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.

Study Finds Sexism Rampant In Nature

This is a copy of an article I found the other day. Oh, but the crazy world we live in! It's a tad long but worth it. And if it doesn't teach ou anything, at least it will amuse you. Enjoy!!

Study Finds Sexism Rampant In Nature


SAN DIEGO—According to a University of California–San Diego study released Monday, sexism is rampant throughout the natural world, particularly among the highest classes of vertebrates.


"When we first decided to examine attitudes and behaviors toward gender roles among non-humans, we were wholly unprepared for what we would find," said Jennifer Tannen, leader of the UCSD research team, a joint venture between the school's zoology and women's studies departments. "Females living in the wild routinely fall victim to everything from stereotyping to exclusion from pack activities to sexual harassment."


Nowhere is the natural world's gender inequity more transparent, Tannen said, than in the unfair burden females assume for the rearing of offspring.
"Take the behavior of the ring-neck pheasant," Tannen said. "After mating, the male immediately abandons the hen, leaving her responsible for the total care for the chicks. For the single mother-to-be, there is no assistance, either in the form of a partner or child support. Nor is there any legal recourse. It's despicable."


Tannen said pheasants are typical of the natural world, where a mere 5 percent of animal species mate for life. Among species that do form lasting pairs, the situation barely improves: Females must remain close to the nest to incubate eggs, nurse, and keep watch over the burrow while males are free to go off hunting and fishing with their friends.


"The sexist attitude that child-rearing is 'women's work' is prevalent throughout nature and has been for generations, probably since reptiles first developed mammalian characteristics in the Triassic period," Tannen said. "Sadly, most creatures never pause to challenge these woefully outdated gender roles."


Tannen stressed the need to hold high those rare examples of species that do form caring, mutually supportive relationships. "Wolves, beavers, gibbons, and a small African antelope known as a dik-dik all live in stable, monogamous pairs," Tannen said. "Other animals need to look to them as positive models if we are to have any hope of one day creating an ecosystem of understanding and respect." More seriously, in addition to an unfair division of labor, nature is rife with sexual abuse and harassment. The UCSD study estimates that in 2001 alone, more than 170 trillion cases of abuse occurred in the world's forests, grasslands, and oceans—all of them unreported.


"During the act of mating, the female moose is subject to excessive biting, nipping, and herding," Tannen said. "The male has no qualms about using sheer, brute force to overpower his sex partner, and the female, accustomed to this sort of rough treatment after millions of years of it, doesn't even realize there's something wrong."
"Then, when it's time for the bull moose to complete the sexual act," Tannen continued, "it's over in about five seconds, with no regard to female pleasure whatsoever. Typical."


Adding insult to injury, Tannen said, the bull moose then heads off to mate with dozens more females over a period of two to three weeks, justifying his behavior as "part of the Mardi Gras-like atmosphere of 'mating season.'" With other species, darker situations unfold.
"To mate, the male Galapagos tortoise simply immobilizes the female with his weight, which, as far as I'm concerned, qualifies as non-consensual sex," Tannen says. "Female southern elephant seals gather in large groups during mating season, and each group has a small handful of males who control them like a harem. It's sick."


When female animals refuse to play along with prescribed gender roles, Tannen said, they are demonized. For example, female foxes, known throughout the animal kingdom for their aggressiveness, are labeled "vixen."

"We've all heard the lurid tales about the female black-widow spider, who kills and eats her mate," Tannen said. "The truth is, male spiders encourage their partners to kill them because it increases the time spent mating and, thus, the number of eggs fertilized by his sperm. But no one condemns the male for his part in this destructive relationship." UCSD researchers identified 24 distinct male behaviors designed to perpetuate gender inequity and preserve the prevailing power structure. Among these dominance-asserting behaviors are chest-puffing, plumage-spreading, and antler growth.


The UCSD study is not without its detractors. Glen Otis Brown, author of Forced To Strut: Reverse Sexism In The Animal World, countered that male animals are victims of "the beauty myth" as much as females.
"When given a choice, female green tree frogs gravitate toward males that call the loudest and most often," Brown said. "Female Poecilia reticulata [guppies] go straight to the most brightly colored males. But when males evolve exaggerated secondary sexual traits to attract the opposite sex, suddenly they're the bad guys." Tannen conceded that both genders have suffered as a result of sexism. "Other than sexual size dimorphism due to same-sex competition, males benefit little from the gender inequity that so strongly favors them," Tannen said. "In a world where interactions are rooted in competition, not cooperation, both females and males are being denied the right to form meaningful relationships."


Annie Secunda, a Boston-based females'-rights advocate, said swift action must be taken to address the problem of sexism within the animal kingdom. "We need to provide tigresses, hens, and all other females in nature with outreach programs and support networks," Secunda said. "We also need to impose standards through intervention. The males of all species need to hear loud and clear the message that this kind of animal behavior is not acceptable." Secunda conducts numerous workshops aimed at creating female-friendly biomes and promoting the health and positive self-image of females on both land and in the sea. She also strongly advocates the legalization of infanticide, which would enable females to devour their newborn offspring when resources are limited.


Secunda spent much of 2001 in the Amazon rainforest, working to create safe spaces for female animals. These efforts, however, yielded mixed results: Females have avoided the lighted walkways she built in several dangerously dense areas, and leaflets encouraging females to learn how their own bodies work were ultimately used to line dens for the rainy season. Far from discouraged, Secunda said she plans to embark on an intensive study of the sexuality of flora.


"Multicellular plants alternate sexually reproducing and asexually reproducing generations, with each plant producing both male and female gametes," Secunda said. "It seems many plants have moved past conventional notions of male-female gender altogether. It's so liberating, I can't help but have hope for all those so-called 'higher' species of animals."

I Have No Idea Why I'm Doing This

If you are reading this, then that tells me two things: you are bored out of your head, and you've got waaaay too much time on you hands. And if you actually came here looking for some pearls of wisdom, you need to have your head read. Go and do something useful with your life, like, watch cartoons or something.