Masaa

During my graduation from AIU early last month, a very dear person to me recently gave me a wrist watch. There are not many people who fancy wrist watches anymore largely  because of alternative means of knowing what time it is. Interestingly, like all things fashion watches have made a comeback and are apparently now a must have accessory [alongside a belt, leather shoes and a wallet as we were told in a recent MTC]. 

But I am sure Rhodah had more than an accessory in mind. They say [I wonder who ‘they’ are?] that in gift giving, it is the thought that matters. She must have thought about the symbolism of the watch before gifting it to me. Instead of asking her, I have been thinking about it and drawing quite some lessons. 

1.       Time is important. We are defined by our attitude towards God, Others, Money, Time and Self. I needed a constant reminder that time is important and it is all we’ve got in life actually. I come from a background that views time as a variable dynamic and not a static reality. I can easily think of events as fluid things that roll on rather than time-bound happenings that have a definite start and stop.

2.       Time is Life. Basically, this is to say that life is demarcated in units of time with a clear start at birth and a definite stop at death. Someone said that we live every day in denial of the reality of death but Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians that we carry death with us all day long. As a clock ticks away every second, a portion of our life is gone. Forever. Never to be lived through again. For good. This is a scary lesson – but I hope the point is not lost that we are momentary beings – only here for a season and soon we are gone. We have to make the most of now.

3.       Relationships are important. Perhaps that might come across as a stretch of my watch analogy but give me a chance to elucidate [I have always wanted to use that word but never got a chance]. In parenting, we are told that love is a four letter word spelled as t.i.m.e. That can seem mostly true for children but I suggest we spend time with whomever we love in any shade or expression of it. When we mismanage time we risk ruining relationships – and nothing makes us more human and dare I say, like God, than our capacity for relationships. Relationships take time. That can sound as if relationships consume time or they just take long to thrive but either way, the fodder of any relationship is time together – be it in prayer, watching a movie, taking a walk, studying or doing anything else of value.

4.       Time is money. Those old words may sound a bit overly capitalistic and as if money is everything. But I suppose the idea behind the words is to communicate the value or preciousness of time. I guess the words come from an understanding that if any money is to be made, it must take time and that perhaps we should view time more or less in the same way as we view money; precious, limited, important and to be handled wisely and carefully.

So here we are in the month of August. Another cycle is coming to an end – what seemed to be so far out sight for you is now at hand. You have come to the end of your apprenticeship in iServe Africa and next week we meet to take stock. Another team will be coming on board and to them maybe August 2017 seems way too far but trust me it won’t be long. Every time the clock ticks, a moment is gone and soon the year will be over. The big question then remains – what have you done/will you do with the time in your hands?

A Tale of two men

A tale of two men: What is the Gospel? 

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”

                                                                                                                1 Corinthians 15: 3-4

I became a follower of Jesus from a very young age and begun going along to groups at church. In high school I was quite involved with the Christian Union as one of the leaders. In college, I was even more involved doing missions and discipleship and basically living out my Christian faith.  Although I confessed Christ as my Lord and saviour I barely understood what the gospel was and why it was good news. It seemed to me like a cultural movement, one to which we needed to recruit people and belonging to which, one needed to adhere to certain moral expectations.

It is only years later when I read the Bible more carefully that the light of the gospel begun to dawn on me.  I think most people do not really understand what the gospel is, let alone its implications.  Many see Christianity or being saved as possessing a ticket to heaven, others view it as joining an exclusive club of special people and many others, perhaps in following in the steps of their families, find themselves in this cultural/religious movement whose claims they agree with but not necessarily understand.

So what is the gospel?

The word gospel simply means ‘good news’ and usually refers to the four ‘gospel accounts’ of the life of Jesus Christ – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  But then what good news are we exactly talking about? To understand the good news, we will take a few steps back in time and first hear some really bad news. 

A Holy, Just and Righteous God

When we look at our world today it is full of bad news. Terrorism, corruption, immorality, murders and kidnappings, accidents, tribalism, racism, loneliness, diseases, poverty and death are everywhere. But it was not so from the beginning. We are told in the Bible that God made a perfect world – he looked and behold, it was all good. (Gen 1:31) There was no lack or pain or suffering or death. It was a perfect relationship of a holy God and his created order. Human beings, created in God’s image lived in perfect harmony with God, each other and with nature. 

But this did not last for long. A disastrous event happened when the devil tempted human beings to disobey God and they fell for it. They disobeyed God’s law and the consequences were severe – their relationship with God was eternally broken, their relationship with each other was severely strained and their relationship with the rest of creation was damaged. From that moment on the earth and all in it suffered under the judgement of God. No longer could we expect to enjoy God’s presence like Adam and Eve did, nor expect to enjoy eternal life. A holy God could not relate with a sinful, disobedient people and since He is just and holy he had to judge sin and not just look the other way.

But the really bad news is that this was going to be the eternal state of things. You and I, by the one act of disobedience of our first parents, were eternally separated from God. Never again to be his people enjoying his presence in His holy place. Even more depressing is knowing that there is nothing we could do about it unless God himself acted to redeem us from our fallen state. We had been corrupted by sin totally, we were responsible for it and we could do nothing about it since as scripture reveals, we were dead in our transgressions. (Ephesians 2:1)

A Loving, Gracious and Forgiving God

Although it really grieved the heart of God to see the broken relationship between himself and his created people, he initiated a process of restoration to bring back fallen humanity into a perfect relationship with him. He promised a redeemer right there [Genesis 3:9, 15b] who would overcome the deceiver and restore the broken relationship. This promised ‘serpent crusher’ is Jesus Christ who was born of a virgin girl from Nazareth named Mary. 

A new chapter was now opening. Another Adam had come onto the scene. He who had long been promised through the prophets had finally arrived and His name was Jesus Christ. The good news of God’s grace was now taking shape. Jesus Christ led a perfect life and was obedient in every way. In the end, he was crucified on a cross like a sinner even though he had committed no offence. He suffered judgement on behalf of you and I because God poured His wrath on Christ who was sinless so that the guilty may be counted free. That really is the good news of God’s grace – God’s goodness freely lavished on guilty sinners. 

Imagine it like this – you go to a private school and the child of the owner of the school is in also in the school – it is a beautiful school with all the facilities you can imagine. One day, out of sheer mischief, you obtain some chemical from the laboratory and poison the food and the entire school is exposed to food poisoning. Soon the police are involved because the entire population is at risk. The director learns of the situation and comes in and is informed of your act of felony – this time you are being held at the Deputy Head Teacher’s office. He carefully considers the matter and decides that the felony will be blamed on his son, who was innocent all along. This hurts the director deeply but he knows it is the only way to save you from a lifetime in prison. His own son is whisked away by the police and suffers separation from his loving father. He knows that the father means well and is totally confident of His father’s decisions.  The director then pays all the fines and expenses for those who were sick and the court fines so that his son is released from prison.  He then comes to you and tells you to go back to class, as everything has been restored to normal.  Imagine hearing that! That is really good news, so amazing it is, that our proud selves can hardly accept it. That is Grace – totally undeserved favour. 

Two Men

Essentially then, the gospel is a narrative about two men – the first man, Adam and the second Adam, Christ. The first represents the natural man, who is fallen and subject to God’s judgement and eternal separation from God in Adam, there is death, wrath and indeed law. The second man is Christ in whom there is forgiveness of sins and restoration of the relationship with God lost in the first Adam. In Christ, there is hope of resurrection from the dead as He himself was resurrected. In Him there is life, grace and redemption. 

The gospel is about a swap – a substitution of a sinner with a righteous man. One who is guilty and deserves death goes free and the innocent one is punished. The big question then is – in whom are you found? The first or the second Adam? This is indeed of first importance. 

“And be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith”

-          Philippians 3:9

A Dying USB Flash Stick

A last note from a ‘Dying’ flash drive

My name is Vic, Vic Oldhart and I am a flash disk. I am writing this quick note for you from Dandora. I need you to read it quickly and hopefully get the message. When you do, please pass it on.

I am sure you are familiar with me because there are so many of us out there. You probably have one of my relatives with you right now. You see, even though there are too many of us, each of us is unique, our maker ensured that each of us is distinct, just like you are an individual each of us is also unique. So I have a special story.

I am sure you know that we are very handy to have around. When you need to print that document and your computer is not connected to a printer you run to us to help you transfer that file. After that you probably forget about us, throw us back to into the box, attach us to your keys or just pop us into your bag.  

But maybe there is a part of me that you probably don’t know and that is what I want to tell you about. I am now not in a nice bag like my friends, I am not in a special office transferring files from accounts to HR or carrying exciting games for kids. I am in the dumpsite. This place is really bad.  I am facing my final days in life and soon the compressor will lift us up, and throw me and the rest of the garbage into the pit and that will be it for me, so I decided as one last act of courage, to send you this little missive. 

I was made many years ago in a far, far away land. I was precious to my maker and I remember him stamping his uniqueness in me along the conveyor belt of that USB making factory. He knew we were needed all over the world, but to be useful we had to have good memory and good physical features and so he ensured all our parts were working well. We were then tested for quality and I emerged among the best. I was so happy about myself – who was like me, a new flashy flash disk with the highest capacity in the market. I was actually quite big at 64GB, there were not many like me as many people could only afford the smaller capacity drives. A few of my friends and I were very special – only the well-heeled could afford us. We were the ones meant to do special jobs in big offices and we looked forward to our assignments with eagerness. 

Finally, when we came out of production we were ready to be shipped all over the world. Our maker however gave us final instructions before we left. We were to remain obedient, to carry useful information and to know that there is an enemy out there against us. We never thought about those words well enough as we could not wait to get to our destinations.  I remember the long journey in the high seas in a shipping container with hardly any air. It was traumatising but we finally arrived in Mombasa. 

It took a while to be cleared at the port but finally the big crane lifted us up out of the ship and into a waiting truck. We were now headed to the city. It was my first time to be in Kenya and so everything looked new and exciting. I had heard so much about the Lions of Tsavo, the Elephants and Buffalos but the most the amazing thing I looked forward to were people of Kenya. I so badly wanted to be owned by a high profile sports personality like Collins Injeera or Julius ‘Javelin’ Yego.  The road journey was exciting, except for a few potholes here and there and the queues from Mlolongo but we finally arrived in the green city under the sun. I was moved to a shop in a place I came to learn was an electronics shop in Moi Avenue and after only a day on display a dashing young girl in school uniform actually bought me. 

Part of me was sad as I had not landed a celebrity or a senior politician as I had always dreamt. I was now owned by a regular person, a teenager actually, her name was Evelyn. But then the fun was just about to begin.  You see, people use us for all sorts of reason, for some it is to buy videos and games from that guy in the backstreet, others use us to carry nice smiling photos of their new-born babies but some others also use us to carry secret information, like data from a school exam management system or some government secret. I was ready to be useful to my new owner just as I had been instructed by our maker. Throughout my short life with Evelyn, I have done very exciting jobs for her and others. I have carried beautiful memories for people, saved huge school projects for students, travelled far and wide and brought many a smile to people. I never learnt to say to what Evelyn wanted, as long as I had capacity I carried it all.  This carried on for many years until she finished school and college. 

And then one day, Evelyn wanted to apply for the American Green Card. She saved all the important documents in me and then tucked me nicely in her clutch and off we went to the city centre in search of a good cyber café from where she could do her application. When we got there, she logged on as usual and opened the right pages for her application and then she was prompted to upload her documents and passport size photo. It was at that moment that she reached out for me from her clutch and slotted me into this old machine at the cyber café. As soon as I was plugged in, I could smell that the environment was not great. Too many USB’s had been here and this computer had been used to access all sorts of sites some very bad that I should advise you never to visit. But then I assumed something, that the owner of the place might have installed some form of protection for his machines. I was very wrong. 

Within a moment, I noticed the files in my memory were corrupted. It was now total chaos, I tried to beep and signal my little red light to see if Evelyn could unplug me immediately but she did not notice. Every second counted and as she fumbled through the file explorer trying to access me, she got the message: Drive Inaccessible. 

On my end, I was under extreme pressure. I was being choked from every side by this new virus that was circulating on the internet. All my files were now corrupted and many copies of the virus were loaded onto me. Sadly, Evelyn did not know this was happening. After half an hour of trying to access her document, she decided to try another cyber café. She unplugged me and off we went, as we walked the crowded streets of Nairobi, I really wished humans could understand the flashdisk language so I could tell her that I was infected with a deadly virus and in urgent need of cleansing. And so we went to another machine. I feared for the worst, Not only could my files not be useful but I was now going to transmit this virus to another computer. 

As Evelyn shared her need with Chris, the guy who managed the new Cybercafe, he asked if he could see me. As a policy, he said he does not allow clients to plug in their own USB sticks before he checked them for viruses. He had this supersize server computer that run the entire Cyber cafe named ‘Crossforce’ under his desk and he immediately plugged me in – it was a dazzling moment of both shame and guilt on my part as the dangerous virus was detected by the strong anti-virus in Chris’ Machine, I was carrying a virus and did not say it, the virus had choked me and corrupted all my faculties. I was guilty that I was useful to Evelyn and let her down on a very crucial assignment. I had lost all her selfies, adventure photos, scanned school certificates, games and movies. I was #heartbroken. 

I could now see the disappointment on Evelyn’s face. I could only imagine the number of nkt’s on her Facebook post at that moment. I had been a let-down. But most surprisingly, Chris was not shocked. I had expected her to admonish Evelyn for having an infected flashdisk  and worse still for bringing it to his Cyber Cafe. But he calmly looked at her and reassured her that he had seen way too many people with the same problem. A panicky Evelyn asked if there was anything he could do to save her documents and he said he can try. He immediately engaged a new level of the antivirus software called ‘RestorationX’ and the process of file recovery begun. 

As this was going on, I could tell that my files were being rearranged into new sectors. After nearly three hours, Chris approached Evelyn who was seated in the Café alone, as everybody else had left for the day. Evelyn was really anxious to hear an update and Chris said sternly: ‘Crossforce has managed to rescue your files, folders and all documents but the disk is severely infected, you have to get a new one and I recommend NewHart, the latest from the same company that makes Crossforce. Do not use this USB anymore as it is still infected 

A mixture of joy and pain welled up in my heart. I was not useful to Evelyne anymore but at least her crucial documents were saved and they would a new home soon. Chris also helped her to make her Visa application as they chatted animatedly.

But even more surprising for me was when Chris said to Evelyne that she could not pay any money as she had suffered too much with me already. There was a sparkle in his eye and I could not help but notice a warm smile on Eveylyn as she took the compliment. As Chris and Evelyn walked out, I overheard him ask her ‘Would you like to have a coffee sometime?’

***

Soon after I was popped into Chris’ dustbin and Newhart was nicely put into Evelyn purse. I felt so jealous but my fate was now clear. Soon after I was carried out by some guys and into this huge dumpsite.  So here is my quick message to you and all your friends – Please get rid of all your Oldharts, run quickly to Chris who is offering restoration and cleansing and even replacement with Newhart. 

I was put off because of a virus infection and Newhart had now taken my place. Apparently, Newhart is virus free and has layers upon layers of protection patented by his cosmic manufacturer and certified by full Assurance.