Of Love and Falling in Love

Maybe you should not read this post, or perhaps, you really should because I’m writing it both for myself and for anyone in a relationship or for those aspiring to get into one… It is going to be a really long one, I promise…

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Emotions are like a fuel that is extraordinarily unquenchable. I am one of those guys who believe that emotions are real and they DO exist. I believe that emotions are part of life. That they are as common as hearts in mankind. I believe that an emotion, though as weak as a leaf in the strong winds, should be guarded just as firmly as one will guard a treasure. I believe that an emotion is a stupid (but very wise) thing that always seeks to control mankind; and it may if allowed to… I believe that you need some of it (or them) for a life to be complete. I also believe that you can’t fully pretend to be lacking an emotion – even one or two. You may lack one, but you will absolutely have the other…

Yeah, emotions are two-faced.

Emotions make life either colorful or colorless, bearable or unbearable. They are the main facilitators of the artwork that is mortal and/or physical life, I think. They are cunning and beautiful, scanty and dutiful, real and unreal at most, they are rich and poor – all depending on the handiwork of the artist (who is the person subjected to them).

Then in our daily walks, we stumble upon this one emotion called love. An emotion which has all sorts of extreme artwork on people’s lives (and hearts). I always wonder who invented it. Love. Yeah, I always look at it and wonder. Sincerely asking, who invented this thing that all mankind runs after? Who thought it out and placed it in peoples’ hearts? I think God did. God did. I know He did. God knew that maybe this should be the fuel that joins mankind together by a fire that is unquenchable. He knew that only such a thing (Greeks love to define it in many forms, but I am dealing with the kawaida one here – the eros and/or storge one maybe with a lil bit of agape). Aristotle (that great Greek philosopher) defines love as ‘one soul in two bodies’… Something incomprehensible. Something immortally indescribable. Something beyond imagination. Something too big, yet too tiny… A feeling of madness without control… stupidity even… Love.

Everybody is in need of it. Those in denial die privately longing for it. I bet you also want it. Need it. Imagine it. Just imagine. You even crave it maybe… I can’t deny the reality of it. I believe in its existence. Love is a paradox of a kind. It is a masterpiece and the king of all emotions - it paints and forges; it moulds and distorts, it builds and destroys all kinds of people. No-one is too strong for love. (OK. I don’t know if that is true.)

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And then there is falling in love: an emotion I define as ‘a commotion of emotions to give lots of space to one emotion (love) towards one person, and with increased madness…’ Those who know these things say that falling in love is that season in life when only one person seems to make lots of sense to the other and only one emotion speaks for the heart: love. In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that love is not food that ‘yo momma gives to ya.’ It ain’t. So don’t expect to receive it like food or a good…

From Hallmark, you find out that, “Love Comes Softly”. 

Surely, love comes softly… And love should not be an obsession either. Love should just come softly. Love should just be let to be. It should not be forced or imposed, or incited or pulled around (as displayed in the many soap operas people love to watch) but should be allowed to come, grow and mature softly. It is one thing that should be given time to mature. People may "fall in love" on first sight but they also should know that when challenges come, their love, if it was meaningful and true, should grow to overcome them…

It is said that we men (the male species) love pretending that we don’t ‘fall in love’. I even had gotten used to believing so in some way. But better said, the truth is that we fear being weak. Men are ‘ego beings’. Ego beings would rather die than confess that they are not in control. (Because love makes you weak and vulnerable somehow.) And men hate that. But women, as I have been told, and as it has always been known (except a few who are emerging in this generation as I have come to know), are very vulnerable to the antics of love. They dream of it. They crave it all the time. They seek for it. They hunt for affection almost everywhere. Ladies (and women in general) are ‘affection’ beings. A woman would rather live with a beast that adores her and kisses her pains off than with a king who says nothing to her. A woman loves hearing things said. Beautiful good-for-nothings. She loves things whispered into her ears in a certain way. Every woman does. They may pretend not to, but that’s how God wired them – Genesis 3:16 (NIV), “…your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you…” So somehow we should never blame a lady for loving soap operas and being a victim of men’s love schemes, because they were wired that way – to seek and long for the one who will fill the gap of love – that longing for a hug, for a kiss, for affection, for stupid words, for security… bla, bla, bla… although as a matter of fact, not all ladies are the same…

The question of whether love exists for all to enjoy, or even that a person can only fall in love with one person at a time (I don’t know if I should say in a lifetime?!) is a tough one to answer. And concerning that, I don’t yet have an answer. But both Biblically and naturally, love does exist; and with that, I can say that you can fall in love so many times. Love has caused many wars and yielded lots of peace too – right from the beginning…

So one may also ask, “What particularly makes one feel that ‘they are in love’?” I don’t really know. But I will give you a glimpse of some truths concerning such a mega question. And it is the reason to why I am writing this post… 

NB: Read more from Boundless Website here – such a great website with great articles by the way…)

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A person’s feeling of love is all in their Love Language. It is revealed when their Love Language is well communicated to them – when it is amplified to their desire and liking… 

OK, I will elaborate that for you… 

A Love Language is a way in which one communicates the emotion of love and/or how one would love it spoken back to them. It is more than words. You see, every person has their Love Language. Not all people speak (or communicate or express) the same Love Language. So I want you to put this out of your mind – that all men can be fooled by body shapes, or nakedness, or lots of good food (as our moms taught ladies earlier); or that all ladies can be fooled by money, or gifts, or stupid words or bumpy six packs... 

The world is changing, and ways of loving are changing too. Everyone is unique in their own way. Diversity reigns more in this generation than ever before. One person loves a combination of different things in another person and vice versa. Whoever will communicate that language well by having rightful proportions of what is being sought for wins the game… That’s why the poor fall in love with the rich, the disabled with the able, the upright with mad people (the drum beats of soaps) as stories upon stories of love games unfold… Spiritual people (like myself) may raise the standards of the game just a bit taller by including more things to do with the other person’s spirituality, commitment to this and that… etc etc.

The main point however is that nobody should seek for a perfect person. 

Pastor Muriithi Wanjau of Mavuno Church, Nairobi says that we should seek to be ‘The One’ rather than looking for ‘The One’. Watch this sermon playlist here: Finders Keepers Series Videos. Perfect-love-matches DO NOT EXIST. They are only in Heaven. Only when in Heaven will you meet REALLLLY perfect people. What we call perfection down here is just a fad. It is a lie.

So, back to the Love Language… a guy (or man/husband in any case) should know and note what tickles his lady (or woman/wife in any case). He should know it. He should understand that she is different from other ladies or women and identify every detail of what really freaks her out and what really makes her tick. By understanding her likes and dislikes (because he is interested in her anyway), then will he be able to reach her fully by communicating in a way that will show her that he adores her… That he loves her. Whenever he will do that which pleases her most and makes her feel loved, he will be scoring very high on her Love Card (some kind of mental score card where one party notes various acts of love or affection). So, if a mad guy or a player or a freak knows a lady’s (or a guy’s) Love Language, it will not be so hard for them to win them over. 

And the same goes for the lady to her man – she will score exorbitantly on his Love Card whenever she does those things (after understanding him) that really make him feel appreciated. This also explains why any lady can turn a man’s heart upside down – just by knowing his Love Language and expressing it. The exchange of these two acts of Communicating the Love Language to one another is what makes people start saying, “I think I’m falling in love…” Yeah, it is that simple. Falling in love is a simple as breathing I guess. It ain't rocket science. It can happen to anyone, anywhere, at anytime and with anyone… It is not that mysterious… Love comes softly, dude/dudette! 

Now you get it, right?

To help you just a little bit, here are some general love language actions from both men and women (and I will only address those shared by the unmarried). Wait until I’m married to post the rest… (hehehe!);

About the guys

1. They love food (hehe… this should be true, I think)
2. They love their ego to be boosted with a few, “You are the guy”, or “You can do it” or “I am confident in you”, or “You make me feel secure”, or “You did that well”, or “Thank you” kind-of words – always spoken in tone that shows they are from your heart. And he should not be reminding you to say them – Eiiiiiiish!
3. They love to be in control. Say it, show them that they are in control – never try to directly rule over a man – give him his space. Men love space.
4. Support him – identify what he loves doing and support him if you can. Ask him about how’s doing at work, about ministry, about mum and dad and his family (hajakuoa bado lakini it is good enough) – show some concern and care laaady! And with some action too… Empty words are just empty words – that’s what they really are… empty words…
5. Don’t be a nag. All guys in the world hate nagging. We hate being pestered for the same thing over and over again as if we didn’t hear it in the beginning – ndo huwa tunahepa na ku-disappear. If he said he will do something, give him time, ask him later and leave it to him. A secret – all men have a ‘to do list’ of priority things to be done – yours is just somewhere on that list, and it may not be for today gal…
6. Guys are not angels or prophets to read ladies’ minds. In fact, ladies are so bad at that. We all are really bad at guessing. B e straight forward, We all hate to many details somehow so speak before we lose concentration…
7. Respect him.
8. Listen to him. Understand him… just know your guy… Eiiiiiish!

About the ladies

1. They eat words (although some really love food)… So guys, give them enough words to feed on. Spill over words of love and adoration. I mean, you saved guys really need to improve your vocabulary to meet the lady world before they all disappear into the world of the unsaved…
2. All ladies love humor. One joke in a while won’t harm. Enda utafute hata za Churchill Live!  Lakini si bora ziwe jokes, huh? Hehe… Achana na sura ya kazi all the time mtu nguaz!
3. Most of them love gifts. I have not met many who don’t. So stop being stingy and become a lil bit philanthropic for the sake of it… any gift will do I guess. Learn if she loves it expensive or just any… Take her out if it is her thing…
4. Tell them you love them. Gheee! This one is a bit tough *Hiding* Please don’t kill me guys… but they love hearing it from your lips..
5. Appreciate her, congratulate her, be kind to her… this list of things is endless oh dude! Just learn that she loves being treated with respect and tenderness… like a dove
6. Allow her to be right sometimes. Most ladies just love being right… hehe! Someone told me that sometimes it is over nothing really – it is just a spell they have…
7. Include her in your decision making. Don’t be this dictator who commands everything and hides everything… Gheee!
8. Text her, call her in the course of the day. Tell her good night. Those acts that make you feel wimpy are the very ones that will score you so much on her Love Card…

Please after reading this, and after all is said and done, don’t call me an expert in relationship matters or some kind-of perfect guy. Ooooooops! Nope. I wish you knew how messed up I am! But remember that as I am inspired to write, I am also learning… So, I say, go fall in love (or go better your relationship) because someone out there understands just how you love things to be expressed or communicated to you! 

Sincerely,

Morris.

Fathers’ Day Special

To my old chap, my dad, to all dads... and to God as the best father I’ve ever had...

Two songs I do dedicate to you:

1. Joel Engle’s ‘The Father I Never Had’ – to all of us who have never seen or had an experience with our mortal dads and;
2. Phillips, Craig and Dean’s ‘I Want to be Just Like You’ – to all of us who seek to emulate God as our eternal Father...

Dude! There are times I wonder what kind of father I will be. I always wonder like that because I realize that I’m growing old really fast. Just the other day I was 18. OK, let me start like this: just the other day, I was a baby. A baby. I should not imagine me being a baby. Dude! I should not. My dad used to call me with another name I may never tell you so soon. But I remember it anyway. I also remember how he used to call it out. I grew up riding horses (take that for being made old before your time). Sadly (or gladly also) I remember how he used to spank me to instil discipline in this messed up boy. And speaking of being messed up, boy I was. I was a real mess. From age 7 I already had known how to jump out of windows to escape punishment at school. I was a serial thief, a liar, a stone-thrower – all at the age of 7 – 10.

How would you feel if your only son is as messy as I was at an early age? It would only tell you that he will be the worst son a father can ever have. It is to indicate that you are a failing father. So to make his mark on my life, the old chap really used to work on my body. And I deserved it, I guess. I deserved it because being a lad and you don’t sleep at home for 2 days, you make technical appearances only to steal and potea again, you have several cases people have reported of you here and there was just bad. Weird. I was this lad who would steal and go out to gamble (that should have been when I was 12), watch a few movies, buy stuff... and just disappear from home. Breathe. Breathe again. Good.
Let me paint for you the picture of how it really is (and really was) having my dad around... Here we go...
Dude! My early life was spent running away from my dad. I didn’t like meeting him one-on-one. Nope. I think I really never liked him that much then as compared to my soft-spoken mum. The guy was a tyrant. A real one for sure. If he spotted me in the night after my escapades, I would face the music sung by his special mshipi that was entirely customized for my dorsal to anterior parts. I would cry. But in vain. Not even my mom would sooth the wrath of that old guy... And the drama went on and on, and on...

So my growing up distancing myself from him somehow worried him. I could see it in his eyes when I was in high school (and then I had grown into an innocent wreck... into a guy who talked less and operated under the MYOB code.) It scared him somehow. I think he feared that he was losing me. He feared that he may never reach me anymore. I was too demanding and a lil bit overlaid. Being the only son somehow spoils you... But he never allowed me to get spoilt. Thank you dad, because if you had, I would really be spoilt today. Thank you because in my adolescent days you allowed me to ‘mind my own business’ but under control. You allowed me to do my thing but not beyond boundaries. You talked to me somehow. And I answered back because of the ka-feeling of growing up. You knew that that is how boys behave when they want to informally tell you that their voices have changed from soprano-ish to tenor-bass-ish. You knew that I no longer wished to be told everything to be done. You allowed me to make decisions on my own, knowing that they will shape where I went. I am thankful that to today you allow me that freedom...

To make you understand a few things, my dad hana bro. Na mimi pia sina bro. I am like his bro kind-of. We are brothers kind-of. This dude is the tightest dude I’ve ever met. I am always wondering if I will ever be like my dad. He has shown me courage in many ways. He has shown me that you don’t beat up a lady (or a woman in any case) to make her see sense in what you are saying. He has taught me that you don’t prove points by yelling at people. The more the old chap has grown old, the calmer he has become. Of course there were days he used to make lots of noise. And I think it was rightfully so. He then had 5 naughty daughters and one filthy son – if it were you, what would you do, huh? I guess you would prove points by showing them you (and not them) are the man of the house. You would show them in words and in action. Man!

And about him and my mother, and for as long as I’ve known him, he has never laid a hand on her in the name of beating her. He has never insulted her. He has allowed her to sit him down and straighten a few things (because that always happens with marriage I suppose) but he has not allowed himself f to be controlled by his anger. When angry at her, as I would see, he would match out and chill off; only to return later and ask for food and after that – it’s bed time baby! BTW, I was telling one of my friends that until the day I was living with them a few years ago, he still called her ‘darling’ to our hearing – not in privacy but to the openness of our ears! Dude! Breathe again...

My dad has taught me that women should be loved (I know he loves my mom) and that the only way to be right sometimes is by allowing yourself to become wrong. He has allowed himself to be vulnerable (I think I took part of that to myself) by talking about his early days when he was my age – of how he acquired a Muslim name and it stuck, and of how and when he got married to my mom – how poor but favoured he was to marry a woman from... I won’t say that... hehe!). We talk a lot. He is not the kind of, ‘you are still a kid and have so much to learn’, but one of, ‘Yeah you are a kid, but you must learn how to grow up until you are my age’. He is over sixty you know... 

I love my dad. Yeah I do. People say we look alike... OK, that’s a story for another day... He is a courageous man. Even to today, when all of us are out here making life happen, he still is not the lazy fellow who waits to be fed – he takes care of his family still...

Concluding my chit chat, there is a movie I admire (one addressed by DJ Johni Celeb in his post ‘Man – An Endangered Species’) – Courageous. It is a movie I would like every man to watch. It is a good movie. I wonder if we, the men of today, shall rise up and become courageous for our God, our girlfriends, our fiancées, for our wives, for our children. I wonder if we will love them as Christ loves the Church. I wonder if men of this generation will be courageous at all. I wonder if this Fathers’ Day will remind us more of the great Father we have – our God. Such a Father who gave His only Son for us thus showing us the deepest love ever known. I only wonder. But I also hope that men will take their positions and rule, and guide, and show the way that this generation should go... I hope that God will be the very picture of a father we wanna be... Only Him is the best picture...

Morris.

Darkness – MYOB!

Darkness – MYOB!

So it is 10:30 in the night and I’m here with pen and paper writing this post wondering if the lights will be on for me to continue with my life of enjoying free things...

Today. No, it was yesterday’s night. I had this blank piece of paper before me. I had a pen in hand. Some wondering thoughts of where I should really begin at. I had a small fear. A fear of using pen and paper to write stuff after such a long, long time. I'm using pen and paper because I hate waking up to a dead phone battery. Or a dead machine...

You see, as much as we may love writing (I'm always excited about writing and I don't know why), it is quite complicated. Your thoughts may grasp a thought-line. A small one even. And you may tingle with excitement at what you’re gonna write... Most of the time you have it all figured out... like some plain that runs into a mountain, then into a sea, into the deeps of nowhere... something like that; but sometimes you are just holding onto nothing really – just a petty theme or a punch-line sort-of a thing... So for your information, I’m mostly scared to use pen and paper while writing. I used to love it, but I have no opportunity of doing thus today... not yesterday. That chance just evades me... until yesterday.

Anyways, this paper before me was (or is it ‘is’?) used paper. You know that paper you once used to print a document with and the document went wrong? Those that you preserve for ‘another day’ even if the other side of them looks weird just because you are so much into being Wangari Maathai’s faithful little brother? Yeah, those ones. I always have them stacked somewhere for some rough work, which really never comes that easily because I always happen to note down small, small things on my phone...

But let me stop there with the ‘hogwash’ talk... It is boring you, right?

I am supposed to talk about darkness, right?

Jana had been a cool day. Thursdays are always cool to me. And had wasted the whole day away doing nothing really... OK, I did help somewhere... but that was just ‘nothing’... And knowing that I am nocturnal, I knew that I was gonna recover all those wasted hours by working right into the night... Or so I thought.

My days always go something like: 1. Get from shughulis, 2. Dungilia  ‘passport’ – lol if you know what that means, 3. Then TV, from around 7.00 p.m., music, TV, movies, music, TV, movies... you know what that means..., 4. Work (what kind of work do people carry over to the house, huh?), 5. Supper, then 6. Back to TV, movies, music, TV, movies...

So I was kind-a prepared to cook the crumble and kick it rolling down the lane of commonness as routine depicts. I was high spirited you know. Thursdays always place me in such moods. No clothing to wash. No ironing of clothes. No nothing. The nights are always like that blank sheet of paper. Cool. Really cool. And waiting for my command. Which I always DO give with pleasure. But at 7.30 p.m., dude, power just went off! Electricity stopped its tour to  my house at I don’t know where. It just kwamaad. Somewhere. Gheee!
That is where it all begins. My Thursday night was predictably going to be a whacky one. The all pie-and-bliss day was gonna be turned into a dark arena without theatrics to gaze at. Dude, that was baaad! Imagine  I had to tolerate the wailing of dogs outside, the smell of air, dark air, the screaming of mosquitoes (ziko kwangu nyingi)... You can imagine how you can feel when you had wasted the whole day in order to use the night and all of a sudden, stima kwisha! Darkness has its owners (and don’t spiritualize this because that's just how I want it to be - I'm just talking about darkness ya kaawaa. Eiiiiiiiiish!). So I was sitting there thinking that those were the normal jokes electricity plays on us on this side of the world. (No pun on that. I appreciate that I’m African. I should be African. I love being African...). 2, 3 hours and there still was no power and it was then that I held pen and paper and I was writing this...

When darkness happens, things do happen. Darkness is always silent (at least where I stay) . So my immediate neighbour (a pedlar – I have another meaning for this noun, and it is the one I’m using now) came in, opened the door, and hesitated a lil’ bit then entered and his house just went blank. OK, I guess the ‘no power lifestyle’ also bores him...

So I went to Twirra a lil bit just to cool off the steam brought by the all-of-a-sudden darkeness. You know why I love twitter? Twirra is intuitive. Intuitive stuff always amazes me. Many stupid things DO amuse me. Like when I eat PK and my mouth smell does not change. I wonder why?  But Twirra is just so a-may-zin... You see, on Twirra there are no photo albums of people going places (we'd rather use Pinterest or s'm'e like Instragram - hata kama ilinunuliwa na Facebook)... Twirra impresses me a lot more than Facebook because on Facebook you meet packets of people (mostly) and not real people. And I have not said that I hate Facebook!. Please bear with me... The diffrence is, on Twirra there no common stories of 'oooh I'm feeling like this or somebody did that', no 'likes', no comments... Here, you mind your own business and keep it at that. And I love that. I love places where people mind their own business. I have it in short form (those things they call acronyms?) – MYOB! Minding your own business is cool. I then discovered that my phone may go off anytime, so I went outside. I heard my other neighbour sweeping. Sweeping, yeah. Sweeping in darkness. How and what do people sweep in darkness? I wonder. Why should they sweep at night anyway? There is tomorrow – a whole 12 hours of a glaring day to sweep, so why sweep in the dark? Morris, MYOB! OK.

I have ordained myself to be holding the record of sleeping the latest in the whole hood. Nobody beats me at that. 1.00 a.m. ain’t cheap. Try it out. It ain’t cheap! I had a dude neighbour of mine who used to sleep at 8.00. Damn! 8.00 p.m.! How can someone sleep at 8.00 p.m.? What is wrong with them? And to make it worse, whenever I went out (just like yesterday) to stretch my legs, the dude was snoring soooo looooudly... I guess yeye ndiye aliniibia usingizi wangu ndo huwa silali mapema... At those times singekuwa hata nimekula and the guy is already exploring slumberland! Again, Morris, MYOB!

And I had thought that stima itanishitua tu na ku-come! Haiku-come! 

So lazily I came back in... to write again... on paper. And it was still dark, motorbikes are all over outside... noises I couldn’t comprehend (I was told you don’t have to know what happens outside in the dark so long as you are safe because most of it crys out, “MYOB!”)... pen in hand, but a-may-zingly, words zikalost... By the way, it is acceptable that we should freely speak, right? Words zililost! Kwa darkness. Mimi ndo huyo na blanketi... mara that that...mpaka leo...

Morris.

I’m Ashamed

I’m ashamed of all the stupidity and carnality that rises up by the day

Of all the filthiness and ruggedness that milks itself from within us

I’m ashamed of all those stupid sayings that people love to hail in the name of wisdom

While their ways are perilous and ashamedly ridiculous

I’m ashamed of false kisses given in the name of love

Of all the pungent smell of lust coined with forgery and masquerading mankindness

I’m ashamed of all the utterances of surety; of false assurance

While everyone knows that doubt is the unchanging daily anthem of such hearts…

I’m ashamed of you and me who never ever unite for a good cause

Of all the words we say to each other in the name of solidarity

I’m ashamed of our pretence, of our rottenness covered with gowns of self-righteousness

While the sun shines to each of us and we still enjoy the freedom of an unpretending God...

I’m ashamed of our philosophical trends

Of our tendency to exalt intellectualism above reason and meaningful piety

I’m ashamed of us because we have stopped to value that we should so much value

Because we all think that somehow we will change how the world goes round and comes round

I’m ashamed of bruises earned in the name of sacrifice

Of sacrifices given to appease mankind and to gain one-day favors

I’m ashamed of praises and the glory of men, that which tastes as bad and smells as weird…

Why do we so much think that we gain anything from all that at all? – I’m ashamed of that also!

I’m ashamed of meekness and fondness, and mildness, and kindness

But I’m also ashamed of greatness, of might and too much strength

I’m ashamed of them both because of their paradoxical interchangeableness

Because you may never know just which one really is present…

I’m ashamed of orthodoxy and servants of the status quo mentality,

Of radicalism and edginess, of change and newness, of aptness and kemptness

I’m ashamed of trades of conventionalism and bails from originality

Because, who told us that change should be our opium no matter what?

I’m ashamed of the politics of gorging out people’s eyes

Of running over the weak and blotting out their names in order to trace importance

I’m ashamed of those running games and games of words

Anyways, who said we have to win and keep winning these games?

I’m ashamed of laws, of petty laws that cry for my submission

I’m ashamed of petty businesses and of coiled interceptions

Of murmurs and murders, of irrational mothers and fathers

I’m ashamed of absent-minded sisters and brothers that hover all over the place

And of chauvinism and fundamentalism, of feudalism and aristocracy…

I’m ashamed of swag, of irrational swag and its worshippers

I’m ashamed of style and of clashes of generational transitions

I’m ashamed of meaningless victories, of triumphs, of anticipations

I’m ashamed of readiness, of anxiety, of expectancy,

I’m ashamed of life and death, of sighs and breaths, of swords and sheaths,

I’m ashamed of so many things I don’t even understand…

Morris.

Christianity, Gnostics and the Negative Philosophy

Argument is not that easy. It is even harder when there is a lot of disagreement. Although relativism concludes that absoluteness of fact is not achievable, and there is only a ‘most probable truth’, there is no way conclusions can exist unless we agree to one code of operation. Even absolute terms in a fact (what we love calling ‘the dogma’), has to face argument for it to qualify (at least for those supporting it) to be Truth in its infallibility.
World philosophies have upped their game of dialectics. Philosophy has become the common food of the intellectual person. It has put the entire globe on the edge of intellectual anticipation and value systems that are warping towards it. Malcolm Muggarage (one of my favorites) writes and says, “We have educated ourselves into imbecility”. I think that’s why our parents fear that we should go to school and ‘read too much’; and it may be the reason for such a verse as Ecclesiastes 12:12, NET BIBLE (Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. There is no end to the making of many books, and much study is exhausting to the body).
But men should argue. They should reason. They should argue and reason constructively. Even God reasons… (Isaiah 1:18, NKJV, “...Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD...”). Men and God reason because by reasoning, the mind’s explosive capabilities are either intuitively or exponentially run into… We can say that reason helps in the dialysis of facts. Reason is the best way to abstractly define or defend a belief. It may not be the only way, but by it the values, likes and dislikes of an oral being are thoroughly explored. It helps us define assumptions, state fears, make our inventions understood and… just talk. It may bring strife but that is what communication always breeds – a war or a peace… So, although all men have the freedom of opinion and the right to reasoning, we just have as less freedom to choose the subjects of those opinions (or reasons if to say) as we have on the decisions that are the aftermath of the same – mainly searching through the recipients and gaging their ability to see through each opinion or reason...
I’ll make it simpler for you…
Atheists have their own opinion on the existence of God. They say there is no God. Strong as it may seem, it is their choice. It is their dogma. Their opium of the mind. They believe that in saying so, many can believe in their opinion. They believe that you should believe them and later believe in them because they believe in nothing… And that the nothing they believe IN is the ultimate cause of all belief and thus should be the object of every other belief… including yours and mine…. And there are many more who believe in humanism, naturalism, existentialism, realism... the list of modern philosophies is endless…
Basically (and for the sake of this post) I will slightly address the belief held by Gnostics. Don’t be scared of the many stupid titles here and there… it is philosophy anyway…
The gnostics believe that a person cannot have true knowledge about the existence of God; and that although they acknowledge there being a God, they don’t deny the possibility of His non-existence... To them, God’s existence is not a problem, the problem is them believing that He can become flesh and still be God… They believe that God eternally exists only as a spirit and can never be flesh; and that Jesus was not a man at all but a man-God… bla, bla, bla… It is here where I find a problem with negative philosophy and the Gnostic culture. Ouch! I’ll have to run through the basics of this negative philosophy some other time…
But on the other side of the philosophical-and-spiritual debate, the Apostle John (that great teacher who with strong statements defends the course of his belief in Christ – his Lord, cousin and best friend – says that He saw and TOUCHED HIM [which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – 1 John 1:1] and that [the Word became flesh… John 1:14]) has words to speak about and against Gnostism and all its branches…
The apostle John cooks us through a momentum of mind stirring battles between Truth and a philosophy of his day (which by the way was not called Gnostism then). He openly displays the fallacy that many Gregorian (and together with Jewish) believers had fallen into due to the love of philosophy as opposed to the love of Truth. That’s why you hear him mention truth in both contexts of the scripture quoted above (if you read the whole text)…
And as Christians, we are tempted to improvise Christianity in order to run in line with modernization. We are tempted to topple Christianity into the communization that is globalism. Do you ever wonder where such religions as Mormonism, New Age and Scientology came from? It was out of desire to make Christianity a globally acceptable religion; a desire to conquer over the scam that are the wrangles between Christianity and its immediate environment anywhere…
We find out that maybe through reasoning, we will define to them (the world and the philosophies therein) why we think they should acknowledge the presence of a supernatural power that eternally exists and eternally controls the universe. Gnostics (even from the time of John the Apostle) believe Christ was not fully human, and that He was a spirit being with a body-like form that was not corruptible... and that we mortals are not capable of reaching that perfection in our ‘weakness’... but the basis of reasoning or argument will be as a tool that will enable is to reach a consensus with them. That consensus will not be by compromise but just like John, through exposing Truth. Truth and only Truth will define to them who Christ really is and what He really desires of them… We as independent Christians choose not to accept others’ views on certain matters concerning belief just as we choose to say, ‘Yes’. Having good reason (and good in this case is not relative) is a keystone factor.
C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity talks about The Law of Human Nature. He says that his arguments are not a platform for promoting one denomination within Christianity over another but rather an aid to assist in making rightful choices. And the act of making rightful choices he says, in his introduction, is like a hall where we all enter and ‘reason within ourselves’ as to which door to knock and later open…
Just like we reason over facts with men, let us reason over Truth with God and men… so that as many as there are in world philosophies, so should there be in the Truth of God…

Sincerely,
Morris.

Has "Modern Worship" Become Corrupt?

This article was used with permission from Kim Gentes (www.kimgentes.com)

Have We Lost The Heart of Modern Worship, Are Things as Pure as They Once Where? or Has "Modern Worship" Become Corrupt?

In the early days of praise and worship growing up in the church, it was popular for "defenders of the faith" (those who preferred the established style of music at the time) to attack the new style because they said it lacked substance, and pandered to the culture. Over the years, this criticism actually helped make modern worship songs become better theological representations of Christian teaching. The arguments about style eventually waned and died when clear-headed adults realized that musical style has almost no relevance in a theological instrument. "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord", at least that is what David said. What was David's point? Simply this- no matter the instrument, the sound, the form or even person, the call remains the same "praise the Lord". Simply review Psalms 148-150 and you begin to see that God is calling us to praise Him regardless of our place in life (Psalm 148:11,12), regardless of the art form (dance or music - Psalm 149:3), regardless of the instrument (Psalm 149:3-5), even regardless of whether you are a human, angelic being or just a part of creation (Psalm 148:1-12). So while the "worship wars" may have happened in our churches for the last 30 years, it became obvious that David probably had won the argument about format a good 3000 years before we started discussing it in the 20th century- Let everything that has breathe praise the Lord!
But no sooner had the "old" vs "new" fight subsided, than we began to hear rumblings about the "corruption" of modern worship. After 30 years of infancy, its growth into adolescence was met by some amount of disdain by a good group of its progenitors. The original "guard" that was around when praise and worship burst on the church was now becoming vocal about the ongoing change that continued to propel the stylistic growth of the music. But more than just that, there was a "we told you so" attitude developing that began to expound the idea that the community of practitioners was now becoming enamored with the commercialization of the musical genre that had grown up around the music. In other words you could hear this said in a thousand different ways from some people- "this modern worship isn't as pure and humble as the original stuff". Also there is the idea that "worship leaders are just trying to become artists with record deals".
You could tack on a hundred variations to those two previous statements, but most often they boil down to those ideas.
So, let's talk about it. Is "modern worship" corrupt?
I'll answer that with another question. Is Christianity corrupt?
I think the truth is that you have to say both no and yes. For the most part, honest followers of Jesus are not bent on corruption of their faith or others. Also within the community of honest followers of Jesus, there are those who are (to varying degrees) corrupted by painful, sad choices and poor character. And finally, there are those who are actually apostates- people who willfully seek false doctrines for their own selfish motivations. Christians- the community of those who declare themselves to be honest followers of Jesus- I believe are not largely corrupt. They are instead, redeemed, and indeed, being more redeemed as they apply their lives to His guidance and instruction. Yet, they are still humans living on earth and are subject to brokenness. So there will always (until He returns) be a schismed vision of the Body of Christ- one which portrays a Bride to which Christ will return. And yet still, one that is in need of His continuing and ongoing work of purification, renewal and mercy. We are redeemed, but in daily need of a tethered existence to His faithful mercy for our lives.
So if this is the place we find ourselves with our existence as a Christian community, what can we say about "modern worship"?
Personally, I don't think "modern worship" is any more tragically perverted than anything else in "Christiandom". And the same arguments that I applied above apply to those involved in worship ministry today. On the whole, I believe we have a worship community within Christiandom that is sincerely devoted to Christ and seeks Godly goals in their work within the community of bringing forth praise and worship.
Often times I hear people getting negative as though they are hoping for some "good old days" of worship. It seems people love to jump on the bandwagon of bashing worship these days because they perceive its gone so commercial. Is there a misconception and excess now that has grown up with the creation of an "industry"? Sure there is! But frankly, that has existed in Christian preaching and leadership for years. The same is true of CCM (contemporary Christian music), television personalities, and healing/deliverance ministries. Did we throw them out as wholly "abhorrent"? No! Instead, we learned to weed out the good from bad.
To me, it comes down to each person, each church, each song and each worshiper. As we talk, look, listen and encounter them one at a time, we find a whole different story. When I look at each person and situation, and stop generalizing, and talk to individuals and churches (or investigate specific songs), I find something surprising. The devotion, the heart, the desire and the humility far outweigh the excess. And the devotional pulse of the local congregations is more, not less, participative in the gathered worship times than it has been in decades. Only 30 years ago the gathered church sang songs that almost NEVER spoke intimately with God, now its normative. Wow. That alone is a significant change.
Is it perfect? Is it the ultimate? By no means. Do we need more authenticity and more foundational return to cultivating Biblical consistency mixed with relevant language in our song vocabulary? Absolutely! Can we keep working on humbly following God in all this, without mixed agendas? No doubt.
Should we worry about our young leaders pursuing "music careers" because an industry has grown up around "worship" that has provided a few people with occupations? How sad if we fixate on that.
First, as far as an "industry", we don't have to worry there. The Christian (and worship) music "industry" is practically vaporised. Today, whether you have a real ministry from God in worship, or an imagined one from vanity, your chances of "making it" are about 0.000833%. Seriously. Because of the 120 million people who claim to be Christians in the US (and that is being very generous, since we know that many people don't actually go to church!), only a few hundred of those actually make their living as bonafide, full-time, Christian musicians and artists who work in the "music industry". The point is this- the industry is not just small, it is minuscule. Additionally, it is shrinking at an alarming rate in due no small part to the collapse of the commercial music model at the hands of the internet age. No one is making a living in music these days unless they are providing something real-- like the ability to actually perform live music, a gifting to truly minister in a local church, a heart to genuinely care for people. For all intents and purposes, selling "product" is dead. CDs don't sell, and only 1 in 20 downloads of music are legal. Illegal stealing of music (Christians included) has destroyed the music industry. What remains are simply people and God's gifts on them. If that is not a return to reality I don't know what is.
Should we teach young leaders to not fixate and seek a musical career of "glory" at the expense of a contrite devotional heart? Obviously we should teach them. But to judge "modern worship" as corrupt is as short sighted as the praise and worship naysayers 30 years ago because it lays on the heads of every Christian, musician and worshiper a judgement that really only applies to a very, very small minority of hurting people who are looking inappropriately to follow a misguided sense of ministry by relying on a worship industry to make them famous as they "serve God".
Is there a place for talented young musicians, writers and leaders? Yes there is! Because while there are a tiny number of "jobs" in the Christian music industry, there are literally tens of thousands of jobs for good musicians, leaders and songwriters. "Where?", you ask. We call them music ministers, worship leaders and choir directors. They are needed and employable in a place called the local church. Should their gifting and exceptional songwriting prove encouraging to their local church, other churches may benefit from it. Should other churches be built up by it and tell others, then eventually that gifting may open up invitation and opportunity for that person to minister in an ever widening scope of local churches. At some point that gifting will carry that person into an industry where they may, for a time, bless an entire nation through God's blessing on their lives in music. Do we look down on the ones who come and go through an "industry" because it suits our need to criticize? Or do we disdain them because it wasn't us? Are there some that have tainted motives? Do we have tainted motives? I think we all know that there will always be something of a mixture in anything we seek to do that is virtuous. But as we surrender to God, He is faithful and just to work on our hearts in it all.
And while we will do well to surrender our hearts to his cleansing, purifying work of the Holy Spirit, why don't we also trust that He will do His work in the hearts of those others we are concerned about, who happen to be the current artists, worship leaders and songwriters of "modern worship"?
Perhaps the challenge is all of ours then, to be open hearts instead of pointing fingers.

Used with permission from Kim Anthony Gentes, a worship leader, songwriter, recording artist and freelance writer (C)Copyright 2009 Kim Anthony Gentes, Website: www.kimgentes.com.

Sincerely,
Morris.

There She Stands

I dare look at her,
She dares to look into my eyes,
I dare dance to the song of her presence,
To the sound of her image in the realms of my eyes,
There she stands - like she needs a lullaby to sooth her into the night;

There she stands,
I dare touch her skin,
And the carving of her chin,
I dare look at her big eyes, like doves in the airs of my privacy,
I hold my breath because she almost takes it away,
As she stands there, she almost breaks and pounds me into human pie;

From afar I can smell her skin,
Her fragrance is the power of hypnosis,
It is the aroma of love – of something words can’t describe,
I’ve told her this before but she coiled in disbelief - like it was word-frying,
But her lovely hands, and her voice, and her just standing there,
Kills the strengths out of me – it drains me of my many words,
Her standing there is a commotion of thoughts within my mind...;

There she stands,
Like she wanna move,
And like she don’t wanna move anymore,
Like she wanna trace my every feeling and laugh it off,
And like she gonna conquer my every world, my every peace...
And I’m staring at her,
Her picture sticking in my mind,
First slowly, then vividly, then rapidly...

She is more than a piece of art?!
She is more than a masterpiece – she yields one like herself!
As she stands, I forget my words around,
I look, I search for them furiously,
And I wanna get up and talk,
But with bold sweetness,
And with stillness,
Sing them,
Silently...

I whisper myself into her ears,
Into the ears of her heart,
Into her world,
Singing them,
Silently...

NB: I know you are reading this. These words are for you...

Sincerely,
Morris.

Dear Mama... I Love You

I just added one more year to those I already have the other day,
And I couldn’t help imagining how much it has cost you caring for me to this day,
I couldn’t imagine the best gift to give to you except a moment of gratitude,
And passages that express my heart – passages that show just how much I appreciate...

I know I have grown older now
I know I am no longer that boy of yours
That small boy who used to weep as you wipe his tears
Yeah, that boy who used to do the stupid things you always forgave...
I have grown to know the world a little bit more
And I have grown to know that what I’m writing is what I feel
I have grown to know how to express my fears, my feelings and my desires
But no longer to you but to God and some other very close friend...
I have grown a little bit more mum, but I’m still that small boy you used to see years ago...
And I will tell of the story of your love for me...

You remember my filthy behaviours, don’t you?
You remember when Dad (I salute you old chap) used to chase me around, don’t you?
You remember when he spanked me for stealing and I would throw words at him, right?
You remember when I used to be the innocent thief, huh?
You remember when one day I run Dad through terrain and he fell down, and I rejoiced that he didn’t catch me, and I went off and slept elsewhere and left you worrying?
You remember when you went out looking for me but couldn’t find me, yet I was only 10?
You remember that my naughtiness got you worried all the time when I disappeared and told all my cousins not to tell you where I was?
I know you remember so many things
I know you remember when after school you told me to go to church and I locked myself in my room pretending not to want to talk to anyone,
I know you remember that I didn’t really love church that much in those days...
I know you remember when the landlord came and we had no money to pay him and he spoke to you words that got to me and I felt like I wanna...
I know you remember when I felt like I wanted to kill that dude who impregnated my beautiful sister, right?

But you tolerated me, you held me
When Dad said I won’t eat because of my thievery, you stole food for me
I could see how sorry you were right there in your eyes when I bathed cold water in the rains as Dad (not hard feelings old chap) watched me shiver
I saw how worried you were when I was told I won’t spend the night in the house because of my erroneous behaviours
I heard you pray for me early in the morning and late into the night...
I miss those moments when I could hear you mention each of my siblings’ names (plus that of papa) in prayer to God
I remember I was terrified that God would hear you and change me (because I somehow enjoyed who I was then)
I miss those moments when you would return from your long journeys and cook us our sweetest meals (you always seemed to understand what each one of us liked)
I miss those moments when I used to bring you the ugali cooking stick in the kitchen when the water was already boiling...
I miss those celebrations when your friends came around in the weekend
I remember the noise, the ululations, the food, the joy, the fervency
I remember the laughter, the earnestness, the speeches, the life...
I miss them...

Mum, you are one of a kind
Yeah mum, you are a woman of a kind
Some of these guys that are reading this letter don’t know you
They have never seen you or heard you talk
But I know you mum; and I know you are a woman of a kind...
And I’m gonna write to say that I love you
I love you because I know when I needed/need you most, you are present
I know you still care for me as much as you did when I was a child
That you wish I could grow small again so that you embrace me with fondness
But I have now grown up and I need to be the man you taught me to become...
God has taught me many more lessons in this life
Life itself has taught me so much – and I’m still learning
But I won’t forget the first lessons you taught me when I was still rebellious
Yeah, I won’t forget the lessons you taught me when I was still like, “Ta tat a ta”
Those were and still are extraordinary lessons
Thank you mum... I love you;

I know that as I am growing older, you too are growing older
But I pray that God will preserve you (and Dad) much more
I pray (just as you pray for each of us every day) that you may prosper
And that my kids will see their granny for many more days...
Mum, I love you...

Sincerely,
Your son Morris.

Love Like the Wind

Like a gem that is desire,
Like a flame that is the fire,
Like the swooping of an emotional umpire,
Love should be like the wind;

Like a touch that has an invincible effect,
Like a dream in a night – a dream without defect,
Like a presence that is immortally intact,
Love is like the wind;

Like a miracle, like a symphony from afar,
Like a song, like a melody that can never deter,
Like an endless life, like an angel’s avatar,
Love should be like the wind;

Like timelessness,
Like neverthelessness,
Like meekness,
Like fearlessness,
Love is like the wind...

Love should be as sure as the rising sun, and as pure as the wind,
Love should be as fond as the breaking of dawn, and as faithful as God,
Love is like the whisper of wind,
Love is like the power of the wind,
Love is the urge to move thenceforth when nothing else does,
And just like the wind, to overcome the urge of being as everything else does,
Love goes beyond doors, it pushes through the beyonds,
Love conquers, love soars, it rises above the beyonds,
Love imparts, love cares, it matches deeper than the beyonds,
Love rises just above the winds – just like the winds...
Love should caress our souls just like the wind,
Love should be available just like the wind...

Yeah, love like the wind...
Love should be like the wind...

Morris.

When Character and Ramshackleness become Partners

It is raining outside. Yeah it is really raining. I don't like it when it rains and it falls on me. I don't like it when the rain(s) leave me wet and yearning for some good coffee. That forces me to eat popcorn with coffee... smart but really stupid and boring! It makes me feel bad. It makes me feel really bad. It makes me feel bad because it is normal to feel bad about things like rain all over you and people who are like that rain when they deal with others...
There are times and moments I am tempted to say, “Go to hell!” or “Go throw yourself into the sea!” or worse still, “Go buy yourself a ditch and throw yourself into it!” Those are just vented emotions. They are just a mixture of the rain and the wind or of the sun and blueness. They are just moments of not knowing what to do with pink emotions (read fake emotions) so as with an excuse I end up manufacturing words which I carefully spin in my mind but never make a home for them... It may be because I am a worse being if you have to start a fight with me... or against my thoughts... But everyone hates something about someone or something, I guess. I guess everyone feels the same at some point in their life. Like you wanna pluck out someone’s nose or ears, because such guys ‘just never get it!’
But I have a better excuse: though I may I hate not loving some things about some people, I guess it is normal... I guess it is normal because men are like thus – they can never fully satisfy your expectations...!! People have a way of letting you down. I’m not talking about relationships. Nah. I’m talking about people who think the world was created only for them and that it’s only them who should occupy it... Gheee! I’ve never felt this bad...!
There is one thing about life that I should talk about on this blog – you are not the main determinant of your destiny. Your destiny is a mixture of so many things (including God and fellow men). Your life is like a puppet that is manoeuvred by God, you and other people. (I stand to be corrected on this one.) You may be the main player in the game that is life, but that is not the end of it. That is not to mean that all that you decide and do is what is gonna be the ULTIMATE CAUSE for your destiny. You may play your cards well, yeah; but others may play those cards the other way round and you may also be playing them against God... and you may end up in a really deep ditch...
There is a proverb out there that says, “What goes round, comes round...” I want to show you what that means in many words;
1. Live your life knowing that other people around you also matter a lot.
2. Live your life in moderation > God + others are watching you;
a) You were born elsewhere and they were born somewhere else – your standards and observations on/in life will be somehow different. Always remember that!
b) You are educated. That is good. But don’t spill it all over our faces. How much education you have is none of our business; so deal with people just the way you find them... Anyway, education is just chasing away non-existing paranoia...
c) You have your style and swag and love it. Good! But don’t think we all like it, mun! Tukionekana washamba, just swallow it and move on...
3. Live life with others. My own saying on this one is, “Those desert people will bury you in the best sands if at all you happen to die where they dwell...” These humble people in society breathe and live just as you do. Your importance is unto yourself – don’t sell it to them because they have no chum to buy it. Remember that not all people you will meet will be beggars or ’quacks’ like those you have seen/met; there will always be a place where you will be the major quack and you will be treated just as you treat these ones...
4. Live life with God. “God will bury you, when no man is present...or make you live when no one is seeing..."
And that proverb up there makes sense to everyone. It should make sense to me and to you. It should make sense to the highest ranking servant or officer up to the least. It should make sense to the greatest and to the smallest. The law of good humanity depicts that you should be your brother's keeper and not his piece of ditchy beef! You should understand that character (the essence of being counted worthy by all according to your actions towards/directed to them) may not be built in one day. Character may not be built in one day but you can start form somewhere. Allow God to deal with it – allow Him to shape your character. Even if you were born within an environment where people despised/despise others, and count yourself as one who naturally looks down upon other people, life gives you a chance to change. Life gives you a chance to look deep into yourself and say, “I want to start valuing other people just as I value myself” ~~I guess that is what the Bible teaches as the law of LOVE ~~ It is then that you turn around and say, “I want to value the way these people/person do/does things without criticizing them.” Yeah, it is then that you tell yourself to shut up when the urge to call them stupid comes. It is then that you tell yourself that they are just men/human and you are just like them – with a difference of figuring out life differently...

Prologue
With the seeker is the zeal to find; with the source is the ability to supply,
A foolish man is he who thinks he can do both – be sought after and supply,
A wise man seeks and supplies, he honestly seeks and diligently supplies,
Such men are people of character – they understand that only God is by himself but for us all...

Sincerely,
Morris.

The Scam that is Sin

Easter is already here.
One thing Easter does to many of us is to remind us of our faults. It reminds us of our unimagined wretchedness. Of our incomplete nature in the eyes of God’s infinite Holy stature. It haunts us with thoughts of our tattered righteousness – as bad as filthy rags (Isaiah et al). The queer moment of seeing an innocent man being crucified for ‘no reason at all’ is just overwhelming, you know. Have you ever taken an inside-the-mind picture of Christ’s final moments on this earth? The weird fact is that we all at some point of this life have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23).
I don’t glory in my own self. I have no time for that. I am always absent when they make a roll call of perfect people. I ain’t perfect, mun! I am not perfect. I have never been perfect. I don’t think I have... I always tell my friends (those guys know themselves) that not until Christ appears will I be made perfect. I don’t think you are perfect either. Whether it is in the view of what sin is or is the context of what righteousness sounds like, dude/dudette, you ain’t perfect! Period... So, you don’t have to look for perfect people – they don’t exist! I repeat, perfect people are a lie – THEY DON’T EXIST! My suggestion to you who thinks they DO exist is that you should try to look for those people who seek perfection without denying their imperfections, because those to me are normal people. Yes, they are very spiritual too!
The reason I’m saying this is because I somehow I’m more inspired when sin is mentioned or is crouching around because it makes me ask questions. Sin makes me ask stupid questions and most of the time I’m just the tag in between. This is in contrast with when I feel, ‘All is well.’ Because then I don’t really feel intimidated or inquisitive: why should a man worry when nothing is out of order and perfection reigns like my neighbour’s dog, huh? I have to say that sin, (and I don’t care if you like me mentioning it or not) is a paradox of some kind. Sin plays games no one really understands until they are face to face with the Grace of Christ. Sin is as awful before God as it is mysterious to us... But again sin makes us realize that without Christ, we ain’t nothing. Yeah, it makes me know that ‘from the ground did I come, and I am useless, unless I walk with the one who makes the miry clay beautiful...’
You see, a man (or woman – for those who think gender is a god of some kind) rarely understands just why he/she keeps making the same mistakes (that is a name we have recently baptized sin with in order to make it light and easy to go by) over and over again and always with ultimately record-breaking negative results when they struggle to get away from the cycle (what we call, “The Struggle to Break the Punitive Cycle”) ... And to add on to the bad mix, o how sin always seems to be so irresistibly sweet! Sin is irresistible. Very irresistible. The apostle Paul writes about it in Romans 7:15-19 by saying, "For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate. But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good. But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.
It is in the context of the above passage that we will now address human weakness and the ‘scam that is sin’.
Truly speaking, no one loves to sin. Yeah I think so. I think that no one loves indulging in fornication, or being a serial drunkard, or being a chain smoker... No one loves being looked at as the ‘the bad guy/chic’. No one loves being tagged a prostitute of homosexual or lesbian or husband-snatcher or gold-digger or something like that... No one loves being called immoral and corrupt, or greedy and unorganized. No on loves being sinful, unless they are demon possessed. Unless their consciences are dead (1 Timothy 4:2). Unless they have their own moral law – which in itself is a fad because there are no separate moral laws but just one that governs all humanity... So back to our thing with sin; we realize that somehow, sin just happens. Yeah, it just happens, huh? No, it doesn’t. It is just that it is very deceitful - it stealithly creeps in and you nver can overcome it on your own. I will give you an example - my own experience... and my struggle to overcome it on my own never really succeeded until I turned my life over...
I used to hate people who masturbated. I hated them and tagged them as guys without self control. Yeah, so I thought. They had/have no self control, right? I thought that they were extremely impossible. Intolerable, even. “How could someone do that to himself/herself?” I would ask myself. It was easy to question their indulgences because I had never climbed that boat to experience the agony they experienced when sin stared them in the face and they had no guts to tell it off. I thought I was this ‘cool’ guy who loved the Lord and as far as sin was concerned, unreachable or even, untouchable. This was until it came on me like a thud, voila! It swept me off my ‘steady’ conscience. Unimaginable. Very unimaginable. Those are the words I can use to describe what I felt then. “What is wrong with me?”, I would ask myself. Sin was crouching in slowly and I never realized until I was justifying it and the Lord’s Spirit was now on me telling me, “Come ooooout!” It was very loud. Very loud indeed. To make it all short, what happened was simple: I did not watch my limits as far as what I should or should not have done was concerned. I had allowed my mind to wander aimlessly when I missed someone I really cared for, I had resolved to call it ‘normal’. I had climbed the hill of ‘I am justified by Grace’ and that ‘I am eternally forgiven’ and had allowed myself to use my body wrongly. I just thought that somehow, God had created me that way and that I was ‘helpless’ as far as masturbation was concerned. I WAS WRONG. Very wrong. It was my weakness and the moment I realized it, I hated myself... I hated doing it... regret followed... pain engulfed me... unworthiness... futility... name them... Christ was far away. And I was here nailing him again! Tormenting Him again. That is what awakened me... Thank you Holy Spirit... He awakened me... He told me that that all was not lost so long as I choose not ot live in sin anymore... and to be clear on this, it had started tasting normal and sounding good. I was justifying it. I was not ready to repent. My prayer had turned away from, “Lord forgive me”, to “Lord you know my weakness, what can I do, please help me live with this, spare me the guilt”. Dead prayers! Sin had fooled me and I was held in its trap.
How did I come out? You may ask. Christ did it for me. Jesus loves me, you know. He turned me around when I started guarding my heart, my mind, my lips, my eyes... and here I am telling you that you may know what a scam sin really is...

Some points to note:
1. As far as sin is concerned, no one is untouchable and everyone is vulnerable; no one is invincible, but anyone can be trapped
2. Sin seeks to separate you from God and form people you fellowship with (because Satan knows that you won’t get someone to help you pray over your weaknesses and seeks to make you even weaker). Unless you deal with sin by repenting and being remorseful (like David in Psalm 51), dude/dudette, you are doomed!
3. Don’t boast of your perfectionism. You can fall and become the damnest thing we have ever met or known!
4. Be careful on how you use your eyes (what you see), your ears (what you listen to), your nose (what you smell into, hehe!), your lips (what you say), your body (what you indulge into), your mind (what you think at every moment of time) and your heart (what you desire); because these are the main avenues that will breed sin without you knowing – and sad enough it may take your life with it...
5. Learn to use self control – that is why Christ left us with the Holy Spirit as our enabler (our Helper)

Sincerely,
Morris.

Casting Crowns - The Well (from Come to the Well album, 2011) – Lyrics & a Review

(Leave it all behind, leave it all behind) ×2

I have what you need but you keep on searchin'
I've done all the work but you keep on workin'
When you're runnin' on empty and you can't find the remedy
Just come to the well...
You can spend your whole life chasin' what's missin'
But that empty inside, it just ain't gonna listen
When nothin' can satisfy and the world leaves you high and dry
Just come to the well...

Chorus:
And all who thirst will thirst no more
And all who search will find what their souls long for
The world will try but it can never fill
So leave it all behind and come to the well...

So bring me your heart, no matter how broken
Just come as you are, when your last prayer is spoken
Just rest in my arms a while, you'll feel the change, my child
When you come to the well...

Repeat Chorus

Yeah, leave it all behind...
The world will try, but it can never fill, leave it all behind...

And now that you're full, of love beyond measure
Your joy's gonna flow, like a stream in the desert
Soon all the world will see that livin' water is found in me
'Cause you came to the well...

Repeat Chorus

(Leave it all behind, leave it all behind) ×2

The question in this season (Easter) is: Have you left it all behind? Have you come to drink from The Well? Have you drunk from the waters that never dry? Have you left behind all the trash, all the guilt, all the hatred, all the agony, all the unforgiveness? Have you left behind all the greed, all the lust, all the evil desires and the fears of the past behind you? Are they still haunting you or have you left them all behind?
It is only when we leave it all behind that we can be satisfied by the Well. Some choose to drink, yet they have not left it all behind. You only find what you were longing for when you learn to leave it all behind. Paul the apostle in Philippians 3:8 says, More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things – indeed, I regard them as dung! – that I may gain Christ, and in Philippians 3:13, Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead... Forget all that hurt you, all that brought/brings you down. Forget all the animosity... leave it all behind...

Come to the Well; come to drink, not to flaunter,
Come to the Well; come to be quenched, for your heart to grow fonder,
Come to the Well; come to be healed, to be redeemed,
Come to the Well; where Jesus overflows endlessly,
Just come to the Well...
Come to the Well; come at the feet of Jesus,
Come to the Well; come behold the Power in the cross,
Come to the Well; to behold Calvary all your days,
Come to the Well; just come to the Well...
Let those who drink give also to the thirsty,
That they too may find satisfaction at the Well,
As the rivers of living water overflow,
Let the Well quench us all...

Have great Easter festivities people of God,
May He make you drink more from the Well that you may be satisfied beyond measure.
God bless y'all,

Morris.