I'm Older Than You!

The other day I was chatting to a man from the church. There was this man, myself and another assistant. I was asking him why he hadn't been seen in the church since the festive season began, and had only come back after the first week of January. No, I wasn't interrogating the poor man, I was just asking out of concern, because the last time I checked, he didn't have any living family or relatives, so he doesn't have many places to visit during the holidays. So I was wondering whether there had been something wrong with him or something.

Turns out the old man never went anywhere. He was right here in Clermont, Cape Town, chillin'. He just decided that he wasn't gonna come to the church for the entire festive season. Which, to someone else, might not seem entirely wrong in itself. But it's the reasoning behind the man's christmas break that caught my attention. When we asked him why he decided not to come to the church for so long, he said he needed to rest. Hawu. Kanti lo muntu unjani madoda? Of all the things you could "rest" from, how can you take a rest from the presence of God? The more logical thing would be to rest in the presence of God, not so? I mean, it's the safest place to be, especially considering all the things which happen during the season, especially in this lovely country of ours.

So we posed the question to the big man. How can you rest from the presence of God? Which was when the conversation almost turned violent. He started telling us how he has been in the church longer than all the assistants in our branch, and probably longer than the pastor himself. He started recalling all the pastors who've ministered to him, all the people who've come and gone and he's still here. Apparently his longevity in the church makes him more of a spiritual authority than everybody else.

And this is when it dawned on me. This is one of the things which hold a number of people back, people who have been in the church for years and years. Of course, it wasn't just dawning then, it just re-enforced itself in my mind. Sometimes, when you've been in the church long enough, the devil will try to trick you into thinking that you've learned enough, that it's about time you took a break. That's why we hear people saying things like "How can such a young boy teach me anything?" (I have personally had such words directed at me). People forget that God doesn't work with age or experience or knowledge. He works by faith. All of these other things might come in handy at some point, but faith nust be at the forefront. People easily loose blessings because they want to serve God as they want, because they think they have come to understand the mind of God because of the number of years they've spent in the church. But this is a flawed logic. This is exactly the kind of thinking which led to the fall of King Saul and the removal of his anointing. This is the reason why, every once in a while, the Holy Spirit uses our leaders to remind us to revive our first love. The first love is that faith which assumes nothing, which waits for instruction from God and then follows without question. The first love is the love that Abraham had who, even after walking with God for almost a decade, still followed His instruction without question. He never supposed himself to know the mind of God. He followed wholeheartedly.

If we should allow the spirit of pride to invade our hearts, we will also end up like Saul. We should remain children in our hearts, so that God can find the space to work there. If we lift ourselves up, then He can't lift us up.

Superman!

Lately I've made some not-so-nice discoveries about the men that I hold in the highest regard in my life. See, I was raised by a single mom, and I never had a father-figure in my life. No older brothers, close uncles, nothing. The closest thing I have ever had to a father figures are the pastors from the church. Over the years I've been fortunate to be relatively close to the men of God who work in my church. They have contributed immensely in shaping the man that I am today. From relationships to taking care of responsibilities to standing up for what I believe in, everything I know I learned from them. Of course, it was the Holy Spirit using them to teach me, I know. But He used them, and they allowed Him to use them to teach me.

As I result of this, I hold my pastors in very high regard. Giving everything up and choosing to devote your life to saving other people is a very noble act. It is, to me, the most important occupation (dare I say, job) on the planet and it's importance cannot be exxagerated. These men and women give their all everyday so that we can continue living our comfortable lives. Our lives are effectively in their hands, as they put their lives on the line daily for ours. I have great admiration for them, and over the years I have developed a sort of Superhero image of them. I view them as the lone rangers, seeking out evil and wicked men and fighting them off for our sake (you can tell from this that I watch too many cartoons).

But this view of mine comes with it's pitfalls, though. Because they're not superheroes, see, and they're definitely not invincible. And from time to time, one of them will throw in the towel and leave this most blessed of work fields. I have seen this happen time and time again, but none rocked my world as much as a couple of weeks ago, when the one man whom I hold in the highest regard also threw in the towel. This is the man who showed me that really all things are possible. That God does not look at your situation, or your past. If you devote yourself to Him fully, He will use you to His great glory. And all the other things you won't learn from the altar during the Sunday morning service, but which you can only learn from being in close proximity to a man of fire. He fell, and boy did he fall hard.

I won't go into the details of what happened, except that his past somehow caught up with him. So his ministry collapsed, along with his marriage. I was shattered. Of all the people who can fall. But then it dawned on me. You are only as strong as your connection to God is. Samuel was the first king of Israel, the anointed one of God. And God gave him victory in all he did, as long as he remained fully obedient to Him. The day he conceived within himself that he could go against God's commandements, he fell. He had been the most humble man in the land, the one God saw worthy to give the highest throne in Israel. And he allowed pride to contaminate his heart, and as a result he became the first recorded suicide in the bible.

Here's the thing. No matter how strong, spiritual or close to God you are, if you start neglecting your spitual life, you will lose out. No man is invincible, no matter how long you've known God or the amount of work you've done for Him, your salvation is still strictly in your hands. You have to understand that if you are a servant, then you are in the frontline in the war against evil. Some people believe that just because they come to church and tell people about Jesus, satan will leave them alone. On the contrary, we are the first line of fire. So we are the ones who have to be the most vigilant. We are the ones who have to be the most careful to obey fully. The devil is not afraid of people who pray. He's afraid of people who fully submit to God and obey His every command. That's the secret (in my view, at least). Superheroes don't exist. We are all human, and we all have our weak spots. Even Superman had his kryptonite. But the devil can only exploit these weak spots if we give him the entry point. And the entry point is disobedience. Submission is key, and if we have that, we will conquer all things in life.