"I Am a Musician!"

There are so many of us, a good number to be precise, and the majority to be exact, who claim (or rather think or are entitled to the truth), that we can sing. In fact, we live in a rather musical society where everyone loves music. Our society loves music. That is the truth. It loves music to the extent that before the end of a [normal] day, everyone has at least sung a song – whether good or bad, Christian or secular – music rings all over our lives.

It is in our generation where everyone knows one or two things about music, a song and singing. Right from the youngest in our midst to the oldest, something about a song or music (regardless of the genre) is known and admired. The resulting effect is always some quality amusement because you see, what makes us have a very strong feeling that we can sing, or that we know music, may simply be because we know some lyrics to a famous song (which may as well only be ‘our’ only famous song) and because it is famous and common (inclusively of course), we can comfortably sing along to it. Sometimes, (and may God forbid), if that song ends up to be our favorite English song, we may crucify it (literally) and appoint to it another key or an altogether remixing accent...

But with all these, we still stand up (at least before our own selves if a congregation may not want to avail) and declare for all to hear (including the trees) that, “You see, I am a musician!”

Again, just because we sung so well in church last month or yesterday, and after the service everyone was like, “Oh my God! Was that you? Keep it up mun!”; and maybe our [genuine] worship team leader went like, “Morris (insert your name), wow, that was something you did on Sunday, mun!”, it doesn’t really translate to us being great worshippers. Not really.

We need to understand that God uses people differently in different seasons as He pleases, and at opportune times, He can use someone out there (which may be us at that time) just to astonish (or humble) the know-it-alls. Got it? So it may be that we are not ‘musicians!’ at all in every moment we declare to all that we are. Maybe we are just in the preparations stage. Maybe we are yet to become the musician we dream of. Maybe.

Maybe because it takes a lot to make a musician, quite a lot of time and a whole lot of things, God takes His time to make His own Musician in us… God thrills Himself in being the slow moving action taker or facilitator. He takes His time to do His stuff. And as mistaken as we may become about many things, like our ability rap or sing and twist vocals, and maybe our ability to ornament our voice(s) on a given day, that doesn’t qualify us to be ‘musicians!’ Just because we are the best back-up or lead vocalists there is in our town and that we can tell a key from another from a far, it doesn’t make us ‘musicians!’ Just because we can play the guitar or keyboard or piano or a certain instrument alongside singing, we are not guaranteed a seat in the park of musicians… It does not guarantee us the privilege of being musicians for God. Being able to hold a microphone and confidently raise a voice before people in order to make them respond to our prodding does not make us anointed singers either! It does not…!

Another support for our ‘profound’ declaration(s) of musicianship is gotten through our easy access to several genres of music today. Because music is all over the place, we have that unlimited opportunity to prioritize our song choices – too many songs means a freedom of choice. And because we have too much music on our finger tips, and that our friends happen to know we love these songs [in these genres], we may just end up being their friend that sings ‘that song’ so well… or their friend that sings ‘just like so-and-so’… And it therefore pushes us into growing up knowing and declaring, “Aaah! I can sing!” “They say/said I can sing, so I can sing!” “I am a musician!” “Yaaaaaay! I. AM. A. MUSICIAN!” Bla bla bla…

That is exactly the case with most of us. We grow up knowing we can sing because a friend, or our mom, or dad, or aunt, or fiancée or woreva, was positive about our voice(s) when they heard us singing a certain song… It excites us, and turns us around. It becomes our motivation. It becomes the string we hang on in order to amplify our musicianship… And I don’t deny it. It is a positive thing. It is a good thing to have people support us. But, do you think we can manage to support and stand up to our musicianship on our own? Do you think we can declare that, “We believe we can make it, because we can make it! Because we were born to make it in such things! Because God has appointed us to make it?” Can we do that? If we can, the safer we may be…

Considering that there are so many musicians today, innumerable musicians, qualification(s) that make one a musician are normally differed. We are excused to think we are who think we are because of our own many reasons – and those reasons are acceptable. It is our life, right? Ain’t this world a relative, inclusive and free world?  Let us be whatever we say we are – even though many [like Morris] may deny it…And I fear adding up our already big number of musicians…because I know I will end up judging myself to favor myself… It happens to all of us, doesn’t it?

I do watch Tusker Project Fame. I watch it not to celebrate the product but to learn some few things about music – for free! I learnt that everyone can sing – in their own way; but what differentiates between a music-singer and a passionately-singing-musician are some few basic things. In an audition of singers, we only need to ask them some few basic questions in order to fully get their musicianship.

Ask them the following questions for example as a partial test (and ask them in the listening of many others) to gauge the confidence they have in what they know they are;

a)     What music genre do you love/prefer most?

b)     Which musician really does it for you that you feel to somehow been partially mentored by their musical style?

c)      Which [one] song can I play you 100 times in a day and you still will need it played more and more?

d)     Please sing the last line to that song without the first lines [in a given key] – give them time to articulate the song first…

e)     Can you back-up any singer singing any key, or do you have problems with backing-up when someone is leading the singing?

f)       Do you have a calling in music? (For the Christian guys)

g)     Which key do you comfortably sing in? Tell us how long you can comfortably sing in that key?

h)     Do you do ‘me alone’ rehearsals with your voice often? How many times (or how long) in a week? How many songs do you do per session? What are the genres you practice most in these sessions in relation to improving your vocal range?

i)       How often do you change your key? What is your vocal range? Can you sing falsettos? (to the male guys). Have you at any time preferred a certain vocal range? Are you able to move from one key to another with ease? Have you ever tried doing so?

NB: These questions may also apply to the instrument players but in a varied scope of questioning…

If you claim to be a musician (or whatever you may want to call yourself) and you still are unable to answer the questions above without much a-do, you still have a long way to go my friend…

The truth is, music is not all about singing. (And allow me to say this even if I have never produced a single song or recorded a song now or passé). Music is more than just a song. Music is deeper than a song. Music is music. Music is about understanding movements, chords, emotion, life, trances, captivations, anger, peace and voices. It is an emotion. It is an art. It is a feeling. It is a desire. Music is so many things… Once a musician understands music, everyone will know that they are musicians without their declaration. Everyone will fell the confidence in their voices, the passion in their singing, the longing in their hearts to become better… All those things speak for themselves if we know who we are and are able to prove it in every way…

This makes me say that if one day God enables me to be in a position to make auditions for a worship team (because that is what I do), I won’t begin with vocal tests. Nope. I will start off somewhere further than vocals. I will begin with the person’s knowledge of their music. I will start with who they are as far as music is concerned. I will want them to prove it to the assembled people around them that they are whatever they claim they are… and therefore making a star (or stars) out of them will not be a big deal; nor will it be a big deal for God to use them – because God is also concerned about skills…

Morris.

Money, Money, Money

Money is money my friend. And the talk about money (as I have come to know from many people who talk about it) almost always comes out money-ish. Money-ish because money is like an affair – well known and regarded by many, but rarely talked about. It is like an affair because it is ‘better’ left underground than exposed or talked about. That is how we all feel at most. Money-ish talk is hated because many people tend to assume that we don’t talk about money unless we are loaded and again reloaded… meaning that we should be having money in order to talk about money. I don’t know if that is right, and considering that I am a man, and that men “don’t love talking about money because such talk demands too much from them”, I tend to also bow my head and try to whisper on this post rather than shout as I always do…

I think that it is petty thinking for someone to think that we should only talk about stuff when we are ‘well equipped’ to do so. Maybe what we should consider is that – the more you surge into the unknown, the more you will have the urge to become better in such depths, [maybe] while being motivated by the power of overcoming the underdog spirit and the possibility of being better at a game you were thought to be a failure at... So the question becomes: How can we ever invent new ways of doing things or dealing with issues and become anew [and better], while at the same time avoid being like our predecessors unless we try out the things they never tried when they were our age and do (not just try to do) the things they never did?

So what I call money-ish talk in this post is such talk about money that comes out as expensive, intricate and more financial – and by financial I mean “talk of finances/money-related-issues-gurus”. Gurus talk money-ish talk. I talk money-talk. The common thing about the two is money, but the difference is money. Money-ish talk leaves one breathless and suffocated, judged and tormented, helpless and blurred. Money-talk is just between us – no professionalism included. Just plain money and all that… So I want you to ease yourself because I am not going to be money-ish - at least not for today…

I have been walking around, relating with and making observations and also engaging with people both in the Christian and secular world just to find out views of young people like myself on issues of money. I have no statistics but I have observations; and those are enough to make statistics, right?

One thing that I have found-out out there is that people tend to value or devalue others with regard to the presence or absence of money. Society depicts us as relative and able to be accommodated when we have something to offer… when we can bring something to the table… when we can call out shots with the influencing power of finances… when we are stable pocketwise… when we can’t and won’t beg… when we command things around and give orders to two or three people who submissively obey us… when our money, money, money language is at tops and can’t be locally challenged…

A lady or a guy [or gentleman] today is likely to accept to be in a [working] relationship with a man [or woman] more in the following order (considering and assuming that love or the chemistry between them is triggered by the degree affluence of either); they should look good (most of which is determined by what they wear that requires money in order to afford – from clothing to shoes, to grooming), they should be of good status (as determined by the gadgets they possess – phone, laptop, car, a great house…), they should be educated (who buys ‘good English’ anymore, or a ‘paper degree’ in any case? – good schooling needs money, and that translates to one coming from a financially stable family or they themselves being stable), they should be supportive (above 50% of the support being financial)…

So we come to realize that if the other party scores below the bar (whatever the set bar may be), and they are in most cases neglected, discriminated or assumed when matters of money, money, money collide with their desires. It is that bad. Life becomes that challenging to the single man/woman… Money, money, money… No wonder there are many single people claiming that they just can’t find THAT right person for them, bla bla bla…

70% [that is my guess] of relationships and marriages today are either made or unmade by the presence or absence of money. It is always money this, and money that… and a relationship or marriage is thus put into weird parts of a balance…

And to move further, the chaos is even in the church – this money, money, money thing. It can be seen when one family or person is respected, honored and highly regarded by others (leave alone the pastor) and more cared for… just because they are better in giving more offering or tithe, or because they contribute more to church projects…

When one is moneyed, they can’t hide. Money is too loud. It shouts all day, and hails your countenance all night. It magnifies one’s presence that a short man will never be short when money is what he/she daily multiplies. Money hides no one, and no one eternally hides their financial ability. Money speaks a language of its own that keeps popping up details about a given man/woman. Money says so many things about a person that is mostly left unspoken. That is money my friend… That is money. Money and its power on our countenance… Ecclesiastes 7:12a [NIV]: “Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter…”

Money is all about knowing that it exists, and that in its existence, it has power. It is all about knowing how to honestly get it and that it is beautiful when it is well used; and [partially] acknowledging that your desire to meet it (and in one way or another, to use it) is probably more saturated than that towards your Bible… It is also important to acknowledge that we all need a level of financial independence or stability in our friends or family or in our own lives; and that today’s world is so much centered on money – it being almost what makes up what men/women do today. We need to realize that the talk is no longer about the basic needs we were taught about while growing up, but about another that we have learned is more essential today… money, money, money… Our generation has taught us something different. Our orientation towards money has increased. And it is increasing more and more as generations go by. Our longing for money has heightened. That is the way it is… We therefore live with that reality…

But on the other hand, we need to accept the realities availed to us, evaluate them, and later sweep them over with a broom of Truth – that the countenance of a man is not made up of wealth and things thereof… but of his relationship(s) with fellow men and with God. Thus if money is of greater importance to a man than another’s comfort, respect or welfare, that man has forgotten that which Christ did for us, and that which He became in order that we may come forth as the people we should be  (2 Corinthians 8:9: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.) I am not saying that we should be poor, as in poor, but that the Scripture above points out Christ, the greatest of them all, to not have valued His heavenly wealth and pomp (at least for a time) in order to make us acquire that which we even never knew of – the Kingdom of heaven; yet we who should be His most devoted followers, act prejudiciously against others and value the wealth of this world above fellow men… We should be more ashamed, and more humiliated at the direction of our filthy actions… for our righteousness has become like filthy rags…But more important, even in the event of our filthiness, we should with repentant hearts remember that “…the love of money [above all else] is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs…” (1 Timothy 6:10) …

So what shall we do? Nothing?

Shall we say and do nothing?

No, we will neither say nor do nothing

For ‘nothing’ should exist not to the living

We will tell it loud to everyone assembled

That money, money, money; that sweet and tasty thing

That mighty and destructive thing - is only momentary

It shall fade away; it shall drawn away

So allow not yourself to drain away… with it…

O, money, money, money

You little paper thing

You small clustered metal

That on the minds of men

Cries, “Honey, honey, honey”…

Money, money, money

Shall we ever know today how to live with,

And henceforth kill your might?

Morris.

Spies, Stalkers and So on...

Imagine I had already dozed away while watching a movie. I rarely do that. But that does not entirely mean that the movie was boring, or that it was less engaging, or that it was late in the night, but because [I am told] that is what happens when a tired aging boy watches several episodes of such a cool movie… he falls asleep without wanting… and therefore is forced to tell Mr. Sleep, “I am coming darling, am on my way…”  

And so I was in bed reminiscing. Reminiscing? Yeah, somehow. Gazing at my phone at most, and thinking at least. I was between wondering why I had to be sleeping early and what I was going to do with the time before actually falling asleep.

But then while in that status, just as it does to most of us so-called writers, the spirit of writing befell me. And you can only imagine what I did. A clump of excitement came upon me. A pizza-ish kindof amazingness and I had to throw off my blanket, switch on the TV to give me some trickled light and switch on this laptop to write. I had also to right then remember that just some few years ago, the routine was the same, but the actions were [or would have been] different. The point being that I just used to light up a spot light (what I grew up calling a ‘torch’) and get some pen and paper to note down those many points that came out of nowhere and that were mercilessly rushing through my mind (like Ugandans thieving our precious fish from Migingo’s environs)… and as a by the way, you know about The Battle of [or is it for?] Migingo, right?

It was midnight of course. Thursday night. Meremembers that I told you something about me and Thursday nights, right? OK. So the question was, what should I have done [on a typical Morris-Thursday night] when an idea comes to my mind and I so well knew that if I wouldn’t write it down sooner it will vanish away by morning and no kind of bribery in Kenya could bring it back? Huh? So this is what I did – I sat down and made an introduction to this post which I am finishing up today…
I remembered of how several years ago in my High School days while in Form One, there was a girl who used to fancy me (OK forgive me Me Lady and Me King for such shoddy thoughts right before your well bred ears, eyes and mind…). Did you hear that? I didn’t fancy her, [I swear], but she fancied me a lot. Yeah she did. So you ask, “Kwenda huko Morris, how did you know that?” OK. Chill. Wacha nikupe story…
This is what used to happen (and thank God that decency was still 80% around us in those days and a dude could still have a crush [woreva that is] on a lady and vice versa and do nothing about it… hehe). I think that was cool. [A hand clap for chaps who existed in bafo-oo days like myself…!] [Imitates a teacher] Good. And thank you. Back to the story. This happened often (what I am gonna talk about) and, [I swear], I never enjoyed it. It was after, you know [David Rudisha style], you know, uuuummmmhhh, after say, you know, break times (lunch, tea break, supper bla bla bla), and I (the cool, innocent chap that I was then – after ng’arisharing my ‘fyatu’ [viatu]) and I was relaxed and was making noise (kuunda kelele) (I think that’s what monos do after scrambling for food the whole day) with this desk-mate of mine who was a practical joke in existence – Philbert, [I holla at you boy!] and was passing away my Prep Time (wallahi ilikuwa inaitwa hivyo) with cypress sticks in my teeth. And just so that you may know, those sticks were precious commodities only used after meat days kama Saturday hivi. Yaani once in a week. Philbert was the kind of dude that could make [unda] jokes but never laugh at them – like our old Kibaki – pumbafu tuuuu…! Philbert was such a big potato! But I guess he was orange-fleshed… hehe… (I hope wherever you are my dear friend, people still consume Vitamin doses of jokes for their ailing souls… and sooner I may be coming to analyze the amount of that content in your head…!)

So back to the story… Yeah, she [I won’t tell you her name lest that guy Mzalendo [what is his other name?] takes me to court for hate speech] had this mirror (chics always have mirrors, right?) in her hands all Prep Time. She had a mirror in one hand [right hand I guess] with a sponge-like thing in her left – hey ladies, what do you call those things? [Pardon me please]. But it was not the mirror that was the problem. The problem was that I used to sit right behind her nikiunda kelele huku nikishuku kama ni real for a right-handed chic ku-hold a mirror in her right hand na huku ameshika hiyo ‘sponge’ in her left. Sikuwa nashikanisha hiyo story vi-poa. Najua pia wewe unajaribu kuishikanisha saa hii.. hehe… And Philbert being the good Vitamin guy he was, used to ensure that I got the reality of things >>>> “Wee Bonny, anakuangalia kwa mirror, si umwendee umwambie umejazika na yeye!” Gosh! [By the way, are guys allowed to say that anymore?] And the me that I was then used to go like, “Checky Phil, anajiunda-unda tu. Si unachecky alikuwa amewahi ‘powder’ mob?! Anajaribu kuipunguza punguza kwa uso asikae kama ametoka posho mill na tuko chuo… ticha on duty anaweza kuleta noma jo!” Hehe… and the evening would fade away and the day would go away, and still the next day would come, and I would expect the same styro [style] of doing things… Did I mention that she sometimes desperately wanted to know if I had a girlfriend and in a working relationship? But [I swear] hehe, I never enjoyed it! I am so sure of it because I have a good memory dudes/dudettes! Eish! End of story. Yeah, end of story! Hehe… Sitaendelea na hiyo story… The end point is – she enjoyed it and I knew it, but I was not interested… [Walking away with swagga and pride…]

And now you are seated there (and I don’t really care if you are standing or sleeping) reading about stories from my High School days, huh? Haiya! I don’t blame you. I blame your curiosity. I blame your antics. I blame your desire to know more about me and that girl – because you have realized that the one I have just told you is a Form One story, yet we finished High School together… hehe… I don’t blame you. I blame your digging mentality, your Google abilities and your Discovery Channel affiliations.

So to be clear about this, everyone spies around, but for different reasons. That is a fact. We all are spies of others but for diverse reasons. Some stalk others on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google + and Twirra] by peeping through their status(es) and profiles, wishing all the time that they had the passwords to their social media accounts so that they may read they inboxes and DMs. Maybe so that they may just feel good about it, or so that it may give them some kind of satisfaction, or so that they may stalk even more come tomorrow, or so that they may see if they are the potential other(s) they are (or have been) desperately looking for… Some Google others on the internet and waste the whole day checking out all their profiles from one website to another, ogling at their photos and wishing themselves into fantoism [if you know what that is…] Some borrow phones to intentionally check out people’s inboxes and phonebooks, to determine what others call them in those phones, and see how close someone is close to the other... Some spy their ex just to know if they have moved on… Some spy on their girlfriends/boyfriends due to doubt insecurity issues… 
People have abilities my friend. Up above normal abilities. Some can bluetooth themselves your thoughts and anticipate your next step. Some can even know where you are while you have no idea you are there. Some are airborne and can work like Google Maps (I think iOS6 may just needs their services) and can locate you anywhere. Some know what I ate yesterday and what I am going to eat tonight - they can rival God in predicting abilities (so they may think). Some know things about you that had already forgotten... My friend, people have stalkabilities!
Some do it for good reasons; like for research purposes (to find the right partner to work with in professional matters), or to be conversant with whoever they are befriending on social media, or just understand the basics of a person… bla bla bla… It happens. These things DO happen my friend. And you and I cannot be left out. Si pia wewe hufanya hivo ma-time? Hehe… I stalk people too. I know you only wish you knew who I stalk and why…

This is what I will say about this issue: Spy on people, stalk them, get their number(s) from their Facebook walls and Private-call them as you please or as you like. Become their followers on Twirra so that they may follow you back, DM them if you please, but let your intentions be pure. Use mirrors, use Google, use whatever is at your disposal, but my dear friend, let your intentions remain to be pure. Also remember that sparing them their privacy is very important. Everyone needs it sometime… and maybe always…

Wishing you a stalk(ful/free) weekend,

Morris.

In Praise of a Song

Though within me a game of emotions resounds

Melancholic, endeavoring chimes of sadness

Reminiscence mixed with suspense,

And I may ask myself “whence shall I run to quench mine endless angst?”

Then herein my symphony will I hold so dearly

So dearly as my onlest source of bliss!

Say they that in aptness shall mankind find calmness

But I think that in calmness man hides his utmostness

And in utmostness shrivels his consciousness

The power of soundmindedness…

But so have I chosen to hold mine tempest, my wildest

In the confines of symphonies

For when the ice comes out coldest,

Then shall I sing again my best to make me warmest,

O symphony, my truest and utmost friend…

There erupts in a lonely wild

An edge of cliffhanger sounds

Yawning into my being the longing for a sound, for a symphony

Then knowest I not the yonder of one song

Till I join in its deliverance and wonderful ambience

In its beauty and benevolence,

O symphony, my truest and utmost friend…

Music wails in my soul

Calling after me, after you

Music resounds in my heart

Calling out to me, out to you

It trails me away as I follow its path

Into the wild freshness of a sound

Into the deep keenness of a song

Ripping me apart and altogether mending my soul

Taking me up high and altogether soothing me right down…

O symphony, my truest and utmost friend…

I will seek thine refuge but not only in thee

But in the Master of such

For He has placed you in the innermost depths of me

That I may make men joy in His unending gladness…

Morris. 

10 “Simple” Things that we Love Taking for Granted

Let me introduce you to the natural things you already know. At least I can always say that I have a way with normal common things and I love twisting their commonness until you see them common no more. Life is all about appreciating the little things we have; and they are those little things that create the bigness that we desire to be eternally plugged into. Maybe learning to practice these little things will make you start loving life and the many different people you meet daily. Here they are;

1.      God

God is not tiny and is not a ‘thing’, but He is the one of the most important things we love taking for granted today. In my previous post “What is More Important”, I addressed as to why it may be highly possible that today’s modern world has deviated from a way of religion (or reverence to any form of piety) and instead decided to worship materialism. If God has been taken for granted in your life (regardless of what religion you subscribe to – but majorly if you are Christian, the God of the Bible), you need to catch up with Him. You need to get hold of Him. Yeah, you need to. This is because you are lacking a connection with the one who brought you into this world and who is the only one that can fully define why you are where you are and when (and why) you should be in the next place you go to. And not only that, but because you need to reciprocate such a love He showed by selflessly giving out himself to save you and me…

2.      A smile

So many people need your smile. They don’t have to ask you for it, but you have to live knowing that, a smiling face is friendlier than a gloomy one… a smile attracts people to you. Humor attracts friendship. So, do you need friends? Smile. But if you won’t, then expect nothing more, because no-one loves being around a fussy person…

3.      A ‘thank you’ or way of appreciation [both to God and man]

There are some of us who never learnt the rules of etiquette or think that saying ‘thank you’ is being ‘soft’ or ‘nice’ or ‘wimpy’ or ‘less manly’ for the guys. You should reverse what you were taught by the society you grew up in. If someone (or God) does something for you which you were unable to do by yourself – or which you were able to do and they did it anyway - (regardless of whether it is ‘small’ or ‘big’), a way of appreciation and gratefulness that is simplest is to  genuinely look them into the eye and honestly say, “Mun or gal or God,  thank you for all that. You made my day”. Let me tell you it goes along way…

4.      A pat on the back or a compliment

No-one dislikes being congratulated. Men love being admired – and especially by the lady he considers most important from the rest; women love receiving compliments and being flattered – especially by the man closest to her heart. If this is done more often (and even friend to friend or husband to wife and vice versa), our relationships won’t be that complicated. A compliment drives out strife born by being unsure of another’s affection…

5.      A practical way with truth

Word has it that your only best friend tells you the whole truth and nothing less. They will care that you know it and deal with it. So aspire to correct someone (in a loving way) so that they may not go astray; because it may be true that they don’t know about (or they have not been knowing about) the (good or bad) consequences of what they do or what they are doing.

6.      Honesty or faithfulness

      If you care at all, be honest; and if you need your friendships and relationships to last long enough, be faithful. Even the Bible says (Proverbs 3:3: Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart…). Be honest with yourself. Be honest with others. It is that simple. Lies are abhorred both by man and God, and no one wants a liar for a friend because such people smell of blackmail and insecurity!

7.      A show of ‘petty’ kindness

Be gentle. Be kind. It is not a show of weakness but of might and strength. Only the strong cry with others and sympathize with them. Only the strong are needed for friends. Only the strong are reliable… So no matter how that thing you were going to do is going to make you feel ‘drawn down’ it may just be what someone is waiting for before they call you a true friend…

8.      A hug and a heartfelt greeting

Give a hug to a lady as you give a strong well-meant handshake to a man. Greet people you meet. Say, ‘hi’. Get in touch with their worlds. Reach out to them. Feel them. You may never know when you are saving somebody my friend…

9.      A tiny build of trust

If there has been occasions when your friendship was doubted, build it with trust. Trust is a mechanism that makes people say, “At least they (meaning you) won’t betray me even when worse comes to worst…”. You need trust when dealing with God, and you need it when dealing with fellow men; so go out there and make people believe in what you say, what you do, what you desire, what you believe in, and how you do things. It is all up to you, if you need tininess to grow bolder and bigger by the day… cause someone to trust you, and aspire to believe in people also…

10. Selflessness, a ‘little’ generosity and a ‘little’ sacrifice

One last thing is being that friend that dies for your friend(s). Jesus has shown us that He is such a friend – one who forsakes all the good He had in order to make us to later share it with Him – He is such a selfless friend. We can learn that a friendship is of high quality because it shows others the godliness in us, and that being generous (with the much or little we have) goes a long way to stamp our concern, care, love and affection towards others. Someone (even a stranger) needs your well-intended selfless behavior, your generosity and your sacrifice in seeing that they are well cared for…

I know that the world we live in has (or may have) a very different way of seeing and doing things, but probably, the best thing to do is to become a better people for the general wellness of others. I think then, we will be driving our lives into accomplishing that which God created us for… And for that reason, I will give you a new code of operation: "Thus take nothing for granted, because you never know when that which you neglected was (or will be) highly needed by your immediate or distant neighbor..."

Morris.

Christianity and Stoicism

He threatened me the very first time I met him. Fever and all that. Like an apple terrifies a tomato’s peace; or like iOS terrifies something Chinese… He was dumb. I don’t know the right word to use to describe my feeling of his quietness, but he was kind-a like mute. Passive. He tingled my mind to want to understand him. He was a subject of distorted realities. A motionless creature, maybe. I watched him sweep away pain and sensitivity to emotion like the sun peels away the gloom of dark in an amberly way. He threatened the truisms in existence with such ease – counter changeably – like it was a mistake for some things to really make sense, and in his case, any sense at all. I felt like my innermost being really wanted to understand him, it screamed so loud for discernment; yet the other side of me that is always in touch with reality wanted so much to question him… such a creature in mortality that was jumpy in every bit of description. He was beastly and unwitful. Yet at the top of it all, he was Christian…

“But was I less?” I wondered. “Should I have been less? Why should I have been less anyway? Who said I was less? Less Christian than he was, huh?”

Some Christianity lacks emoticons… I should say. I should say that some Christianity lacks emoticons… Some Christianity lacks fun. It lacks motion and fervency. It lacks laughter and easiness. It lacks the life-smile. It lacks joy and passion. It is flat to the ground. It is warped and dead (or dying if I have to be a little ‘fair’), and shriveled, and painful, and weird, and too sharp, and somehow cunning, and brief, and paradoxical and - according to G. K. Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy” - full of orthodoxy, and conventionalism, and blunt (although sharp in some way)… The terms of its existence are like a gas pump without oil…

But we meet it every day. We interact with it. We know it. Maybe sometimes we secretly admire it, and then most times we abhor it. Blunt stoic Christianity. It wants no pleasure, it knows no pain, it cries not, it laughs not, it cares less. Blunt stoic Christianity. It ties itself to spiritual plumpness. It denies pain. It carries with itself lots and lots of heaviness and uneasiness. Blunt stoic Christianity. It is what I have to talk about today.

The Christian life we live today has been overhauled into two extremes: either into a ‘radicalized’ sense of religion with taints of secularism or; into orthodox spirituality which grabs petty laws and converts them into dogmas of religion. In simple terms, you will meet as many Christians as you can’t count who subscribe to the notion that spirituality is being separate from any kind of physical pleasure (say as a result of money or prestige) and the ultimate pretence that pain, sickness and any form or displeasure is intolerable and should neither be existing nor be thought of. It is a life that most of us live - a life lacking the balance between genuine pleasure and materialistic pleasure. We have been taught to abhor pleasure – the whole lot of it – even good pleasure. We are desperate and struggling to live in the “now” that is today. We are struggling so much with the reality that is “now”. We abhor TV – even good TV, we deny the blend of fashion on us – even decent fashion. We don’t watch movies (or soaps). Some of us don’t watch news. We hate the internet and social media because ‘they are impure’. We hate good phones. We hate this and we hate that. We hate those who speak in tongues tagging them as ‘noise makers’ who should just do whatever they are doing in their privacy. We hate people who jump when they praise and worship. We are not friendly, not even to people of the Faith. We don’t even befriend people of the secular world in the name of them making us impure in one way or another (and I am not advocating for ‘befriending pagans’ but that it is important for a Christian to be social and suitable in his/her immediate environment). We are pathetic!

So I always wonder (about such people, like that guy up there and who may include myself) if God at all created pleasure for the secular world or for ‘the heathen’ as most of us love calling them. Were we created to be called to either evade pain or deny it all through our existence? Were we formed in the image of God so that our lives may be full of running away from things or people, even those we love; all in the name of acquiring the highest fonts of spirituality?

I am just wondering.  Am just wondering.

Of course we have been commanded (or instructed) not to engage in any kind of civilian life

(2 Timothy 2:3-4: Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer…) and therefore  should put our obedience in (and to) Christ above our own meager pleasures, remembering mostly where we are headed than where we are. But Christ Himself was in touch with His environment – He knew that he was going to the Father, but still wept when people died, and had compassion on some when they stayed hungry. He was angry and hungry countless times. He made friends - with his disciples and tax collectors, and Pharisees like Nicodemus – many friends, many kinds of friends. Christ was in touch with His immediate environment, although his lack of sin was (and still is) highly impeccable (Hebrews 4:15). This makes me wonder what say, His reaction(s) or behavior would be if he were to meet a guy like me today. I am sure that the Jesus I know would command me, “Don’t be a hypocrite like the Pharisees…!” then He would add some few statements here and there to confirm His allegations (as it would seem to me)… But again I may ask, “What would Jesus do today to remain Holy in such an imperfect and sinful world…?” The answer is simple: He would live a common and normally life without too much religious sophistication, but loving people and smiling at them, and being merciful and compassionate – He is the same Jesus, right? The one who doesn’t change, right? He will still do what He’s gotta do in order to achieve that which the Father sent Him to do – to offer help and redemption to mankind in any (and every) way possible…

Here is the endpoint: you don’t have to feel ‘fake’ or uneasy in the presence of one (or many) who glory in mortal piety and ‘spiritual strictness’, but rather feel inadequate before the One who demands that we obtain from Him immortal righteousness – that which He Himself has made us to become. For we are his righteousness, and not our own righteousness. We don’t have to be hard on ourselves in order to please God. We don’t have to pretend that pain or affection or love or desire does not exist, but learn and know how to channel all of them in a godly way to the rightful place until we achieve that which God has created us to become… his righteousness – and not blunt stoic self-righteous Christians!

Morris.

What Is More Important?

-         There is worship, and there is warship, and both belong to a soul…

The philosophy of materialism replies to the question of “What really matters in life?” with one answer, “Hedonism is the answer to every question that has satisfaction somewhere in the middle…” Such a philosophy declares to the entire world that mankind is a slave to his schemes of endlessly seeking for satisfaction. It openly confesses that he cannot save himself from the pleasure he indulges in or creates, nor can he redeem his soul from the influence of affluence; thus copying and pasting into our present times the timeless mentality theme of money being man’s main source of contentment – a driving force that keeps pushing him towards itself…

I don’t mind that money is important, because it is important. Money is special and important. I don’t question the power and potential it carries, because it is what it is – it has potential. And power. Even the Bible says so. Money has power – a power that increases with its accumulation; but a closer observation into the affairs of the present world – and the past ages too - forces us to understand (or misunderstand) the question of wealth (money), pleasure, intellectualism, meaning and satisfaction. The many things we may learn or might have learnt as life shoots before us may teach us (or might have taught us) facts on hedonism that have a broken tail and with no head in view; but if present, confused all through… The question of what I value most in my life today is wanting. I may not even know what I really want. Many accept and appreciate that without questioning. It is common nowadays. It seems normal not to know where I am coming from or where I am going to. I am excused not be sure of what really drives my life. I am allowed not even care to know. That is the life we experience in we people who live today – a life without meaning and direction – and we all seem so okayed with it; but eventually, we find out that life succumbs right before us and we sooner than later are drying and dying and diminishing and ending into frailty day by day, thanks to the lack of knowledge of what we are doing or why we are doing what we are doing.

Deeper within, the life fact is that something somewhere should more important than everything else in our lives, even if we can’t definitely speak out the to’s and fro’s of our deepest beings – even if it is so loudly unspoken… and that unspoken words speak loudest… - that very essence of such an existence screams so loud into our ears that we may end up being scared that it is us being addressed, thus destruct us from getting in touch with reality… Money haunts us most – the lack or presence of it. It haunts us most. Money loves us most – the pull and push of it. It is our conflict and our resolution. Somehow, every part of today’s world hovers around money. To get it. To have it. To use it. To maneuver through times with (and by) it. To just be moneyed… It may be true that the voiceless noises of poverty have killed our right view of how good money is or the search for it, and also deviated our optimism towards gaining it… Such a poor thing that makes people “rich”…

And schooling has just made it worse - meet a young man (or young woman in any case) and ask them why they go to school. They may (or may not) answer you back with the accent of superiority of learnedness to illiteracy. They may imply to you that it is constructive - and it is. We value education. It is good to be educated. Intellectualism has become our greatest ego booster. But neither education or shear intellectualism has the capacity to fill the vacuums created by lack of true knowledge and wisdom. They are only but fluff in the game of wisdom.

But get me right on this one. I am neither complaining (or hating) about education nor wealth nor pleasure; but about the vision thereof and the attitude compounded in such crimsons. I am not against intellectualism, because what you read here is a result of such strives. But I am just loudly wondering why we at all have to crown our educational abilities as the main source of a better status in life… I am just wondering why we should think that being educated makes us run into a “better” world… No wonder one Malcolm Muggeridge wrote and said, “We have educated ourselves into imbecility”. We live lives intertwined with philosophies. Philosophies of wealth and money. We live like philosophies. Philosophies of well-being and aptness. We think philosophies. We imagine philosophies. We create some and trash some, but always live many – empty philosophies. We are proud of intellectualism because education is a philosophy on its own – that which owns our minds and twists all rounds of our thinking. We were born into the present generation thinking of and knowing that education has all that we need for our future. We have become lazy in factualism and positive dialectics, but have adopted argument and “policy thinking” as our sources of what is right. Many of our lives somehow hang on one word or another breathed out of the mouths of gurus and nerds teaching us in the lone class of “respect-cum-honor bound fellas”.

Such lives as described above leave us with so many ‘if only’s’. We live in the ‘if-only’ era. An era that values words and thoughts of our own and of fellow men than those of a well intended source. We always will regret later. Yes we will. Our relationships are always held on the loose. Our relationship with God. And with fellow men. And with friends. And with our spouses. And with ourselves… they fade away slowly and we end up realizing that we can’t even meet ourselves anywhere – all at the expense of loving money and education. Broken relationships. Divorces. Emptiness. Broken selves. Forgotten selves. The price for highly regarding hedonism and intellectualism is quite expensive. Time has proved it thus. We will be heard crying, “If only I had known” or “If only I had done this or that…” We should not allow it to happen to us too late in the game of life, because those questions are always asked with a lot of bitterness in the heart and with fear and failure furiously staring us in the face… And we may never have the answers right then. We may never manage to deal with the reality of things…

I am not ashamed to confess that so many of us today can’t unblinkingly answer that question up there with confidence and without mentioning money or status somewhere between – just as the philosophy of materialism depicts. We tend to say, “My name is Bonface Morris Otunga, I studied (or study) bla bla bla, at bla bla bla with the likes of bla bla bla, I hold a bla bla bla in… I work at bla bla bla… I live at bla bla bla…” and the story is endless… That has inseparably become our definition of us. Titles. Names. Status. Power. Origin. Education. Ego. It has become who we are. They have become who we are. Right? Yeah, all those are cool. They should be there. They are meant to be there. But what carries most of the weight of our definition of us is who we remain to be to our families, friends, spouses (or boyfriend/girlfriend) and most important, to God. Having the titles and taking care of our relationships is what should be our goal- our ultimate goal. Striking the balance between all this is what determines how well we can define who we really are and what is really important to us; and if at all what we believe in is meaningful to all…

In Foundations of Achievement (A character development program by John E. Schrock), under the Management Principle of Debt, he writes and says, ”You cannot be happy by being independent. We were designed to be relational…” and C. S. Lewis once said, “Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is "finding his place in it," while really it is finding its place in him....

Two songs I do wish you would listen to:

“Identity” by Lecrae (ft. Da’ T.R.U.T.H. & JR) and “Fantasy” by Da’ T.R.U.T.H. (ft. JR)…

So once again, “What is really important… to you?”

Morris.