Of Lazy Christians and Teachers Turned Cheaters

When I was in primary school, one of the many pranks that we enjoyed was writing something on a piece of paper and sticking the paper on the back of an unsuspecting fellow pupil. The messages ranged from “Kick me” to “I am stupid” and everything in between. Oh heck, yes I hang my head in shame but in my defence, er,  I have said over and over that at I was young and foolish.

Well, fast forward to when I went to college and many times I would walk in the streets of Nairobi and wonder if I still had some lingering sticker on my back saying “I am gullible”. I cannot begin to count the number of times a guy would approach me and whisper in my ear “Gold chain! good price!” and others would say “Earrings! Pure gold!” and yet even others would not ask but would simply shove the items on you and say “sema bei (state your buying price)”. One thing they all had in common is that this offer was always accompanied by furtive glances to any passerby.  Even if the thought of buying these attractive ornaments crossed my mind, the demeanour of the seller was always enough to stop me from making a purchase ...However, that is not to say that I hated gold and would have been ashamed to own several pure gold accessories. In fact, owning gold is not forbidden in my clan just so you know!

On the other hand, as I walked in town, I also noticed how the stores that sold gold were heavily guarded and in fact most of them the doors were not left wide open, oh no ... the doors were closed and the askari positioned there to control who got in and who did not. Oh yes,  those askaris had power to vet long before terrorism that saw devolution of askari authority.

I began to questioned why would these jewellery store owners invest so much in security and yet they could easily have hawkers peddle their precious metal on the streets of Nairobi. What was the difference in the wares? The glaring difference for me was that the ones in the shop were more expensive. And not just expensive in terms of cost but even in the way they were handled. The guys in the shop had a certain TLC (tender loving care) manner in how they handled the gold they sold and their customers.  They treated customers who came to purchase gold with a certain reverence. Yes, I remember once going to collect a pair of rings with a couple for their wedding and as we sat waiting, we were offered cold drinks and some Indian sweets. And not even one person shoved anything to my face nor did anyone whisper anything in my ear! In fact, the only furtive glances were mine ... I kept wondering why they were being so nice to us ... again do not judge me, I am born and bred in Nairobi therefore am suspicious   ok, borderline paranoid. Do not roll your eyes at me!

Well, my conclusion was pure and simple, what was in the store was pure gold ... it even came with a warranty. Oh did I mention that for their first anniversary my friends received a call to wish them a happy anniversary and also let them know that they were entitled to one free polishing of their rings and they could bring the rings anytime before their 2^nd anniversary. I told you the customer care rocked!  

 

Here is the thing, there has been media frenzy on fake pastors and men and women of God who pray and prey on the public. It is sad. It is very sad. Actually, it is not just sad but downright annoying for me. It is the kind of thing that fills me with the kind of righteous indignation that makes one throw a brick to the TV set!

And for the record my anger is not at the media fraternity per se. To them it is plain and simple, they are receiving money to air these mpastors, in fact if it was not for them, many of these mpastors would never have been heard of.

But today, I need to speak to the Christians ...seeing that we are a country that is said to be 80% Christian. For the record, I have always doubted that figure mainly because it assumes that one is a Christian by default ie, am not Hindu, Muslim, atheist etc so I am a Christian but that is a conversation for another day.

Beloved, as a flock we have a responsibility for our own spiritual growth.  We can approach God directly seek Him for ourselves. The bible is available for many of us and we should learn to pray for ourselves. Yes, there is power in corporate prayer but guess what, my God is does not play hide and seek ...if you seek Him, He shall be found. And finding Him is not subject to status, sex, religion, tribe or even subject to any human control ... infact, He is a God who desires we find Him! The word of God says, the word of God is alive and active ...read it and it has the power to transform! Seeking God is not even a function of education and my late great grandfather was testimony of that.

Let us get off our comfy seats and stop being lazy Christians ... just the same way no one can do push ups for you, no one can seek God on your behalf and you simply give him money ... not your pastor, not your bishop and not even me! In fact I will take it a step further and say many of us operate with God as though we can manipulate Him with our money. You know how roll, I have sinned and depending on my perceived gravity of that sin, my offering on Sunday shall be reciprocate to my shame and guilt. 

Seek God while He can be found and work out your salvation with trembling and fear. What happened to thirsting for the Lord as a deer thirsts for streams of water? Why have we reduced Christianity to a form of witchcraft? Nipe nikupe? 

Over the years, the one verse that has guided and guarded my heart as I have grown in my Christian walk has been 2 Timothy, 3:15 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

It therefore means that every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us. This means that even without a pastor, the Word of God can speak to me ...simple plain ME! Yes, pastors have a role but they are not, cannot be held responsible for my personal spiritual growth. 

Stop approaching God with the "naomba serikali" mentality. This attitude stinks of hopelessness and a resignation to the forces of fate!!

Back to the guys selling gold in the streets ... well one common complaint I heard was they had been sold fake stuff and yet the buy had bought it thinking the price was too good to ignore. So at a tender age I concluded if you buy cheap gold in the street and you find out you have been conned, you have no one to blame! 

You see these preachers are a disgrace to Christianity and are an affront to the faith I profess and possess.  But in all these,  I am yet to hear of a case of a pastor who held a gun to someone to send them mpesa, we willingly do this. Giving is NOT wrong. However, why are we giving? Are we giving so that we can be able to gain access to the Heavenly Hypermarket where blessings material abound and we want to KDF heaven and exit with heavy laden paper bags? Stop treating your encounter with God as the ultimate shopping experience where prayer is the parking lot of the divine mall! 

In fact, if that is what you have reduced your God to ....the master storekeeper and your pastor the shop attendant ....then I dare say you deserve to be conned!

Finally to my dear brothers and sisters, one thing every banker will tell you is that when they are being trained on how to identify fake currency, they spend hours studying the real thing. They learn how it feels, its features and basically everything that pertains to that note. That way, when a fake one comes, they will check it against the real and immediately spot the fake. Remember fakes are many but the real is only one.  One thing I know from experience is that if you seek for yourself and study the Word of God and the truths therein, you will know when someone comes you with their lies ...  because you know the truth that ALWAYS sets one free.

And for these so-called men / women of God,  I say be afraid, be very afraid for even though the Lord tarries to deal with your ill gotten wealth, His judgement on you shall surely come because while He is a gracious and merciful loving and forgiving God, He is a God of justice and it will be a horrible thing for you to fall under into the hands of an angry God and yes, your actions must anger Him ... woe unto you who have taken advantage of people who came to you ... you wolves clad as sheep! 

As for the media guys, I say to you this, if someone approached you with a 300 shillings note today, you would know it is fake and you would  not fall for it. At the same time, the reason there are fake pastors is because there are real ones. They are not memorizing mpesa numbers ... they are soaking themselves in the word of God and not just preaching it but living it. Seek them  ... they can be found.

Beloved, if the man or woman of God quotes an mpesa number more often than he/she quotes the bible, if you long after you have left church all you remember is “mbegooo” .... RUN BABY RUN!!

I am a Kenyan

Have you noticed how when someone gives you their business card you look at their title and mentally make several assumptions about them?   This happens regardless of how long you have known that person. Think about it, what would be going through the mind of Obama’s mother (God bless her soul)  if she read his business card today? As a mother I can try and answer that …pride, joy and excitement that I taught him well. Probably fear and concern that the job may be too demanding for your little boy. Worry over his wellbeing. Is he spending enough time with his family? Will that power go to his head? Is he making the right decisions?  May be even anger that had he listened to you and eaten his carrots, there would be no possibility of ever having to wear glasses when reading the state of the union address.   And of course, oh gosh, I really did ask him to stop with the cigarettes and now he is in trouble with Michelle on the same….

Whilst I have never been president (at least not when am awake), there have been titles that I have heard that I keep wondering if the bearer is sure he knows what that means.  I never cease to be amused about how superfluous some titles really are. I once met a guy who introduced himself as a Social Media Communication, Engagement and Negotiation Analyst and Strategist aka Facebook Addict.

However, there are titles that I have that were bestowed upon me by the blood of others. Yes, I will go there, I am a Kenyan and I am a Christian. For both to be blood was shed at a certain point. One happened with no input on my part and the other, I willingly chose to be.  But guess what, since being a Christian is a choice overnight I could decide to be a Muslim or a Hindu or an Atheist … an anythingist or even an everythingist as it were. Gotta love this freedom of choice thing!  I would not need to sign anything or even consult anyone. I could simply change and move on.  It would be between me and my God or whoever I perceive him (or her?) to be.

Not so on being Kenyan. You could argue that I could change citizenship but like I have stated, that is not something that would change overnight.

From my observation, when something one has “automatically” received something, it is easy to disregard, disrespect and dismiss the value of it. And there are times I think that we as Kenyans do exactly that. We have taken being Kenyan for granted. We have taken having peace for granted. We take freedom for granted. Do we not learn from what our neighbors have gone through? Is Rwanda completely lost on us? Is the 2008 post election violence forgotten? You want to know how good we have it, just talk to someone who has widely travelled this continent, with the exception of may be South Africa and Egypt we are way ahead of many African nations. Do not get me wrong, we still have things to improve but I like what the desiderata say, do not compare yourself with others but compare yourself with yourself and with time.

It therefore baffles me that for a country head and shoulders above its peers in many fronts, elections and campaigns for electoral office are equivalent to a national root canal.

There must be a way we can have a different opinion and express that respectfully. Elections really should never have to be a life and death affair.  I am glad that this time around, there were stringent standards laid out for advertising and the quality of messages that candidates have released are refreshing.  Clearly, some thought has gone into these and that is a good thing. I believe that insults and violence are an indicator of a scarcity of ideas and are a shortsighted approach to our future as a nation.

Gladly, sanity is returning to us a nation and many are speaking out. I read something profound from a dear friend the other day. The gist of her message was if the only reason you are voting for your candidate (for presidential, gubernatorial, senatorial and all electoral positions) is so that you can scoff at the supporters of the other candidates, to prove them wrong, to let them have it etc, then you have do not love Kenya. We should all ask ourselves why we have settled on a certain candidate.

We should focus on getting in good candidates and not voting out so and so.

As we go into elections in a few days, many Kenyans have worked hard in different initiatives to try and ensure that we remain united and in peace before, during and after elections. Many are working to ensure that the elections will be free and fair. Our institutions have been strengthened. Our citizens are being informed.  One observation I have made is how many of us have realized the depth of our national anthem. It is indeed a profound prayer. It has been sung in offices, in schools, in sporting events, at the movies, in places of worship and I am sure that is not in vain.  And that is why I find the idea of 1 people gathering in different places a 1 o’clock on 28^th February to sing the national anthem as 1 amazing. There must be something deep and committed about a people united regardless of age, sex, color or creed and forgetting the differences that so easily divide us.

Remind yourself of the lyrics and really think about how profound they are. http://28feb.co.ke/national-anthem-of-kenya/

It am reminds me of a story I heard about when Columbus discovered Africa (forget the argument that Africa was always there for a minute), there were people so interested in understanding the experience and so they frantically sought his diary chronicling his travails. Well, they were disappointed as there were days his entry was simply “We sailed and sailed and sailed.”  Of course had there been women keeping that diary, we would have more details but I digress.

One day, our children’s children will read history and they will be wondering why so many believe in singing the national anthem? Why did this evolve into a movement? What was the point? Would it not have been easier to give up and move away to another country?

I am sure someone will be writing history. I am sure someone will read.  I am sure some will say we gathered and sang. Some will say it was fun. Others will capture the intense feelings of nationhood that brought. Others will praise the initiative. Still others will participate proudly.

28^th February. At 1pm. Stop. Sing the national anthem as 1.

I know what my diary entry will be.

“We prayed and prayed and prayed.”

Do not vote popular, vote Wise!

God bless you all. God bless Kenya.

Leadership Starts With Me

Let me start by explaining why I have not posted something on this blog for a while now. The obvious first, is that for a while there I was so caught up in motherhood and too sleep deprived to think straight. Secondly, as we began the year, the time I had promised myself to resume blogging, I found myself struggling with should I start afresh get a new blog and all. Well, this was informed by the fact that I really wanted to share my thoughts about leadership, the upcoming elections and wanted to engage others on the same and that is serious business. So I thought that could not, should not and cannot be on the same place I wrote about my hair (or lack thereof it you ask my son!).

And as I struggled with that, two things happened , one was that time did not stop still awaiting my decision and so the month moved on, yes despite the fact that January has 103 days, these days did come to an end as I dilly dallied with making a decision. Number two was the realization that as I was thinking about this whole issue of leadership and how it should be taken seriously which just like marriage should not be entered into lightly but I digress … I had a flashbulb moment! That right there is part of why we have some of the challenges we do. We think leadership is an “item” on its own in our day to day lives and must be given time, thought and attention and since there are other things jostling for my time, thought and attention … “leadership” gets forgotten. Leadership gets ignored. Leadership is too time-consuming.

 By the way, this is not about bashing the middle class because that horse has been flogged to death.

The danger of thinking of leadership in isolation is that while you and are busy “thinking” about it, someone else who has not thought it through per se or one who is not caught up in analysis paralysis is leading you! And this is particularly visible in political arena in Kenya today. Am jolted by the letter from the opportunist (read typical Kenyan politician):

                   Dear optimists, pessimists, and realists, 

                            
                   While you were all arguing over the glass of water, I just drank it. 

                                  
                    Sincerely, Opportunist. 

So yes, it would be nice to think, hope and pray that those that have offered themselves are able but upon closer inspection that clearly is not the case for a good number of them. Guys, Kenya is too important to be left to the politicians.

So why do capable and at the very least sane Kenyans steer from stepping up?

In my opinion, it is all about our ideal versus our reality. And the gap in between is our frustration.

In the last couple of years with the clamor for good governance, there are certain words we have thrown with reckless abandon. One such big word is transparency. Throw that into politics and it is expected that miraculously, the hidden things shall come to the fore. Sadly that has not been the case.

Reality is, transparency seems to have been mixed up with other words and so while we thought transparency would translate to honesty, it does not. Transparency does not translate to clarity either. To further make a fine mess of things, transparency has been confused with nudity! And then trouble really begins.

Transparency preserves dignity whereas nudity embarrasses.

Transparency allows for critical analysis while nudity elicits scorn.

Transparency fosters growth unlike nudity which stirs mockery. 

Transparency teaches and nudity cheats.

Unfortunately, we have been left with nudity while what we desired was transparency. You see, our politics has become so mucky that anyone who genuinely has the interests of Kenya at heart will not venture because it is akin to wrestling with a pig…you both get dirty but the pig enjoys it.

I am convinced and persuaded that even from the get go leadership should be understood in a personal context. That is why we are said to be “leading our lives”. That means we are all leaders whether we know, acknowledge, accept, appreciate and do it or not! The fact that you are not making conscious decisions to “lead” your life does not mean that you are not leading it to a certain direction, you are! You are passive about it instead of active but life is going on to the direction of your leading or lack of!

To lead can be defined as to “play a principal or guiding role” and this clearly is not by fluke.

So what would l like to see on March 10, 2013? My response just like many of you is “a peaceful and united Kenya”.

How do we get there? We lead our lives in a way that suggests we desire, nay demand a peaceful transition. 

How do we do that? We take the responsibility to stand up for peace in our homes, places of work, places of worship and yes, even in social media.

We cut the doublespeak of speaking about them and us. Those people from that tribe. Even referring to them as our in-laws will not make that negative thing we say about them more palatable!

I will be happy to see a peaceful Kenya and how do I get there?

I internalize the words of Mahatma Gandhi, Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. 

A peaceful Kenya cannot just happen we must lead Kenya that direction.
 That leadership starts with me.