Hope, faith and Love… What a completion of life. What a testament to renewal.
Like a newborn baby to its mother, so are these three to the expanse of our lives, as we know it. These three represent a profound continuity. An indescribable and unfathomable permanence of all we know [and don’t know] life to be.

These three make all the difference in the world. They are the crux of belief in something greater… they are the foundations of humanity’s very existence…

They are the eternal forces that reckon Goodness. They are the light of old… against the hordes of a very unmistakable and sure darkness.

I have been surrounded by the darkness of death lately. Lives ending all around me… Lives of those close to me, friends of friends, acquaintances… My heart goes out to the bereaved… those in the pain of loss. One in particular of whom I have grown to love… Hers is an indescribable ration of loss. Perhaps because I am too close to the picture… I can’t help but feel it too…

It is easy to revert to the fickleness of life and its puny demands when you look at the all-consuming obscurity that is death.  It is easy to loot what is and should be rightly yours when the screeching fears of death’s bellow haunt the very existence of life as you know it.  The uncertainty, unnerving as death itself, drives many into reckless living.

“Live now for there is no tomorrow” they say..

“what is the meaning of life, if it is only but to die?”
“ where is the purpose for living?”

The trepidations embedded in questions like these have plagued mankind for all of time. He still asks the very same questions one life after another. One generation following another.. Decade after decade, Century after century… they have asked…

They still ask.

I ponder too. Why is life worth living if all that is foreseen is total emptiness and complete obliteration of its essence? What is there to live for?

Friends? Why? They will be gone like the wind tomorrow! Forgotten! U will be forgotten. I will be forgotten!

Do we live for ourselves? To amass wealth and pleasure while it lasts? Then what? To what end is nothingness?

Why should I live a life of pain and Sorrow?  When I could save myself and end it.

Yes… In a darkness so blinding, the light of life dims… and when despair is fully birthed  … there is no value for life or existence. Not anymore…

Life is just another random calculation on the vast canvas of chance.

What a load of crap!

The intellects reckon we are alone. The philosophers have more questions than answers. The scientists, soo near sighted only see evidence, and facts before them. They tell only what’s up and never why it is!!!

Any one can figure out what… but “why?”… That is the man-question!

Death sucks!

Death could have single handedly declare a state of total chaos and destruction…. But for faith, hope and Love.

to be continued…..

TIME. A phenomenon well known by all of mankind! This is the single most profound entity of the universe, as we know it. A continuation of existence! There is no telling what time will be or whether it could change its course. All we know, is we travel through it and from the perspective of reality, time can never and will never be taken back.  The only time we have is now. And as soon as it is in the past, the best one can do is recall.  I really wish we could go back in time or manipulate it to go our way.

Ohhh, the wrongs I could make right!! It is a dream I have had from the first time I embarrassed myself by letting my bowels feel free…. to the time I mumbled words I didn’t know ever existed in my vocabulary, (in reality, they still don’t exist yet)  just to please a girl. I have made a fool out of myself and have been  made a fool of. I have lost a lot, and even more has been stolen from me. If I could take back time, the world would know me as a saint! My name would be sung for ages to come. I would simply be the most profound being of my time! Right!?

But all we have is now.  No human being( to the best of my knowledge) has ever had such power on time.  No one can turn back time. All we have is now…

And “Now” is but for a moment, then it is gone! So how do the history makers do it! The Gandhis, the Mother Teresas, the Abraham Lincolns… How did they face Time and the gory truths that stared at them in the face? It hit me. In time, they became what they were. In time, we read of their attributes and wonders and know that only time could have enabled them to do these.

It is in this light, that a profound TRUTH turned my way. When Paul the Apostle says “…in Part we know, and in Part we don’t” he is referring to the very fabrics of time and the correlation with Truth.

Truth is (in my opinion) a verified series of facts as seen through the eye of reality over TIME.  For me, TRUTH is a much more important entity than facts will ever be. We will always have facts, but truth is a revelation of what they epitomize.

Time always will be Truths ally in a world dipped in falsehood and lies. In a world where half of it is a distortion or an enemy of Truth as it should be presented, Time will reveal all.

In my ranting and discourse with those that walk not the path of TRUTH I chose, I pride myself in the one thing that anyone will agree with me on, TIME. So to the atheists, the agnostics and all other “ists” I may not mention;

Though our paths may be far apart, and though our minds collide on beliefs and facts…. We will surely set the record straight.  Time is the best chance we ever have to prove whether what we proclaim, believe or ascribe to is TRUTH.

As a Christian, I believe that Time is God’s best invention to prove anything about himself. So I worry myself no longer on what better ways I would argue my opinions to prove to myself and to others of the God-Sensation. I am confident in the Creator of Time and as all these questions well up.. about his very existence, about his reign, about his sovereignty, about his rule… Time will set it all straight. We might not ever get the Chance to glance into time or travel back therein, but I as a man of faith, I place my hope and Trust in He that makes all things known. The Author of time!

There were concerns that my last article “ON MATTERS OF FAITH” was borderline heretic at best. Concerns from both the believers and the “not-so believable” made very convincing arguments about how I am trading on a very dangerous precipice.  But like everything else, I am under the scrutiny of time. I will be proven wrong or right. If my theology lacks character or is speculative at best, I Have all I need to Prove whether the ideas on the faith matters are wrong or right. I am not afraid to be wrong, Let time Prove it! 

All TRUTH shall be revealed in the fullness of TIME.

I rest my case.

The stand

Having faith in a being one deems greater than themselves, gives them strength and hope in a clearly dying world. A hope that there is always something better coming. Even after death.  Once that is established, the particulars of faith vary from person to person hence the seeming inconsistencies not only in scriptures, but also in different faiths.

As a Christian, I believe that Christianity isn’t the only way to God… It simply is the best way. This is not to be presumptuous or haughty in any way. It is simply the best because it is only through Christ, the one they are called after, that one can come to the Father. Again, that is not to presume He is the only way to access God.  The emphasis here should be and always has been on FATHER.
Jesus is the Only way to acquire a relationship of that kind with God. Where he adopts you as a Child. So for a Christian, God is the best there is and the best phenomenon that has ever occurred in their lives is the encounter with the lord Jesus. And if love is the driving force (as should be), then they cant but tell of him in the simplest, benign way possible.

The Stand of faith is self-explanatory. We believe because we have been convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is Truth.
Again, to use scientific methods alone to get to this truth will prove to be tedious and futile because it would be like measuring the volume of can of water using a weighing scale. It simply won’t work…

Faith is an informed decision to believe in a convincing argument based on facts of intangibility. The dealings of a History (not to be confused with a past) and the manifestations of the future are certain. They either have happened or will happen.  But in neither have I or anyone else personally/physically observed, tested or analyzed the validity of the Truth in them.  Where history is concerned, we look at what has been documented as Truth. When it comes to the future, we observe a pattern and make an informed prediction.

Both arenas, for one to make sense of them, must have an element of faith.
History has it written of Beings Greater than us. History also made predictions (whether it was through the study of patterns or by sheer revelation) and these came to pass. Look at Israel the nation for example. All events that have happened to it since 69AD during the Roman siege to the 1947 at the re-establishment of the nation, were  predicted and well documented  before they actually happened. Coincidence or not, this is something to consider with a lot more thought.

Faith in a God therefore, is not and will never be an idea of the weak willed to cover up their shortcoming.  No! It is a desperate hope for better.Faith is not for the simple or base. It is not for the intellectually impaired only. Faith in someone/something greater is embedded in the fabrics of humanity.  They cant do without it. Not in a decaying dying world. Faith lets humanity live on.

In more cases than not, Faith has been the only thing left for the deprived, the lowly, the scum of the earth to hold on to.

The depressed run to it,

The hopeless turn to it,

The betrayed flee to it.

Where there is need for Love, there is always faith.

When we look around at the decadence of a tearing world, when you see the shame of a broken creation, there is no two ways about it.  There is an urgent need for love.

When the day comes and there is no more love on the earth, that will be the hell of old, told in tales.

The stand of faith , is the mark of Love. 

“And now, these three remain, Faith hope and love; but the greatest of these is Love.”

 

The contentions

Recently I got in touch with a very close friend again after a long time! Time and choice had dealt our friendship a dirty blow and we had lost all manner of amity.
The biggest blow was his turn from the faith we both held so dear for a long long time.  We made our choices on the things that mattered to us and have since looked and behaved differently toward life as we know it.  He told me the reasons he got to that place and I listened. They are no different than those of the raging anti-religious intellects that  think faith and religion disreputable and should be walked away from. His reasoning was as  a result of somehow waking up from the devious dream that was faith.   

It got me thinking again…  what changed. How come we took two very different directions? How come it is the story of this world? Some reject the word of truth and others embrace it as Life.  The So-called evidence appears to be at a balance no one can seem to tip.   There seems to be as much evidence (today at least) that God exists, as there is that he doesn’t. Chance, choice and God appear to be merging at an intersection of life from the perspective of an innocent, objective on looker that knows not what to believe. But is searching for truth.

 

I have over and over again been at it with the bunter of the Christian turned atheist.  The debates about the so many seemingly evident inconsistencies in the bible, the immoral stance church leaders have taken, all in the name of God, the hypocrisy within the Church, the ever-growing number of people believing less in the scriptures and more in themselves,  the tedious religiosity that is more mind controlling than transforming…

Truth be told, like it or not, all these contentions are sound in their own right. 

I ask myself however, how many of these questions are queried in the name of objectivity when in fact they are piquantly asked in the spirit of rejection. 

to be continued… 

I have ,in recent times, come to witness a metamorphosis far grater than can be endorsed in nature. It is one of dire deliberations and dismal sacrifice.  A Change that time and nature attest to as the single greatest miracle in a man’s cycle. A come back! A return to normalcy!  It is a beauty that cannot be described or portrayed simply because it is one outside the realms of nature as we know it.

A few months ago my pastor and I , with the help of the saints started a group for the addicts , specific to alcoholics.  This was a result of my previous exposure to a church outside my natural confinements. I met and fellowshipped with a bunch of Ex Cons, wife beaters, home wreckers, and the like. They all reminisced on  a lot of their  dark days . One thing was for sure!  It was impossible to reconcile who they are and who they said they were in a past long gone. I couldn’t imagine it….  However intrigued and charged I was about it!

I come back to my confinement and my pastor requests me to help out with starting an AA meeting.  Long story short, We finally got it going.
I can honestly tell you, the times I have been within those walls, I have learnt more about men thrown out by society because of who they had become, and their struggles to get back on track than I could ever learn in year of Church services.

This is the journey of a Miracle long prayed for. Prayed for by a loving mother, a devoted wife, a desperate husband, a hopeful son, … someone that has a loved one under the power of addiction.

Within the confines of these walls, I have come to respect what was known and sometimes still is known as the “scum of the earth”… The bum!  The struggle to become more than they think they are… the challenge of dispelling a lie that they are worthless… Believing that they are of more value than the dirt they  lie in….

It intrigues me … this journey. It mesmerizes me.  A bunch of guys that have come to an all time low and have hit their breaking point. This is It. This is where it begins to happen. The Miracle of all time! The transformation from scum to king!  They look to the big book for answers….

First they admit they are powerless over the addiction.  That They are beyond redemption and cant do it on their own.  This is acceptance. This is coming straight out of a denial. One that had blinded them from seeing the truth about their despair and pain !

Secondly, They hand over their addiction to a Power Greater than themselves.
Yes, that is to say, They must negate all pride that tells them otherwise and believe in a God that can set them free from their addiction.  One that can restore them to sanity!

Thirdly, they make a decision, to turn their will and their lives over to the care of God as they understood him.  This has to and always will introduce the aspect of Hope. See ,for an addict, the pain they caused, the despair they feel, the control they lack, it all is a literal hell! Their world is crumbling before they. Spiraling into unmitigated chaos and they are helpless and hopeless!

It is at the third step of the Twelve, that the man realizes he isn’t alone. That this isn’t it. He isn’t doomed for a “bottled trap”.  That His Life can still be brought to Sanity.
It hit me! I couldn’t leave the group. I couldn’t have helped it start  for these men alone.  I found, in the depths of my heart, that I needed to see this. For my own sanity! For my own addictions of life! My vices that keep chipping my life away!

I have for sooo long pointed a figure at how “they are the ones with the problem” and how they should ” just change” Or “just leave the habit”…

Only to realize I am one. I am a problem too!
To witness these men pick up their lives’ pieces and watching them put them back together … is truly the single greatest metamorphosis of all time….

I have come to know about it all to well, but never thought it was mine to have.  I never thought I needed it.

I thought I was still in control….

I thought I had it all together,

But to know it isn’t true is the beginning of perfect freedom…

Hi, I am me, and I am an addict

I was at a free thinkers meeting some time back and the biggest question I heard them ask was “why can’t people Critically think for themselves?”

It was an ordeal tale of a mind-boggling collision of philosophies, ideologies and values that were clad in the bright light of the intelligent and logical thinkers.

Their biggest contention was of cause, the little or no thinking done in the religious circles.  It is a well-known fact among these oh-so-bright scholars that faith and belief in an intangible power greater and more potent than can be imagined is simply superstitious. And in their books, superstition is the very enemy of critical thinking.

So faith and belief pose a threat to the mind and retard it from progressive and ideal rational.

Free thinkers pride themselves in their literary prowess on all matters scientific, logical and attainable. They reckon everything else that can’t be explained by these tools is either non-existent or a hoax.

On further study of what was referred to as critical thinking, one cannot fail to see the utter lack of commitment to the moral implication of one that does or doesn’t think critically.  Because you see, Critical thinking, to them has no moralistic boundary to it. It just is. If one adds a moral notion to it, it will almost always quickly degenerate into a feud between religion and “logic”.
So I ask, who determines what Critical thinking entails? And God help you if your response is as base as “ the thinker” .
I would then ask why it is wrong for the thinker in a faith/ religious setting to believe with all he has got that what he has done or is doing is out of the best way he could have critically thought.

I ask again, on whose standards do we measure Critical thinking… If it is indeed without a moral point of view!
For if it is indeed outside the boundaries of an ethical concept, then no one can say there is a wrong way to think. We can only go as far as different.
There is no right or wrong way to determine actions by what one thinks.
It is said, “as a man thinketh, so is he. “ It goes without saying that if there is no moral code to check that statement, everyman is ok being that way. There is no right or Wrong. He just is.

I think not. I think it is borderline barbarism to even entertain and elevate ideas like those. Coz Lets face it, this is a pretty messed up world.

To this effect, I submit the following: There has got to be right thinking and wrong thinking. And if the standards of integrities are set in stone this way, I will argue that there must be a logical way to arrive at an illogical conclusion.

It is logically wrong for one to murder, yes? Well from the murder’s point of view, Why? Who said? Is it a fellow Human? Well, If it is, then he is one of them and he says it is OK? Right?

I submit  that it may be a general consensus that there are some things embedded in the Human DNA that witness to the wrongness or rightness of an action. It is beyond reason and logic, to understand the intricacies of why an action out of pure chemical reaction or imbalances in the brain can be deemed right or wrong.

I submit the God-element! 

With Blood short eyes and half a smile, He looks up to the stars at night …
He says nothing, His lips part and a deep sigh slowly runs through.
The memories of a time once much brighter and warmer cause a stark pain in the pit of his insides…
He still looks up and from the ashes of anguish that lay on his face, he whispers, “some day my love… some day”

A little girl stands over the big white ornamented 6 by 3. Unable to comprehend the full extent of loss, she leans over and kisses the all too familiar but emotionless face. “ I’ll see you soon momma” she says with glassy eyes and a cracked voice.

“I can’t do it any more” he cried, “ She has left me, My kids hate me, and I am all alone! Help Me! I need you to tell God to help me!” he lay his head on the bench and sobbed for what seemed to be eternity, as the man of prayer comforted him with a part on the back and a load full of Hope!

Atheism, in my opinion, is most cruel, not to the apologist, or the priest, but to these despairing souls . To them it screams, “THERE IS NO HOPE FOR YOU!”
Or “ YOU ARE ALL ALONE IN THIS WORLD”

For A child with the hope that they will meet with her loved one beyond the borders of life,… which borders science(a thing atheism so fully thrives on) has never ventured into, To be told on pure speculation based on immature statistical data about the great beyond , that they should kill all hope of ever meeting them again is not only dishonest but cruel too.

To tell a man that believes he will see his wife of 30 years, again after the cancer took her, that all of that is a lie, is impersonal and inhumane.

A Man desperate to find healing for his addiction problem that ruined his home and his marriage turns to a power greater than himself at wits end, only to be told, he is on his own. No god can help him because there simply is no such thing.
Atheism might call it the Hard cruel truth of the world, or that there is no way of knowing if there is a hope. It doesn’t take away the cruelty, the logical inhumanity and all the manure it paints life with.

For those that search for the purpose of life, it says life is meaningless and void. We are the ones that make it purposeful, and when it ends, so does our purpose. We are done.
There is no greater emptiness that this system brings to a weary and tired heart. There is no worse despair that it brings to one burdened and weighed with the pains of this world.
The problem is(, for the most part,) those that claim there is no hope beyond us, don’t really need it. They are usually the rich, the well to do , or the highly learned. Those who have somehow survived the cruelties of the world! The rest that promote it do it out of frustrations, anger and or bitterness.

Jesus said he came for the lost, for the tired and for the downcast… those that really needed him and cried out to him.
He came to establish an eternal hope in the hearts of men… to push them through the hell that is their life, until they saw the light of truth.

Truth that will, in the end, set them free.
The addict free of his addiction, the child free of the pain of loss, the widow free of despair.
He came to restore the brokenness in their lives. Lives crushed by a cruel and hard world that cares for nothing.
He is the Hope of the broken world. Whether or not the world knows it.