Category: Christian Living

The Waiting Room – Why delay happens

Vivian Martha5 Comments

When I was studying the English language in high school, we had a section called “composition writing”. Adding similes and proverbs while writing our compositions always gave us additional marks. I managed to collect a few proverbs which I kept writing in every exam. One of them was, “Good things come to those who wait.” I was reminded of this proverb while writing about the waiting room. It is an encouragement to know that waiting is not always in vain. Good things come to those who wait.

However, life does not always allow us to think of the good things at the end, but rather the immediate negative feelings while we wait. We often develop feelings of defeat and failure, especially when others advance past us and seem to have everything going for them. In the first part of this series, I talked about the awesome fact that the Bible is no stranger to delay and that waiting is a posture which every child of God, including our ancient forefathers, has to take in one way or another. In this write-up, I explore three reasons why we experience delay so that we may each identify the root cause of delay in our lives and know how we can deal with such seasons.

Delay due to ignorance

When delay happens, we often want to play the victim, blaming others for our situation, or blaming forces above and beyond our control. However, there are times when no force is available and no enemy stands in the way but ourselves.

Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me.” “Moreover, since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”

Hosea teaches that we pay a high price due to our ignorance. God rejected the Israelites as priests due to their lack of knowledge. The effects of such a decision are catastrophic. When the Lord, who opens doors and shuts them, rejects you, there is a reason for concern. The question then is, what knowledge did these people lack which led to their destruction? Let’s talk about three of these:

Lack of knowledge of the systems and workings of God: God does not operate randomly; he is a God of order. 1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people”. God will only entrust us with tasks which we are equipped to handle and the first part of being equipped is having the knowledge and understanding of the systems and workings of God.

Lack of knowledge of oneself and one’s purpose: Men spend years pursuing things God never called them to do and, in the process, delay what God has called them to do and the blessing and progression which comes with it. Moses spent years as a prince in Egypt and then as a fugitive tending to his in-law’s sheep; all the while not knowing that God had called him to lead the Israelites out of a life of slavery in the hands of the Egyptians.

Lack of knowledge and understanding of the world system and how it works: King Solomon, considered the wisest man in the Bible, illustrated this point well. He understood how the world worked, why people were poor, how to build cities, and what made a man prosper. Follow closely and you will find the same things taught today by motivational speakers. The point is that the principles do not change, and failure to learn them causes delay. If all we do is to wait for the good things at the end and never gain understanding, the waiting room will only be prolonged. The solution is not to wait but to take action by gaining wisdom and understanding.

Delay due to satanic influences

As New Testament believers, sometimes we are quick to rule out this option; however, sometimes, delay is backed by hell. The devil and his cohorts stand in the way and make it difficult for any breakthrough to happen for the children of God. Revelations 12:13 “Now, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.” The devil was cast out into the world, and he immediately started persecuting men. Even when Jesus died for our sins on the cross and redeemed man, Satan did not leave the earth. He is still as determined as before to destroy man, and delay is one of the tools he uses. The devil knows he cannot stop the blessings of God from reaching us, but he can at least delay them. 

So why does he cause delay and fight to ensure that things take a long time? It is because he knows delay causes weariness (Proverbs 13:12). And once men are tired, they will make all sorts of wrong decisions; they will curse God, and in the worst-case scenario, they will turn away from the faith. Even the best can make mistakes when they are delayed. In the parable of the ten virgins, the groom delayed, and both the wise and the foolish slept. If he can delay you long enough, certain options that were never acceptable become considerable. When an illness takes too long and costs too much money, a person may be able to sign deals they never thought they could, or the village healer can become an option!

Delay due to the purposes of God

Colossians 1:17 “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” The Bible explains that everything holds together in God. Waiting is also included in that list. Sometimes God allows the process to be slower than our expectation. Fortunately or unfortunately, this is not delay which we can pray away. It is in God’s good and merciful design that some things go at a slow pace; at least slower than our expectations. All you have to do is trust that the process will be worth it. Some things could not have come if there was no waiting process. Some things are only possible because of the process. God is not punishing you but rather preparing you. Why does God cause us to wait? It is because he is preparing us for something big, and the process is designed to make us ready for the blessing (Romans 5:1-6). 

David in the Old Testament illustrates this point best: he was chosen by Prophet Samuel and anointed to be king, but it took him 13 years to get to the throne while it took Saul only a few days. The journey through the wilderness and the harsh conditions he went through prepared him to be the king that Israel needed. So much depended on him, and God had to take extra care to ensure that the process was worth it. In the end, when Jesus comes from among all the kings, it is David that he identifies with because he was the one whom he prepared to take the throne. 

I know that when we are going through periods of delay, the last thing we want to hear is “wait”. We want to hear that a breakthrough is coming now because it is never easy to wait. However, the good news is that God’s waiting room was designed to keep us only for a short time. We can never be there even a second longer than God has deemed necessary.

You will not wait forever. For at the right time, the door will open. However, in the meantime, understand that God is molding something great, and you can only appreciate it once the process is complete.

Shalom

A sweet revelation

Eunice Patricia Aber2 Comments

When Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice his son Isaac whom he loved, and the only son through whom God had promised to bless him as the father of all nations (Genesis 22:1-2), it seemed like the cruelest of demands! It is inevitable to wonder what went on in Abraham’s mind after he heard that command from God and many of us will want to sit down with father Abraham and hear this part of his story. Did he think God was cruel? Did he think God was greedy? Did he think God was a psycho? Did he question God’s personality? Did he think God was joking? Or did he trust that God was in control? Just what was going on in Abraham’s mind the evening when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac? A very open question with a million answers.

My humble submission is that Abraham trusted that God was in control. Why do I say that? Because Abraham got up the very next day and did just what God had commanded. One may argue that he waited a whole day, but from his overall story, we can confirm that Abraham’s daily routine involved having a quiet time with God, usually at night. When he was told to sacrifice Isaac, it was probably too late to go at that time and so he got up early the next morning. You don’t get up early the morning after hearing such a command when you are second guessing the person who gave the command. Abraham was sure about God. He was so sure that he was willing to stake his whole life, symbolised by Isaac, on it.

Why did this happen? What made Abraham so confident in God that he swiftly obeyed a command otherwise considered remarkably cruel? There can be only one reason. Abraham had experienced a “sweet revelation”.

What is a sweet revelation? A sweet revelation is a unique and deeply personal experience with God which makes one unequivocally and relentlessly sure about God’s goodness and faithfulness towards them. It is an exposure to truths about God that “seals the deal” about one’s trust in God by showing them how dependable and trustworthy God is. Very rarely does the sweet revelation happen instantly as a whole. It comes gradually in bits and pieces until a climax which truly seals the deal. For Abraham, his climax was the birth of Isaac. Abraham went through several experiences in life which gradually increased his trust and confidence in God, but Isaac was the ultimate event. After that ultimate event, God made Abraham the most difficult of requests – Isaac’s life. I believe God knew that Abraham had reached this point – otherwise he wouldn’t have made this seemingly cruel request. I also know that Abraham must have reached the highest point of his sweet revelation – otherwise he would never have obeyed this command which such diligent urgency.

Experiencing a sweet revelation is what makes God’s demands which seem cruel doable. It is what makes them doable with joy in our hearts – and not grudgingly or with pain. And God’s demands in our lives will always align with how high up the scale we have reached in this sweet revelation. Furthermore, our enjoyment of our Christian walk and our spiritual freedom in Christ is equally aligned with the level of sweet revelation to which we have been exposed.

One question comes to my mind, which I believe could also be in you, my reader’s mind. What exactly is this sweet revelation? Is it something tangible. How can we all experience this sweet revelation when each of us goes through completely different experiences in life?

The answer is simple. The sweet revelation is the person of God. The reason why each of us can have it despite our different experiences in life is because God reveals Himself in numerous ways. Since we are over 8 billion people presently in the world, it suffices to say that there are currently over 8 billion ways in which God is able to reveal Himself. And like I said earlier, it rarely (at least none that I have witnessed or read of) happens at once. It is a gradual process which happens in bits and pieces like snapshots of a full video or pieces of a puzzle coming together.

And every time we get an extra glimpse of God, more strength is added to our faith, and our trust in Him is strengthened just like a muscle grows strong each time we work it out. And the more our faith and trust in Him grows, the less absurd or less cruel or less crazy His requests of us become, and the swifter we are to do according to His bidding.

A cruel imposition

Eunice Patricia AberLeave a comment

No one probably has the courage to say this, so I will say it for everyone. Christianity, at least the version which I practice, is unimaginably cruel. So much so that many times I ask myself whether I should encourage a person who practices another faith to leave all and follow Christ. So much so that I relate with (and pity) those who eventually renounce the Faith. Christianity is a cruel imposition. That is why Jesus never forced anyone to follow Him, and neither did He entertain any suggestions that Christianity is something that could be inherited through associations of blood (Matthew 12:46-50).

Why do I say this? Let me start by taking us back to the day when man ate the forbidden fruit and lost favour with God and heaven. Although the narration of this story has always only emphasized man’s loss of favour with God, on that day man also gained something he was never meant to or designed to have. The events of that day awakened in man a part of himself which is eternally rebellious against God, and helplessly so (Matthew 16:23-24).

First forward to God’s great plan for redemption and reunification with man. For man to gain favour with God and heaven, two things had to happen. (1) God himself had to do something to close the wide chasm which had been created on that day when man ate the fruit. I know you’ve probably heard this story a thousand times, but please stay with me. I am headed somewhere here.

I have been watching a lot of kingdom related dramas and I’ve learnt a thing or two about how kingdoms operate, so I’ll attempt to explain to you why only God was capable of bridging that wide gap. Imagine in a kingdom (think perhaps the old majestic British empire), a subject who is a close friend and confidant of the king one day entertains the king’s arch enemy and the king’s arch enemy tells him how he himself could become king. Imagine that close friend and confidant of the king gets so deluded and charmed by the king’s arch enemy that he actually follows through on that evil advice. Imagine the king finds out before things get out of hand and then banishes his close friend and confidant, whom he loves so much, to a place so far from the kingdom, say Australia (which was actually one of the places of imprisonment for those who transgressed the British throne). Only the king has ships which can journey that far and only the king has the power to lift his close friend’s harsh sentence. The close friend can only keep wondering aimlessly in exile, never knowing how to get back home, unless the king chooses to pardon him and send ships to bring him back home. That is exactly what God did for us when He sent His son Jesus Christ to die for us. Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross of Calvary, is like a ship sent by the Father to carry us back home.

Now, whereas God has to accomplish task (1), task (2) lies solely on man’s shoulder. Let’s go back to our illustration from the British kingdom. Imagine the king’s close friend is forgiven of his transgression and he is brought back home at the king’s command. Even though he is now free of his sins and free to have an audience with the king, he must prove himself worthy of the king’s favour. He cannot once again entertain the king’s enemies or anything that the king hates. He cannot live the way he wants and speak the way he wants. He must live his life in constant acknowledgement and reverence of the king who saved him, and should he choose to rebel and walk in his own way, there remains no place for forgiveness for him, and the king would be justified in exterminating him completely (Hebrews 6:4-8).

In this story it is very easy for the king’s friend to get back to a place of trust with the king. But what if I add a pinch of fantasy to the story? What if the king’s arch enemy has special powers? What if he used those special powers to plant a seed of rebellion against the king inside the king’s close friend and confidant. A seed which the king’s close friend and confidant can only control with meticulous living and by shunning very many things in his life which would otherwise be pleasant to have. What if, if left unchecked, the seed could turn into a dark deathly power that consumed the king’s close friend and confidant with hatred and rebellion against the king, even without his conscious will? Then living a life of loyalty to the king would cease to be an easy road for the king’s close friend and confidant, but a life of daily sacrifice of his own urges and desires.

Would that life be considered attractive? I believe it would be frowned upon by many, and be considered cruel beyond imagination. But that, in essence, is the reality of Christian living. It is not easy. It was never meant to be easy, so much so, that even the rich man who followed all of the law could not be found worthy (Matthew 19:16-30). What then must we do? This question which the young rich man asked 2000 years ago is still a question many ask today, because every one knows deep down in their hearts when they are missing the mark. Like the rich man, we are all starkly aware of when we “still lack”, although rarely aware of what it is that we still lack. The answer which Jesus gave the rich man that day is the same one which He gives everyone today. Jesus had given this very same answer to His disciples about 3 verses earlier. One thing we must know while reading the Bible is that Jesus usually talked to his disciples in much plainer and direct language than he did to those outside the circle of 12. The simple reason for this is because of the relationship which they shared with Him and the calling which had been placed upon their lives. In Matthew 16:24-25, Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

I have had the privilege to study and observe other religions. One thing is clear about every religion in the world. Every religion requires sacrifice. If you believe in any sort of deity in this universe, the most reverent show of allegiance to that deity is sacrifice. Different religions teach their followers to sacrifice different things. Some religions require believers to sacrifice certain kinds of foods or drinks, others require sacrifice of marriage, while others require sacrifice of certain lifestyles such as leisure activities, dressing codes and the likes.

Christianity. The one I practice, and the one which I believe Jesus died for and the early church preached, requires a very special kind of sacrifice. It requires sacrifice of self. Like the king’s confidant, it requires that one, on a daily basis and in the core of one’s existence, choose the king above oneself. It requires that one willfully strike a blow to one’s body, enslave one’s own desires, and subject every essence of one’s existence to the pleasure of the king and the advancement of his kingdom (1 Corinthians 9:27).

It is a cruel imposition for creatures so rebellious such as ourselves.

Jjaaja Nancy – Tale of a hidden figure

Vivian Martha7 Comments

When you go to our village down there in Namawondo, Kibuku district in Uganda, you can stop at the trading center and ask anyone; whether it the village shopkeepers, the chapati* sellers on the roadside, or the boda-boda* men on the stage; for the home of Mzee* Yonah Mbayo, and someone is bound to know the place. “Yes, Mzee Yonah. I know him. He was a good man. Follow this road, turn right at the junction and you will find a muvule tree. That is the home of Mzee Yonah,” they will say while pointing at the road which leads to my grandfather’s compound. That is all they know about this great man who made his home thrive, brought up his children well, and served the village as a Mwami (Local Counsellor 1).  My grandmother Nancy or as we call her Jjaaja Asanasi is only mentioned as one of the many wives Mzee Yonah had.

What many in the village do not know or fully appreciate is the tremendous role Jjaaja Asanasi played in the family. Our grandfather was a great man and we are glad to be part of his family, however I have come to learn that his story and our stories are not complete without Jjaaja Asanasi. Although she lived in a time when women got very little recognition in the community, she lived a life worth celebrating. Like most in her time, she never went to school but somehow had the wisdom to send all her children to school. When Mzee Yonah said he was running low on funds and could only afford to send the boys of the home to school, she dug her back to sickness to raise money in order to take the girls to school so that they too could have a chance at the white man’s education.

One thing that stands out about Jjaaja Asanasi, and which I will always cherish and be grateful for, is her heart. In all my time on earth, I do not think I have met someone with a kinder heart than Jjaaja Asanasi. Jjaaja really took to mind Paul’s exhortation that everything should be done in love and that we should never repay anyone evil for evil. Life with co-wives and overly demanding in-laws is never easy, but if it came to it she would let them eat all the food she dug up from the garden, while always reminding her children (and herself) that tomorrow would take care of itself. When we the close family noticed people were taking advantage of her and manipulating her, we did what we thought was wisdom on our part by warning her against such people. However, her response was always the same, “Leave them. Do not let their bad hearts corrupt you. Do good because that is who you are”.

Jjaaja got saved at a later stage in her life, that is in her 60’s. However, she made up for all the time with God she never had in her youth. She never stopped thanking God for life, for all his goodness, or for saving her. Her last contribution to the body of Christ was approving the construction of a church, called Redeemed church, on a piece of land which she owned. All her savings went to the construction of that church. “Take this. Is it enough to pay for a window in the church? Take this too and send it to the pastor. He may not have food for his family,” she would often direct us, as she handed over a bundle of money from her safe. When there was hesitation from us, she would remind us that God had given her the opportunity to serve Him at her old age and then she would gently urge us to do as she bade us.

In her last days, her health deteriorated greatly and she could not walk on her own. She spent most of her time indoors between the sitting room and bedroom, but she never left her radio behind wherever she went. She always had to tune in and pray along with Pastor Bujingo; not for her health, but for her children and grandchildren. “May Matilda be well, may Innocent do well at work, and may Solomon finish school well and get a job…”, we often heard her mumbling this and so much more.

There is much to say about Jjaaja Asanasi. This is only a sneak peek into the numerous ways she blessed us. She was in many ways a hidden figure, always working selflessly and tirelessly in the background of her children’s and husband’s lives. If our stories are ever written and our lives talked about, I hope it will be remembered that our story, my story started with this phenomenal woman. A woman who lived by one simple principle, “love is the only way”.

Meaning of some local words used in the text:
* Chapati – Chapati is the local name for roti, an unleavened flat bread originating from India
* Boda-boda – In Uganda, boda-bodas are motorcycle taxis which carry one or two passengers
* Mzee – This is a local word used to address an old man. It shows respect and reverence for the old man
* Jjaaja – A local word used for addressing a grandmother or grandfather