The GOD equation

I have often heard the argument from committed Christians that God is number one in their lives. And then they so eloquently explain to you how the rest of their lives are to follow the list. Some would argue that their spouse is squarely positioned at number two and then the rest of their family. This is followed by work and then further down the list they tend to place ministry or church. In my opinion, it sounds so perfectly right, or in the words of Goldilocks, “just right.” Yet, the dilemma for me lies rooted in the fact that we place God in the same equation as work and everything else which makes up the total some of our lives.

One cannot place GOD in the same equation as the rest of your life. I know, you might not agree with me when I say that, but the minute we place GOD in the same equation as the rest of the things or people in our lives we start treating HIM exactly like we treat the rest. Soon HE becomes dethroned of being first in our lives and then has to be content with being squarely placed with the rest of the things we often neglect or no longer pay attention to. 

The moment we assign HIM the first place is the moment when 1 + 1 does not equal 2. He is too vast to comprehend, HIS thoughts are loftier than we could ever imagine, HIS ways transcend the margins of our capabilities and HIS heart is large enough to keep all the oceans of the world in storage for eternity. HE cannot be assigned a category as HE belongs in a class of HIS own. The place which HE should hold is vastly out of our reach, much higher than all the galaxies combined and far removed from a ‘position’ we so easily assign to HIM. HE is exalted, HE is not assigned a position, because through HIM all of civilization came into being. Most of the things we enjoy in this life HE simply spoke into being without batting an eye or moving an inch, but yet HIS thumb print; HIS insignia rests on the canvas of life. HE is the solution to every complex equation and the answer to every unanswered question.  Life only makes sense when we come to the realization that we fit into HIS equation, the GOD equation, as HE is the source of every needful thing we have placed on the list amounting to our lives.

My "Swedish chair"

I recently narrated the account of my wife sending me a text message in which she requested that I do something about my “Swedish chair”. I didn’t quite understand what she was referring to and it was only after enquiring from her, that it became evident what she meant. Some years ago I studied in Sweden during the heart of winter. I lived in a student commune and upon returning from university daily I would remove my jacket and place it on the single arm chair in my room. After several days the chair would be filled with several items of clothes I left out to “air”, but eventually ended up taking permanent residence on my “Swedish chair”. 

I am not sure whether you can relate to this story. I mean no offense to my Swedish friends for linking my ill-habit to them. Yet, I do think that many people have a “Swedish chair” in their lives. What starts out as an innocent decision soon becomes the dumping ground for unrealized dreams or the procrastinating of a to-do list which never seem to be dealt with. And after a while, we lose a part of ourselves, because invariably one will start looking for that one item, only to realize that you never sent a forwarding address to your brain when deciding to relocate it. This is what we do every day. I know, you are thinking that I am generalizing and maybe I am guilty of doing so. 

The dilemma with having a “Swedish chair” is that after a while those living with you might want to close the door in order to conceal its existence to passing guests to your home. It becomes a sight for sore eyes. And the longer one takes to “dethrone” the chair, the more strain it places on the relationships between oneself and others. One is often so used to the sight of ones inadequacies that your expectation is that others also turn a blind eye to the existence of your ill-choices. I would be the first to admit that there are days or moments when the existence of a “Swedish chair” has its place. Yet, the greatest challenge is to understand that a “Swedish chair” becomes an extension of who you are. Especially when you have parts of yourself lying in a corner unresolved, unbecoming and in many ways unapologetic for not being better than you potentially are able to be.

Half measure...

There are very few people I know who apply themselves to make the most of every opportunity presented. It has become a norm to encounter people who have high expectations of life, yet feel demotivated to do everything with an enormous appetite to succeed. These are the ones who usually complain and eventually regress into the doldrums of life where they are neither challenged nor remotely accessible. Yet, one of the key secrets to life is that one cannot remain in the same place as you were before for too long. One cannot remain satisfied with nothingness when you possess great potential which can not only change your own destiny forever, but also those close to you.

I have often desired to understand the psyche of those who do everything half measure. Inevitably I understand that they will find someone to blame, find solace in identifying an episode from their childhood or resurrect something from their past to serve as a reason for their lack of motivation. Whether validity exists in the cranium of our excuses is quite frankly neither here nor there. We need to understand that we will not progress very far if everything we do is done half measure or with a heart diluted with fear and ambivalence. If it requires one to address the past and lay the remains of a distorted past to rest, then we need to do so in order to live a life which measures up to our expectations.

The road which leads to success is often riddled with challenges, but too many people have become trapped in having breakdowns along the way or they abandon their dreams with the excuse that they might take it up later. Life is to embraced with vigour, with a determination to not only succeed, but to ensure that one lives a life without regrets yet one budding with opportunity to become more than you are.

God's adjective

Adjectives… those words we were taught which describes an object. We use these words to describe our feelings, it flows from our mouths without the batting of an eye and yet we manage to explain to others the intensity or the lack of our feelings for others. It shades, shapes, explains and puts in perspective the way we see and construct the world around us.

Can you imagine that within the economy of God’s vocabulary, action is not meted merely in terms of words? In fact, with every word God speaks He has a corresponding action. Yet, there can be no greater adjective God could have used to show all of the inhabitants of the earth, those long deceased, those currently in the land of the living or others yet to be born, just how intense the magnitude of His love was for all of us. The adjective most profoundly used by God was not encapsulated in mere words, but it was embodied when He sent His only begotten Son called Jesus. Jesus remains the greatest adjective ever used, bringing clarity to the corrupt discourse of a fallen world. Not only did He come alongside the object, meaning us, but He also surrounded us – He became God with us.

While His earthly life was brief, His impact remains incomprehensible and His ways remains forever loftier than the total sum of all our intellectual properties. Yet, when He left the restrictions of this earth, He left us not as an orphan, but in the hands of One who guides us in all truth. The work done by the Spirit of God is as significant as that of an adverb, because it is the adverb that simplifies the meaning of a verb, meaning an action. The Spirit of God makes the complexities of life simple by ensuring that every action savoured by the Spirit brings change, meaning and endurance to life which has the ability to drain us.

So, to understand the meaning of love, to understand God who is love, we need to follow the pattern of the adjective [Jesus] and his corresponding adverb [Holy Spirit]. God did not merely send His Son, He framed love by allowing the Son to be the extent of His love for us.

Are you paying attention?

What I am about to say won’t sit very well with you. In fact I have a feeling that if I had been in the same room as you, you would have possibly thrown something at me or in the process feel very offended. Yet, somehow all this time no one could muster enough courage to say this to you, but found creative ways to talk about it behind your back.

I know currently you are trying to shed weight and finding it very hard. Another is looking at the fragments left of what once was a seemingly perfect relationship and trying to make sense of what went horribly wrong. Just further down the line someone is trying to avoid calls, because of an enormous debt incurred and now the throbbing headaches are a reminder of the bad choices made at a particular moment. There is a parent wondering how and where things went wrong with a child who seemed to be on a successful path and now stand facing the abyss. I do not want you to get me wrong and think that my response to you is harsh, cold and that it is my intention to stab you even deeper. My only aim is to get you to wake up and understand that you were not paying attention.

Okay, so you didn’t hear that the first time. I said you were not paying closely attention. You see there is very little in life which happens without something that gives away the imminent storm. I know this seems almost too easy to say and from your perspective it sounds all like hogwash. The reality is that the kilos you are trying to shed did not merely find its way there overnight. It came as a result of… as a result of you not paying attention.

Right now many people have just come from holiday and returned to work. And yet while they spent many hours in the sun and blew hundreds, even thousands of rand, they are already planning the next holiday; thinking of moments of sheer pleasure. Yet, after all is said and done very few of those individuals consider planning for their retirement or saving for an unexpected eventuality. You see what I mean? They are not paying attention. The reality is that there is this path that seems right unto human kind. The end thereof unfortunately is the consequence of ill choices and a lifetime of not paying closely attention.

There are those who live surrounded by beauty, are blessed beyond measure and yet they have never summited Table Mountain or even visited the southern tip of Africa. Yet, there are moments when it begs them to venture much further than their concrete jungle and every time the sun caresses their skin it is a call to come out to play. Yet, one day the yearning to experience that which has been so freely given will be too far to reach, because somehow when it mattered most, they were not paying attention.

Pay attention. Don’t allow life to pass you by and you are too busy to appreciate God’s finest gifts to you each day. The objective is not to ensure that you are not distracted. The imperative of life is to ensure that you are paying attention.