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.