Till we meet, Tiberius

I have no words, and I’m grateful Chelal that you had them. Tibs was a great man, and God bless you for eulogizing him as beautifully as you have in these words here. Tears keep filling my eyes and my gut is wrenched over and over again. But despite this pain, I have hope…we all do, in Christ and the resurrection, that we can proclaim earnestly “Oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where thy victory?”

Till we meet again Tib-Tib, may the Lord comfort us till then.

LIFE SAGES

My fingers rested on the keyboard after having just knelt in prayer before God and the only words I could utter were, “O God, Tiberius is gone. Tiberius is gone, O God”. It was a thought I never had, an inkling I never scratched, a moment I never imagined, at least not too soon.

His name is Tiberius Atuti, Orechi is his family name. Born in May 1992. He was a short man, had a bearded face and strong dark arms. I called him ‘Tib-Tib’, I don’t know why but it always came out with some vigour and strength and joy. Try to say that name in a mellow, weak tone – odd, right? But say it again from your diaphragm in a quick bullet-like form, better, huh?

Tib-Tib wasn’t just a great friend, he wasn’t just a brother, he was my business partner.

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  Tiberius Atuti Orechi

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Body Image

Although I consider her the most beautiful person on this earth, it’s very true as Debbie writes that we all need to go on our own journeys of self-acceptance beyond or before the praise or critique, validation or renunciation by others.

Please give this beautiful writ a read, as you reflect on the ways you could be more grateful for being a beautiful image of the Creator.

Enjoy!

Beloved Saints

Do you ever look in the mirror and wonder if you really look the way you perceive yourself or if other people just see you completely different?

Happy New Year!

No it’s not too late. This is when my year Is when my starting officially. A lot has happened since last year but let’s talk about our bodies today, shall we ?

My journey of how I view myself has been a painful one growing up!

I have always been petite as some like to refer to it or even skinny as some call it or let’s just say the dictionary.

When I was young, I was in a girls primary school for 8 years, surrounded by young ladies who matured way faster than me. That meant, all areas of their bodies were changing fast and it was nothing they could hide or control.

I remember a teacher who once…

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A love like this…

Yup…she’s the one 😅

I’m truly blessed and loved by God to have someone to love and who can also love me who knows what love is – its pain and pleasure, its beauty and bruising, it’s triumphs and terrors. Love is complex and layered and only an understanding of, and relationship with the one who is love, can grant us any shred of comprehension of what it truly is.

A beautiful piece by the even more beautiful Debbie. I recommend this reading to all of you without reservation 🙌

Beloved Saints

Have you ever perceived Love this way?

(You could replace the word ‘love’ in the first and second paragraph with a friend, parent, spouse’s name)

Love is almost like a life on its own

Love wakes you up in the morning

Love makes sure that you’ve had something to eat

Love checks up on you throughout the day

Love sometimes surprises you with unexpected words or appearances

Love holds you close and squeezes you just enough

Love prays for you

Love makes you laugh till your body aches

Love makes you happy and giggly

Love genuinely cares about you

But

Love also hurts

Love reminds you of some fears you may have hidden at the back of your mind

Love is sensitive

Love has made you cry

Love has unknowingly made you insecure

Love has tried to break down some concrete walls successfully and unsuccessfully

Love has made you rethink…

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All these things but Him…

Truthful, personal and encouraging as always, Debbie.

Hearing these words, colored richly by biblical insight, however heavy hearted you may be – may your spirit be uplifted and encouraged today.

Beloved Saints

Many, many, many things have contributed to the person you are today

Many things means the good and the bad,

It could be the parenting or lack of parenting you received growing up,

It means the heartbreak you experienced when you least expected it,

The verbal, mental or physical abuse you went through at some in your life,

It means the mental illness you’re struggling with today, even right now,

It means all the times you have felt alone,

It means all the moments that have not made sense or have seemed unfair,

It means the time you grieved the loss of a loved one,

It means the trauma you experienced that still triggers you,

All these things have somehow shaped your mind and the perspective you have on life,

But NONE of these things can prevent the will of God for your life.

Your creator KNOWS you and uses…

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WE MOVED!

Head on over to my new blog at https://lovedofgod.org/blog

Looking forward to see you there 🙂

 

3 Things Half of 2020 Has Taught Me

This piece is a beautiful read by an even more beautiful person. We all need hope to get through any old day, let alone through months of a global pandemic.

Debbie’s convictions and hope shine through this post and hopefully will warm your heart like it did mine. Enjoy!

That Green Tea

I can be calm in the midst of chaos

What sometimes seems impossible can actually bloom

Hope is worth holding on to

2020 has been one unforgettable year, don’t you think?

I already see December around the corner. 2021 is that you? Many things have gone by really quickly. But of course, with different seasons, come many new lessons. Today I’ll share three.

1. I can be calm in the midst of chaos

When the pandemic hit the whole world, there was an overwhelming surge of panic across many nations. I live in Kenya, East Africa. It’s a beautiful country with a vast array of cultures and significant innovations. However, our authenticity did not keep us from panic, just like any other country. I experienced the stages of grief.

I felt like I had lost something significant; my freedom. Staying home was fun at first, then it became increasingly frustrating. I…

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WHAT’S THE GOSPEL AGAIN? PART I

Source

 

(This post is the first part of a series of two that take a look at the state of Contemporary Christian Music, through the lens of God’s Word)

 

I made it an unwritten rule of my own that I wouldn’t use this blog as a platform to ride on current affairs. I have always endeavored (and hopefully succeeded) to write pieces that would stand the test of time and be as true in this age as any other past or future. I know that the more ‘relevant’ and ‘timely’ any writing or piece of art is, the faster it becomes dated and even cringe-worthy to future audiences with the passage of time.

I only give this disclaimer so that you would see past my shameless latching on to the present furor around a local Kenyan artiste who was once the darling of the Christian entertainment scene and is now an embarrassment to sensible people everywhere. He has seemingly given up his confession of faith so that he may sing (tastelessly, I may add) about sex and other trivialities. He has, in essence, exchanged favor with God for popularity with the world and the devil.

“Oof! That’s a bit harsh, why would you say that?” you may wonder. “Stop judging him!” you would even say, “You aren’t God.”

Calm down calm down. I’d love if you would kindly oblige me and join me as we reason together, and see if what people consider to be ‘Gospel Music’ would be anything worth God’s time. Does it stand up to Scripture, and God’s holiness, or does it fall face flat as a sham and perhaps abomination to God?

WHO’S THE CAPTAIN OF YOUR SHIP?

Source

A MEANINGFUL LIFE

When I graduated from university, I was as optimistic and hopeful as anyone could be about what the future had in store. The world was my oyster and I felt I could do anything, be anyone and nothing was going to stand in my way.

That was until I met unemployment.

Having nothing to do and being broke really does a number on one’s sense of identity and worth. You spend a lot of time theorizing on why you don’t have a job. Is it because of a struggling job market, is it because you don’t know people in high places, is it because you studied the wrong thing? You seriously begin to consider whether being a matatu tout is all thaaat bad. Aren’t they just people? And at the end of it all, don’t they say a job is a job is a job?

But I could hardly ever shake the feeling that there was something in particular that I was meant to do. I knew it deep in me that I just didn’t want to make money to pay the bills so that I would be able to make more money and pay more bills and do that forever until I die. There had to be more to work than being a slave to my paycheck and my pecuniary obligations.

Even at the onset of my career, before I had a single job, I was haunted by the possibility of living a life of no impact. I dreaded the idea that I could be born, grow up, learn some skills, make money, run around for a couple of decades, then die and the world kept spinning and no one takes note that I ever existed. I wanted my life to have significance. Not even fame or fortune or glory, but for there to have been a point to my stepping on to this earth.

So I set out to identify what cause or vocation I could apply myself to. So that I wouldn’t end up like those fossilic, wrinkled up senior citizens who regret that they devoted their lives to a job or a career or seeking people’s approval and ended up neglecting the pursuit of what would have brought them true happiness at the sunset of their lives.

OF CHAPATIS AND THE INNER BATTLE OF OUR SPIRIT AND OUR FLESH

Source: Kibandaski

I attended a very liberal boys’ boarding high school, that allowed us all manner of privileges undreamt of in the thousands of secondary schools in Kenya. For one, we were allowed to wear ‘home clothes’ or civilian attire in school outside of class hours. We could carry snacks and any kind of grub to school. We did not have corporal or what was termed as ‘unusual’ punishment such as kneeling or caning. We could leave school any day of the week after classes, so long as you were back before 6pm, and enjoyed so many other privileges that I would often wonder when a prankster would emerge from behind the bushes and tell us this was all a hidden camera TV show.

The surprising thing is that as students we rarely, if ever, went overboard in indulging our freedoms, regardless of the fact that our school was, and still is, located only 3km from the Nairobi Central Business District. Self-discipline and self-leadership were emphasized all around, and we were expected to police ourselves in light of the trust endowed upon us by the institution.

However, a worrying trend soon cropped up amongst the ‘boys’ (an endearing term the administration and prefects used to refer to us commoners/non-prefects) that had the prefecture employ various spying and intelligence gathering measures reminiscent of the KGB and the CIA. And all to curb students on a permanent Mecca to the neighboring township to acquire some mysterious, addictive controlled substance.

ENRAPTURED

In an age when a humorous image macro of a domesticated carnivore clad as a sea-faring buccaneer conveyed to you from an acquaintance via translation of haptic commands on the interface of an alien technology into machine language then to a digital binary language, then through thousands of miles of cables encircling the ocean floor and underground passages onto your similar gadget and undergoing the same process in reverse, then heralded by an alarm on that miracle of science only to be welcomed by a mere grunt and a universal symbol for feigned mirth because you treat it as routine and pedestrian, what would it take to convince you of miracles?

In English:

In an age when a funny meme of a cat dressed as a pirate is sent to you by a friend from his phone via the internet onto your phone and you receive it with a quick exhale of air and the cry-laughing emoji and take no note of the miraculous journey “travelled” by that meme, what would it even take to convince you of the power of the supernatural?

In Wingdings:

♦❒︎♓︎⧫︎☜ ❄♏︎⌧︎❄ ☟♏︎❒︎☜📬︎ ✞⬧︎☜ ✌●︎☹ 👍♋︎◻︎💧 ☞□︎☼ ♦👎 ☝♋︎⬧︎⧫︎♏︎☼ ❄❒︎♋︎■︎⬧︎●︎♋︎⧫︎♓︎□︎☠ 🖳︎✆︎♓︎☠ ✌☠ ✌♑︎☜ ♦♒︎♏︎☠ ✌ ☟◆︎❍︎□︎❒︎□︎◆︎💧 ✋❍︎♋︎♑︎☜ 💣♋︎♍︎❒︎⚐ ⚐☞ ✌ 👎□︎❍︎♏︎⬧︎⧫︎♓︎♍︎♋︎⧫︎♏︎👎 👍♋︎❒︎■︎♓︎❖︎□︎❒︎☜ 👍●︎♋︎👎 ✌💧 ✌ 💧♏︎♋︎📫︎♐︎♋︎❒︎♓︎■︎☝ 👌◆︎♍︎♍︎♋︎■︎♏︎♏︎☼ 👍□︎■︎❖︎♏︎⍓︎♏︎👎 ❄⚐ ✡□︎✞ ☞❒︎□︎💣 ✌☠ ✌♍︎❑︎◆︎♋︎♓︎■︎⧫︎♋︎■︎♍︎☜ ✟♓︎✌ ❄❒︎♋︎■︎⬧︎●︎♋︎⧫︎♓︎□︎☠ ⚐☞ ☟♋︎◻︎⧫︎♓︎👍 👍□︎❍︎❍︎♋︎■︎♎︎💧 ⚐☠ ❄♒︎☜ ✋■︎⧫︎♏︎❒︎♐︎♋︎♍︎☜ ⚐☞ ✌☠ ✌●︎♓︎♏︎☠ ❄♏︎♍︎♒︎■︎□︎●︎□︎♑︎✡ ✋■︎⧫︎⚐ 💣♋︎♍︎♒︎♓︎■︎☜ ☹ ♋︎■︎♑︎◆︎♋︎♑︎☜ ❄♒︎♏︎☠ ❄⚐ ✌ 👎

In Meme: