establish | encourage | energize

While on your journey of self-discovery, you probably had this question ringing in your mind. How can I change my life’s circumstances? Now that’s a great question.  A story is told of a man who was walking down the road next to a mental hospital. As he went by he heard the patients chanting, “Thirteen, thirteen, thirteen!” Curiosity got the better of him and soon he was peeping through a crack in the wooden fence, hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever was going on. One of the patients poked his eye with a stick and immediately they began chanting, “Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen!”

We are creatures of habit, and sooner or later we will do things out of impulse to resolve our inner appetites. A new mentality is a thought-life directed by God’s spirit not human self. If this resonates within you, then you are ready to learn three lessons why you need a new mentality. Naturally, this list is not exhaustive (and I could never claim it to be so):

1. Our thinking patterns must shift from the old to the new
2. Our natural minds are resistant to change
3. Our thought reinforces the status quo

First, it is a Biblical injunction that we shift our mentality. The Bible starkly demands that shift in Romans 12:2. Apostle Paul charged the Roman Christians not to be conformed to worldly standards but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. This is the only way we can prove the perfect will of God. The necessity of this demand is based on the fact that you cannot serve God effectively with an earthly mindset. All that we are and know is based on our rigorous learning and past experiences. These are important to daily living but they touch only our human element, which at its best is extremely poor at serving God’s interests. We need a new mentality, a different set of values, a higher way of interpreting our experiences and defining our realities. What Paul told the Roman Christians was basically this: You cannot discover the will of God if you continue thinking the way you do.

Secondly, we can agree that our natural minds are instinctively resistant to change. That is the way we guard against the mind’s perceived risks of getting involved with the unknown. We love to play it safe, so we don’t immediately accept new concepts and processes if we detect the slightest chance of risk. It’s our natural defense mechanism. This could save you from a bad mortgage plan, but will also likely cause you to resist the Word of God. The Lord spoke a parable in Luke 5:37-39 about putting new wine in old wineskins.  Old methods cannot contain new concepts. The two are mutually exclusive. If you try to force a union you will lose the two. That is to say, if you bring in yesterday’s failed methods into today’s new project, you will habitually be introducing failure into what was poised to succeed. Spiritually, our minds do the same thing. We cannot walk in victory with God when we keep interpreting His Word only in the light of what we know and are comfortable with. Life is no much more than what we know or like. Many times, God brings us to situations over which we have absolutely neither control nor experience. We talk ourselves out of God’s favor for fear of the unknown. Faith cannot thrive in such a hostile environment for it keeps denying her the opportunity to call out to God. Romans 8:7 is another stern warning on the sate of our natural minds, which are hostile against the Lord, and unable to be submitted to His law. A natural mind has the obedience button disabled.

Thirdly, our thoughts reinforce the status quo. We agree that we cannot act differently from our thoughts, the wellspring of our belief system and subsequent actions. You cannot act differently from your belief and you cannot believe differently from your though-life. Our new nature in Christ comes with a renewable mind so that we can now respond correctly to God’s requirements.

You are your biggest struggle and if you master your thoughts and bring them into subjection under power the Spirit of God you will begin to experience true peace and victory. Proverbs 16:32 celebrates the man who has control of his spirit and places him above the mighty warrior who captures an entire city. Now that’s a renewed mind, operating under the influence of God and not self.  It is only in God’s Spirit that our minds take up our new nature in Christ. And it is in that state of submission to His will that we can find true meaning and value in life.

That question was asked by God Himself in one of the Bible’s earliest recorded conversations with man. This question is today directed to all men, especially we Christian men.  A lot has been said about the boy child, whose future is somewhat compromised by, ironically, the focus on the girl child and women’s issues. This is not an attempt at downplaying women’s suffrage, no. In a major response to this long standing social imbalance it can be argued that the media, policy makers and society as a whole has probably shifted focus across the gender divide and ignored the boy child. This, in my humble view, portends a bigger crisis than the first due to the following deposition.

The boy child fiasco is society’s problem that cannot be fully understood unless it is contextualized. My perception is that the boy child issue is a constituent part of the larger manhood crisis. While the boy’s issues will manifest a little later, the underpinning cause is embodied in what his father is going through right now.  Men are far much different from women and this is a reality we are beginning to acknowledge. Marriage counselors and teaching pastors have begun to emphasize these differences as emerging from God’s purpose in creation. Man’s perceived dominance masks his needs. It is assumed that he has his way anyway. So my question begs, why does a man sit in the pub from 5pm till midnight, then stagger home in a drunken stupor? At what point did he give up being the hero of the family, the direction giver, protector and teacher of his own household? Why is the woman today left making all decisions and doing his share of the work, up to and including raising his sons? For as long as they are toddlers, they are safe with their mother. At some point in their development they will need the male role model.  I am driven to think that men are more femininely dressed these days due to lack of adequate male influence during childhood.

In light of the aforementioned, some activists have quickly whipped up outfits like Maendeleo ya Wanaume, which is a comical shadow of the great women’s movement that has revolutionized banking, immigration and property ownership matters in favor of women, to name a few.  But that dissenting voice must not be ignored else we will have tipped the scales and let the man and the boy slide right out the window.  The media, and its peculiar focus on what makes news, has ingrained stereotyped thinking in the mind of society. Try and answer these questions honestly: Can a male be raped? Is there rape in marriage?

Still on stereotypes, a boy is not expected to cry because ‘men don’t cry.’ It takes a sensitive society to acknowledge that although his tears may not show, he bleeds internally. This is far much more dangerous because the damage incurred may never be noticed until too late. We hear of wife beating but cannot comprehend that there are also serious cases of husband beating. ‘Male victim of domestic violence’ sounds like a misnomer. I cannot even begin to enumerate the impact that would have on the poor man’s sons. Some sayings are nothing short of disparaging remarks at manhood and a common one goes: Educate-a-man-and-waste-your-money, educate a-girl-and-you’ve-educated-a-village.

The role of the man in a healthy society must not be ignored, even when he cannot or will not fulfill his obligations. It must be accorded the status of a high office that is charged with several responsibilities. The failure in society does not in any way rest with the government but with the institution that must define society, namely the family unit. This is, in the Bible’s prescription, headed by none other than the man. He can be aptly described as the hub on which the wheel turns. The man is responsible for providing leadership, direction, order, strength and discipline.

Society must answer these questions. Why are we churning out an army of single women? Who is going to be the father and father-figure of those children born into difficult circumstances? Of course not everyone raised by a single mother is going to turn out problematic, but our current scenario is still a deviation from the norm. The norm which is two adults, male and female, providing parenting function to children. Sadly, one is frequently missing.

Adam, where are you? Society must answer this question, and loudest in response must be the church, the pillar of Christian rectitude. I write to you, not sitting on a high pedestal of moral perfection and supremacy, but as one plagued with this question at a personal level.

Yes, I ask myself, “Adem, where are you?”

Many of us are fond of President Obama’s famous campaign slogan ‘change we believe in’. Sadly, many will fail to experience any meaningful change in their lives due to the fact that they are looking in the wrong places. We all have dreams we hope to realize (in this lifetime) but challenges within and without tend to stop us. Undertaking any project without commitment means a dream will always remain just that…a dream. Planning is the key to achieving anything you set out to do. You must not only wish for change, but must commit yourself fully to it. It is critical to act on decisions and foster results and improvements. Then when you consistently follow through on those decisions you will experience the profound changes you need.

Consider this:

1. As long as you neglect critical matters you delay change by encouraging the status quo. A phone call, unfinished assignments, or appointments may sound insignificant, yet dealing with them is extremely important. In order to achieve your goals you must attend to certain demands. It is those demands that are hereby mentioned as critical.
2. Take responsibility and begin to act. Excuses and scapegoats only give you reason for further delay. You own the project of your life. If anything significant is ever going to occur, you must be directly involved. Don’t blame others. Instead be committed to change.
3. Your destiny rests in the hands of others until you begin to make decisions. If you allow indecision, others will decide for you and enslave you. We live in a man-eat-man society and people will take advantage of you if you give them the chance.
4. Make a plan on what you hope to achieve in your lifetime and involve God 100% in that plan. To a man belongs the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue (Prov.16:1 NIV). The Bible holds vast and precious promises, and is a reliable source of strength in life’s unpredictable events.

It is absolutely crucial that you recognize yourself as the God-appointed agent of change, and responsibility for that change starts with you.

God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Rom.8:28 NIV).

Start making that change today.

A frail old lady boarded a crowded train full of soldiers returning from a battleground occasioned by aggression from a neighboring country. They noisily reveled with female companions of questionable character in the excitement of breaking away all the demands of their shift at the border post. At the next stop a senior military officer also got on the train. The drinks were quickly hidden as everyone stood at attention.  All this time the old lady was leaning against a window at the far end, where the cold hit her hard and the swaying motion tossed her about. The officer returned their salute but refused their offer of the best seat in the carriage. Pointing at the old lady, he softly said, “If you could not offer the seat to her, then I am not worthy of it.”

What is greatness?

 Most people equate greatness with status fame and fortune. Unfortunately, this view is catching on in Christian ministry circles. There seems to be an ever-increasing focus on the minister rather than on the Word of God and the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Greatness starts from humility. That makes a good summary statement. And who else to better describe humility than Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith?

It written in the Bible:

“At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ He (Jesus) called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

 (Matthew 18:1-4)

The innocence of a child grants him freedom from ill-motives and other persuasions that could be well out of God’s will. Essentially, he has not learned sin, nor developed worldly trends. A child is a good model of purity and simplicity. The Lord used an example that would forever minister to Christians who jostle for power and recognition. Even today, children are just as adorable and they touch our hearts with their simple view of the world we live in. They live in a world where everything is possible – their view of God has not been clouded by vices like pride, arrogance or doubt.

I started with an illustration of soldiers who feigned respect. Despite their rigorous combat training, not one had the humility to help the old lady. Similarly, our Lord expects us to love and respect fellow man. If really want to be great in God’s kingdom I must first humble myself, consider others and serve them.