Transcendent Springs of Tenderness

God’s tenderness towards the lowly is rooted in his transcendent self-sufficiency. This means that those who love to make much of God’s greatness (which we all should, Psalm 40:16; 70:4) ought to delight in tenderness to the lowly. God exalts his transcendent self-sufficiency by loving the orphan and widow and alien.
Here’s the text where I am finding these ideas (Deuteronomy 10:17-19):

The LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality, nor take a bride. 18 He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. 19 So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

What I mean by God’s transcendent self-sufficiency is expressed in these words: "God is over all other gods.” He is “Lord over all other lords.” He is “great.” He is “mighty.” He is “awesome.” Then Moses says, on the basis of this greatness, God “does not show partiality” and he “does not take a bribe.” The point of this is to stress his transcendent self-sufficiency. God does not take a bribe because he has no motive to take a bribe: he already owns all the money in the universe and he has control over the briber. He is above bribes the way the sun is above candles, or the way beauty is above mirrors.
Moses also says God shows no partiality. That is, he doesn’t try to curry anyone’s favor through special treatment. Showing partiality is like reverse bribery. Except the bribe is not with money but with favored treatment. God is above that, because he has no need to do it. If he wants to get something done, he is not cornered into coercive strategies. He can just do it. Showing partiality is what you do when you can’t cope with the consequences of justice. But God is not only able to cope, he is the source of all coping. He depends on no one outside himself. He is transcendently self-sufficient.
Now here comes the most precious part. On the basis of God’s transcendent self-sufficiency, Moses says, “He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.” Since God cannot be bribed by the rich, and has no deficiency to remedy through favoritism, therefore, he works for those who can’t afford bribes and have nothing to attract his partiality—the orphan, the widow, and the refugee. This is why I said above, God’s tenderness toward the lowly is rooted in his transcendent self-sufficiency.
Then comes the application in verse 19: “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” We have been the beneficiaries of the overflow of God’s transcendent fullness. And there is every reason to believe that we will continue to be, if we do not try to bribe him with our works, or show off to win his partiality. If we will recognize our widow-like, orphan-like, refugee-like condition of helplessness, and rely on free grace from a self-sufficient Savior, then we will be loved forever. And being loved like this, we will have power and pleasure in loving like we are loved.
This is what lies behind James 1:27: “This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress….” May God make us a tender people to the glory of God’s transcendent self-sufficiency.

Tala Talk; When My Friends Speak

Over the weekend my friends and I were attending a graduation party for one of our own from the land of honey which happens to be Ukambani and more specifically, Tala. One thing I know about our brothers and sisters from Kamba land is their kindness on distance especially if you are new to the place. It does not matter how far you are from your destination, they’ll always tell you it’s close. They have a way to say it in Kamba bt I will not even attempt to say it lest I end up laughing at myself ( but I know you know what I am talking about, yes, that one). To them, there is nothing like long distance, wherever you are going is “here” despite their history as long distance traders.

And so for us who we were travelling from Nairobi to Tala, when I enquired how far Tala was and the definite response was “it is not far”, I kind of braced myself for a whole days’ journey.

True to their word, Tala town was not as far as I thought it would but our journey was not yet over and the interesting part is none of us knew the direction we were to take after the town including people whom I shall not mention, who ought to at least have a clue; and for all the others who have a clue of what I’m talking about, this also is a clue for you. This is now when it hit hard that we are in this land of long distance traders. By the way, I forgot to ask, do water melons grow in Kamba land-just asking-,anyway, that was beside the point. We had to ask for directions and sure enough we were directed and this is the point where I wonder whether our good friends are poor with directions or is it that the well educated learned friends of mine are challenged when it comes to maneuvering through a geographical location to find a place that some of them have actually been to without pointing fingers. To cut the long story short, we finally made it to our friends’ place after an unintended tour of the area.

The whole event was a success as we celebrated her hard work. It is always interesting to listen to our parents especially on such occasions and how dramatic they can get and how proud they are of their children. And who wouldn’t be proud of his/her son or daughter anyway? There is always a special child/parent bond.

And as they say, everything that has a beginning must have an end, this event had to end for us in Tala but the day had not ended. Our journey back to Nairobi is what set the ball rolling for me as I listened to this special group of friends. I must admit I was totally amazed at how compassionate these guys are towards leadership; their passion for leadership is what kept me engaged as I carefully listened to them. They might not actually have realized it and thought I didn’t have anything to say or was not simply interested because I was quiet the entire period but I was keenly listening to them. I remember at some point I thought that if I had one chance to do something for this country, I would vouch for that entire team to constitute the government of our country.

The topics of discussion these guys were having, I must say were worth being aired on a TV morning breakfast show and have all our politicians and top government officials listen to it. This is the point where you actually appreciate when they are called the crème de la crème of our nation, and true they are. They talked of the economy, the divisions of class that we have here in Kenya; the haves and the have-not, the extremes of either having or not having at all. One actually quoted a quote that is still ringing in my mind; he said “There will come a time when the poor will have nothing to eat apart from the rich”. Another one mentioned how estates and apartments that are situated near the ever green lavish areas where the rich men and women live end up being named. Their proximity to the area gives them a view of the lavish estate hence names like Rundaview estate, Karenview estate and so forth but truth is, it does not matter whether you can view it or not, you are still not in that circle. You remain to be at the periphery.

I know by now you are dying to know who they are, but that is beside the point or rather, that is where we go wrong as a country. When we recognize or want to be associated with people not because of the legacy of their ideas and work but because of their names. Names will come and go but the works of their minds and hands will last generations to come.

The question that remains now is, how are we ever going to close this gap? There is only one person who will be able to do this and that is you. As for my very special friends, I heard you speak so passionately about it and I am going to hold you accountable to your words and I pray that with the help of God you will be able to bring this change that you desire so much to our country.

Kudos to you guys, you know yourselves.

   

BORN TO DIE

What if I was born to die? As in, the only reason you were born is for you to die. Have you ever thought of such a question? Now I’m giving you that chance to think about it, what if you were actually born to die? The answer that would linger in many of our minds would probably be then why was I born in the first place and my answer would be, because you can’t die without being born; you first live before you die. But even with this answer, I don’t know if someone if any would have a reason to live a meaningful life. With our human intellectual, a good number of us would find that as the perfect reason not to engage in any meaningful life fulfilling activity and we would argue that our purpose here on earth is to die so why waste your time, energy and other resources doing things that will never benefit you. The mediocre mind might argue, “give that, e.g money, to the poor instead of wasting it educating yourself yet you will die” forgetting that at the end of the day, all humans are bound to physical death to say the least.

Probably by now you are wondering why on earth I am writing concerning death which is a topic least discussed in any conversation and if by any chance it crops up, it’s purely circumstantial. Here is why, first is because the question I raised at the start of this article is not fictional but a real life situation and a true story of someone born to die, secondly and which we all tend to deny is that it is a reality which we can never run away from. In this article, I will mainly tell of the first reason and hopefully we will tackle the second reason later.

Many a time, we wade through life without really knowing our purpose in life and so each day we keep wondering what our purpose is, we are not able to identify the reason as to why we exist and we even go to the extent of having others identify the purpose of our own lives. Some of the statements I have heard state, “I wish God would clearly tell me what I am suppose to do”, “ If only I can identify what I am truly good at”, “I wish I had known these early enough, my life would have been so different”, but what leads people to make such statements? I believe it is lack of satisfaction in what he or she is currently doing or has been doing which arises from a point of taking the wrong turn at some point in their life.

Then there are those who have enjoyed every day of their lives. They have found fulfillment and satisfaction in what they do, they have been feeding from the silver spoon because there was someone to help them identify what they were created for and what they are good in and they played their role by following it.

I bet by now the question is, who identifies our purpose and how do we get to know what our purpose is?...

…watch out for this continuation

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Measure of love

William Blake, a British poet, painter, engraver and a mystic had this to say of love;

'Love seeketh not itself to please,
'Nor for itself hath any care,
'But for another gives its ease,
'And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.'

The ability to love naturally without expecting back is a virtue that only few posses. My mother always taught me the importance of love, love not only towards my family but even to those whom I might think do not deserve it. The biblical aspect of loving your neighbor as you love yourself, neighbor here not referring to the person living nor sited next to you but rather every human being you come in contact with. (P.s: it is not a request but rather a command).

Sometimes I think if I were to attend a practical session class on loving your siblings, I would without any shadow of doubt top the class, but is that enough? To only love those whose blood flow in my veins, it is worth it, but enough…no. I have in a few occasions told my friends of how much I love my brothers that if at some point, and God forbid, their lives were at stake, then I would rather have mine on the line than theirs. These are the people with whom your life revolves around and sometimes it feels like life is not worth living without them. You can actually face the grave for them.

As unbelievable as it seems, this is actually what happened to me. He always said that he loved me but it was not mutual, that he wanted to be in a relationship with me but as far as I was concerned, you can only be in a relationship if both of you are reading from the same script, if you have mutual feelings but here is this guy whom I feel completely nothing for. Funny enough, he made the promises that many of his species make, that he would love me forever, that I will never regret if I decide to choose him over someone else and that he would give me a straight ticket to heaven, and this as he said, was not the’ heaven on earth’ but the real thing. Of course all these fell on very attentive ears but the heart seemed like one made of stone rather than blood. Emotionless! Someone might say, I think it was more of blindness plus stubbornness, but he did not give up. I dare even say I gave him enough gun shots but his spirit was never shattered. N.B, (FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NO CLUE, GUN SHOTS ARE THOSE WORDS YOU NEVER WANT TO HEAR WHEN ASKING SOMEONE OUT, e.g I have always considered you as my big brother/sister…he he, or just a plain NO), he kept coming back for more and when he finally realized that there was no breakthrough, he gave his life up for me. Many at times he’d said that I couldn’t live without him and at some point he even said he can die for me but of course to me that was crap. What do you mean I can’t live without you, who do you think you are? And so to him the only way to save me from myself was to die for me, it is unbelievable and the day I learnt of this, I can’t even describe what I felt. It was a moment of pain, it stung deep through my flesh to the bone marrow, and my heart was crushed into pieces, my soul groaned as I remembered how heartless I had been towards a man who had truly loved me. For a day I could not live with myself but it was too late to turn back time. He gave up his life that I might live, he died for me. By the way, this isn’t fiction but a true story. Now this is the weirdest part of this story, although this man died that I may live, I have come to learn that he does not force me to live my life the way he expects me to. He has given me the liberty to choose whether to live for him or not and I can proudly declare that I have deliberately chosen to live for Him because this is love. This man is my savior and I bet you know him, He is the Christ!

Slv 2012...coming soon

                                                                        Epitome of Legacies                           

While marveling of the times I had during a recent sunrise on a clear crisp morning, upon seeing the golden rays of sunlight on this day, I know the chapter of the book is about to close, the ring signature is about to be endorsed, the stamp is almost being sealed, the season is coming to an end, the 8-4-4 system is fast approaching to a halt.

One season is coming to an end, another is just about to begin for the beauty of the whole relationship that has blossomed, for the glory of the understanding we have for the friendships we have built which over and above us lies. A time that according to me, has been impacting, one that is worth every breath in me and the memories I have can never be erased and even if I tried, it will be like drawing a brushful of correction liquid over a line.

These are the kind of relationships that define us; they remind us of who we are and where we have come from. I am one of the people who strongly believe in walking down memory lane every day the sun rises, it reminds us to keep our focus and each time it sets, reminding us to be thankful of what we have.

It is my sincere prayer that each time you open this book, it will remind you of the times you had in campus, of the friends you made, of the people who were able to reach past the thorns to show you the rose within you because this is the characteristic of love. As for me, I have chosen not to grumble that roses have thorns but to be thankful that thorns have roses. And when the night approaches, I want you to remember that the moon is not just a rock, it is a little piece of magic that comes out every night even when times are hard to remind you that every day has a potential for beauty.

These are your legacies,

Your very own memories,

Treasure them always

And it will be my pleasure, if you will enjoy them.

 

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Purpose is...

...The original intent for the creation of a thing
...The original reason for the existence of a thing
...The cause for the creation of a thing
...The desired result that initiates production
...The need that makes a manufacturer produce a specific product
...The destination that prompts the journey
...The expectation of the source
...The objective of the subject
...The aspiration for the inspiration, and
...The object one wills or resolves to have.

Using Google Scholar and other Google resources for education

Teacher's Pet

It’s amazing how almost everyone or rather everything has something they value more than anything in this world. People have their favorite meals, games, places to visit, presidents or even postures! And many other favorites that you can think of, yes including that one which you are thinking of right now. I was even amazed the first time I heard that parents have a favorite child, and this came from a parent’s own mouth, seriously!? O.k, in some situations, I think I can agree but not fully because even in those situations, more or less you will find the parent(s) must have played a role. Anyway, that is a story for another day.

Just the other day I was watching a movie in which a bank was being robbed or rather, it was being taken hostage because at the end, they had tortured people more than what you can call robbery. The most intriguing thing about this script was how the president of the bank reacted when he got the information that his bank was under siege. His first question was,” which branch is it?”, and that is when it hit me that everyone has his/her favorite. It was his favorite branch. You could tell by all means, his body language said it all. He at some point even asked his secretary if she can ask those guys to go to the other branch which happened to be located one street away, now that was laughable, but the old man was damn serious. He meant every word he said.

As I watched this movie, I started thinking of my own favorites and I ended up with a broad smile when I remembered how I was my teachers’ favorite. This was way back in primary when I was in my lower class, I was my teacher’s pet so to say and I would look forward to those “practical” classes we had with her. Practical here meant those times when you are learning things like, for example, the clock and a clock had to be brought to school for “practical” lessons and guess who was asked to bring such stuff, yes you thought right. The teachers’ pet.

I remember one day, in class two, my teacher sent me to class one because they were making so much noise and I had to go and tell them to keep quiet. Being her favorite, I didn’t want to disappoint her and of course I new those kids would not listen to their fellow kid despite the fact that I was older than them. I had to be smarter than them, I had to be one step ahead of them. I was not going to only ask them to be quiet, that would be mere words leading to no results, I had to motivate them and so I promised that whoever keeps quiet will each receive a piece of paper to write whatever they want. OMG!! I can’t believe I’m actually writing this, it’s one of the most stupid things I have done in my life, that means there are a few others.

To cut the long story short, of course those kids kept quiet and I had to fulfill my promise or else I would be labeled a liar. I plucked the pages of my new homework book which my mother had just bought and distributed to them. I had mentioned earlier that my mother was a teacher at the school in which I was in and what preceded my philanthropic act was a nightmare. First of all, I have never understood how my mother passed by that class that particular day because that is how she found out that her daughter had been kind enough to distribute her book pages to class one children who ended up littering the entire class with papers. That actually made matters worse, I wish they had done something constructive with those pieces of paper, wait a minute, what constructive thing would a class one kid do with a piece of paper?. The whole classroom lay white with pieces of paper. Later on at home, my mother asked me about it which of course I denied not knowing that she knew the truth. I got BUSTED!! What followed next is exactly what you might be imagining.

Broken Heart

Growing up as a first born in a family of four, I was the eldest sibling followed by three brothers so that obviously says I am the only daughter of my parents and the only sister to my brothers. It feels great when you know that somehow they all look up to you but it is not all that rosy because that title carries with it a lot of responsibilities. All you first borne out there hope you feel what I am saying . To my parents, I have to be a good role model; I have to set the standards whether it is moral values, academics, almost everything.

This was however far from my imagination as a young girl. I did not understand that I would one day be expected to play all these roles and so the only thing that mattered to me was my playing time, and this is where my hearts’ troubles begun. I grew up in a traditional environment, the traditional setting which is now slowly fading away. This was the kind of setting where all the children in the neighborhood would play together at a set apart community field, there were no restrictions or constraints of whose child you should play with, and whose you shouldn’t play with. There was collective conscience even amongst the young ones during play and that was exactly what happened with our parents when we got ourselves into trouble, they had collective conscience. One parent had the authority to discipline all of us and unlike these days, you couldn’t even think of running home to tell your mother of how your neighbor has caned you because that would mean more strokes of the cane.

Of course, all these was so much fun because you didn’t have to worry about KPLC having to cut out your power when you playing a PS or watching a cartoon because that is how it is with the facebook generation, actually those kids should get a life! Anyway, mine is a different story or maybe it is a big placard conveying the message that should have hit home, I am growing old(er), ouch! That was a hard one but it is the reality.

My biggest issue was, and yes ‘WAS’ is the word because right now it isn’t, that I didn’t have a sister. It was a huge problem especially that I had a brother, mark you, by that time they were not yet three but one, just one and I was already complaining. You can now imagine my disappointment and levels of stress when two more boys were introduced into my life. I wanted a girl to play with, one to tell my stories to and to share my room with, but the most important and “viable” reason was one I could exchange chores with. That did not happen and the pick of all these was when my youngest brother, whom I now dearly love, was born. This I must say was a blessing in real disguise and I know I am only saying this because of maturity. Such a statement at that moment did not mean anything to me.

It all started the day I knew I was going to have a sister, I knew because I had told my mother I wanted a sister and so every nerve in me was convinced that my own mother would never stand me up, I was her girl, so I thought, until that evening when my dad came back home without my mother and announced to us that we have a small baby. It was ‘we’, but the moment he said his name was Brian, it wasn’t ‘we’ again but they, I was literally crushed. You may wonder how a small girl would be crushed, yes they get crushed and that, I can say, was my first heart break. Come to think of it, my own father was actually the first person to break my heart but you can rest assured that he restored it to its original form, something that only he can do. And so with a broken heart I did what every broken hearted girl would do, ran to my bedroom, closed the door and cried and not the silent crying that grown up girls cry but the loud cry for little girls. I remember my father knocking at the door and trying to explain to me that children come from God and you can imagine my answer to him was that he should go back and tell that God to give him another baby and it should be a girl…lol, that was crazy. That definitely never happened and I pray every day that it doesn’t, reason being, I love the way things turned out. I am the only sister and so they treasure that so much because they appreciate the one they have than having none at all and of course she is able to sort them out in the house.

And for the record, I totally love all my three brothers so much and those who know me can testify of this, I would never exchange them for anything because they are part of my world, they make me the person that I am and I live my life to set the best example to them and to the youngest,  Daniel Brian, I love you so much bro and of course you too Wycliff and Obah.