DARE to DARE!

Call me strange but I'm just excited at the idea of walking on water! Just the thought of that moment that Simon Peter steps overboard and takes his first step on water makes me giddy. As I listen to a favorite track of mine "Walk on the water" by "Britt Nicole", once again my mind races to, in my opinion, one of the most spectacular events of the bible, and arguably, of all time.

I cant imagine the kind of pressure He must have had to handle in that instant. Just at that moment he steps out of that boat into the unknown, I can imagine all kinds of alarm going off on, in, under and all around him; the 'impossible' alarm, the fear alarm, the insecurity alarm, the goose bumps alarm (with literal cold feet), along with a flurry of thoughts assailing him. "Are you insane?", "it doesn't make sense, your body wasn't made for this kind of thing", "remember your wife, kids and in-laws, who'll take care of them, d'you really want to put them through all that suffering?", "are you born of a virgin like your 'Come'mander is?". But all those alarms were not enough to stop him. Before logic and common sense could catch up he was gone! He didnt have time for ratiocinations. He didnt have time to ask for the opinion of his petrified and unbelieving companions with mouth wide agape. The Word was already in motion and now was the time to act.

First, I find a puzzling dichotomous relationship seems to exist between faith and fear such that when faith is about to be deployed, fear shows up uninvited. But if you know what you want, fear has no choice than stand by while you go all out to claim your victory. Peter of all people knew what he was getting into when he stepped out of that boat. Being a fisherman with all those experiences of what a storm can do to a living soul, he'd probably had to save someone at a point in time. Looking down into those murky waters in the dark didn't help matters, the devil must have made sure he saw the boisterousness of the storm which must've sent shivers down his spine along with his life flashing before his eyes. So, the instant he started drowning himself, He cried out for help. Let me chip this in, its in the place of desperation that life breaks out upon us and Jesus reaches out and pulls us up. Once He got hold, nothing could snatch Peter out of his master's grasp, not even the sea in all its might and vastness. Essentially, Peter failed to realize that even though he had faith in motion, he had to choose what to do with his fears. Truth is, you're gonna have to do a lot of stuff afraid. But dont you ever doubt God's ability in you! I tried to find it, but I couldnt; the tie that fear is the opposite of faith. Rather, I found strong evidence that fear cannot survive in the presence of Love (I Jn4:18, 2Tim 1:7). Love then fuels faith. (Gal 5:6) In addition, Jesus didnt rebuke Peter for fear, rather Jesus said "..why did you doubt?". I came across an interesting acronym for fear- False Evidence Appearing Real. The threats your fear pose when you deploy your faith are as good as your enemies' threats while God serves you a six-course meal in their presence. They're helpless. In the light of God's Word, your fears are only a mirage!

"What if I don't make it?" you may be tempted to ask. With the stakes so high, Peter could have played it safe with his heart racing at such an unimaginable rate but thank God he didn't so that people like us can DARE! Dare to dream, dare to believe God, believe Him for the next level, believe Him for our finances, believe Him for our academics and careers, believe Him for our health, believe Him for our families, believe Him to make good on His Word even when its not making sense. His ability is not in question. What d'you have to lose anyway? your life? you lost it to Him already so why wait? you don't have one apart from the one He gave you. Besides, I believe if Peter had the chance, he'll tell you confidently "you can't lose it on His watch". If it seems you lost it, you have His reassurance you're definitely about to regain it (Matt 10.39).

You'll never know what undreamed-of feats He can achieve through you if you never try! He's the God that is able to do exceedingly abundantly.... permit to rephrase "He's able to blow your mind". If only we can connect to realm of the supernatural via His Word, it doesn't matter how boisterous the storms get, they can only facilitate and expedite that long-awaited victory. At His Word, we can always DARE to cross that impossibility threshold.

Therefore I celebrate you as you DARE the unpopular, illogical and 'impossible' because all things are possible to him that believes in other words you're UNSTOPPABLE!

On the Wheels of Life

I've had a couple of mind-bugging questions linger for a bit too long. While some things here may or may not apply to everyone, I believe in here somewhere is something that can help us all along in our journey. "Why do we have low times?" What is it exactly that makes us feel out of rhythm with life and worst of all makes us feel out of touch with ourselves? Where we find ourselves lowered to great depths of despondency. My finding points to baneful events like a failed dream, a broken relationship, the loss of a friend, a fire incident, a car accident, a water accident, the loss of a loved one or even cherished possessions/documents, news of a relative fighting for his/her life in a battle with a terminal illness, and so on. But at other times, you just can't place it.

A truth we must face is that we come to places and moments in our lives like that where we just can't seem to get along with ourselves; we just don't want to hang around anyone let alone God. Our daily routines seem meaningless and nothing just seems to make sense. Falling into that apathetic state, we offer our friends and loved ones a cold and cheerless attitude keeping away the better part of us and leaving them to wonder and ponder our actions. But can I cut in at this point and surprise you that its not out of place. "What?" Someone may snap at me. I don't mean to sound like I'm making an excuse for apathy but we must understand the import of this.

I'll start by saying its all just part of the human make up and not just the human make up but the make up of the whole world. In the very words of the preacher in Eccl 3.1,5 MSG

"There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth... a right time to make love and another to abstain, a right time to embrace and another to part."

Let's elaborate a little further. We are familiar with the words of God that said in Gen 8v22 that

"while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease".

Examining the above scripture more critically, you'll agree with me that each of these pair of seasons are standing at opposing 'corners of the ring' in other words they are contradicting seasons. Although, the seed time is a very stretching time for farmers considering the laborious farm processes like clearing, stumping, grubbing, tilling of the ground, making mounds and beds and the likes, but it is eventually compensated for by the harvest. We'll also agree that without the seed time there's no harvest. Taking a look at the temperature of our environment, the cold is something many love to enjoy in the tropics (though the extreme is not very welcome) but the heat... its like we just want to jump into a cold bath during those hot afternoons (without electric power supply). We can go on and examine summer and winter which has to do with the weather and temperature; day and night, while many will vote daytime as their favorite part of the day, others will easily be tagged 'night-crawlers' because they're visibly nocturnal. But as much as we favour one season above the other its important to note that no one season is complete without the other, they all lie in a precarious balance which makes the world go round. The same is true about the seasons of our lives which will bring along with them different experiences and consequently leave us with different feelings which most times will dictate what we would want to do or not do.

This place we're talking about could be a place of unmitigated misery that could pervade the entirety of the human existence i.e physical (disconnect from people around), emotional (low feelings), even spiritual but it is our responsibility to draw closer to God. At these times we actually 'feel' farther from God but the truth is God is as near as He has ever been but to help our feelings we need to 'break the ice'. How? Make an honest evaluation of where you are and go all out for the change you desire. Do something out of the ordinary. Pray in a different way, make a special study on topics and people you never did before, skip a meal (or fast), meditate, put pen to paper and write your thoughts or whatever your hands want to write (you'll be amazed at what you come up with), give an offering or sow a seed, call up an old friend, go out of your way to help someone in need etc. Explore the freedom God has given you to change and evolve. Lean on the Holy Spirit to help in you in your case, each situation is unique because there's something He wants to teach you at that point in time. Our night seasons are not so much to be despised. Can i quickly add that many of the great men that succeeded, made tremendous breakthroughs and had inimitable successes who we still hear of today got the tools they used in their night seasons. I've heard one too many great men talk about the fact that when they were in the darkest moments in life that was when God showed up and gave them the understanding of what they needed for their breakthrough. The Bible tells us that Abraham had a moment of darkness and horror before he had a breakthrough during which God spoke to him clearly. Gen 15.12. Job said in Job 35.10

"But no one says where is God my maker who gives songs in the night".

I believe strongly that God permits us to go through these uncomfortable and distressing times/seasons (and note my choice of words 'permit' and 'go through') for a number of reasons which amongst others may be to jolt us out of something we've been doing, to give us a wake-up call, to teach us something new, to take us out of our safe zone into new and unfamiliar terrains, to stretch and develop us a little further, to pull us out of a rut we could be stuck in and the list goes on.

Allow me to drive home my point quoting from Psalms 90.12 which says

"the righteous will fluorish like a palm tree"

and something that fascinates me about a palm tree is its ability to stand strong and thrive in adverse conditions. During seasons of dryness, a palm tree after having used up the water at the surface level, digs its roots deeper into the soil to get to a bigger source of water and nutrients thereby in the process establishing itself. This explains why this tree is so common in the tropics where the weather could be really harsh.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that as much as these periods of apathy and despondence could seem like a negative time or even a time of weakness, it can be turned into a time of strength. So our attitude to these times should be to seek out what God will have us learn. As long as we are connected to God in our times of distress and troubles, we can be assured that we're coming out stronger and better. These moments could stretch for as long as it takes but as long as we learn what we are supposed to learn, its worth it.

On the issue of ups and downs, I like to think of it as a wheel that rotates about a pivot point and in the process moves forward. In this journey called life, there's no doubt we will encounter different times and seasons. A Bible commentator said "to expect unchanging happiness in a changing world is sure to end up in disappointment". Somewhere on that wheel is each and everyone of us going up and down through over and over again the notoriously recurring happenings of our lives. But with Christ as the hub of this motion taking us through different moments and seasons of our lives, we can be assured that as much as we're going through the rotational motion we're experiencing the immensely anticipated translational motion. There's nothing as terrible in life as going in cycles without actually making progress, all motion no movement (something called 'going through the motions') which dulls the soul and spirit and leaves us dispirited. Whatever it takes to break the ice, make sure you're moving forward.

Cheers!