow being puppeted, and somehow puppeting belief (whatever that means), believes in a God who basically gives a book (the Bible) with instructions pointing towards a Savior for all mankind; a Savior who loudly and unreservedly SAYS or rather, PROCLAIMS for all to hear, that He and only He is the way to the only true God, the truth and the life.
The Judeo-Christian view seems to win for me - and I objectively, and also willingly, follow in its footsteps. And not entirely in the Judeo-Christian worldview (that is if it is a worldview at all), but in the Christian belief system, where our dog is well fed, healthy, happy and hopeful...

With the escalating views on religion and pseudo-beliefs, free-thinking has become a modern way of expression, and each one of us wants to have an opinion to put across. What we believe in has become what we live for. We have become so overopinionated that we (most of the time) don't even understand and/or know what we serially defend.

If all the above belief systems argue and quarrel about being objectively right, I might as well call it madness - maybe because quarrels clutter and breed it (madness).

But within such an argument over beliefs, how do we tell who is right and who is wrong? And where do we base our judgement of right and/or wrong? What is the determining factor? Christ? Christianity? The Bible? Not all of us agree.
If all that matters is that the dog should be fed, are we really on the right path? Should we objectively say that this dog (read, desire to serve a purpose and a given deity) will be okay no matter WHO feeds it, HOW it is fed and WHY it is fed? Should we say that we are all objectively right?

Well, philosophy teaches one law that is important to note: truth cannot exist relatively. It is either absolute or it is not truth. So no matter how "objectively right" we may seem to be in our arguments, only one of us is right. And if we have to apply the laws of logic in such a case, we find that there is no excluded middle in both cases - of feeding a hungry dog and in needing to be subject to a given deity. And no matter how objective we may want our beliefs to be perceived, they all can't be true at the same time. That will be contradictory. We are either feeding the dog with BAD FOOD or we are feeding it with HEALTHY FOOD. Period. No middle ground. It is either one of us is feeding the dog right and the rest are just a useless lot or nothing else.

Our belief systems point us in a certain direction and we defend what we believe because we have come to believe that it is true, regardless of whether we are right or not. Yeah, we have the freedom for argument and quarrel through debate, reason and the so-called dialectics, but truth cannot be changed by mere objectivity. It cannot be changed by "how we, on our own, view the world around us" but rather, by understanding and accepting it as it really is.

Truth is a substance of infallibility, and whether our "philosophies" accept it or not, we should consider once again understanding why Christ Jesus said, "I am the way, THE TRUTH and the life..." (John 14:6), and maybe jump over from "mere objectivity" to "What He said is the TRUTH."

Bonface Morris.