Managing waste

On every Johannesburg street you see the dustbins overflowing with bags full of rubbish. And when you open your car window or go closer, the stench can knock you off completely. It’s not a pretty sight and if the recent strike by Pikitup staff carries on for longer, we are in big trouble.  We are used to living with in a system where all the waste is collected on a regular basis – keeping the balance. To have to live with that stench will be serious torture on us, not to mention health hazards that come with it.

This got me thinking about our spiritual lives. If it’s so hard to live with even a little bit of uncleared household waste, what makes us think we can live with spiritual waste in our lives? In Ps 51: 8 - 12, David asks the Lord to create in him a clean heart – “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Just like we bath daily, cleanliness and sustenance are key for us to keep on a spiritual high. Spiritual waste can take many forms – unforgiveness, anger, jealousy, dishonesty etc…all the things that are not of God. Yes He understands that we are human and therefore not perfect. But when we renew our minds daily in the word (Rom 12:2), and let Him who is perfect, perfect us with His love then we can keep the collection of spiritual waste at bay. Instead, the aroma we exude will be that which is pleasing to God and has a good impact on those we come across daily.

Seasons

Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again. Sarah Ban Breathnach
Being someone that generally prefers to start the day at gym, I wake up quite early, around 4:30 am (ok I admit that’s ambitious because I only ever manage to get out of bed around 5am after my snooze button’s had enough of me). In the summer months it is quite easy since it’s pretty uncomfortable to sleep in the heat, sharing space with mosquitos and other bugs. By the time the alarm goes I am all ready for it anyway, and the skyline on the outside is pretty light.

Then suddenly, it’s a lot harder to get out of bed because its much darker in the morning, and the temperature is nippy too.  Suddenly is the key word here. I started wondering at what point does this change actually happen? Is there any specific thing I can pinpoint that indicated this sudden change? Yesterday it was much lighter at 5 am, now suddenly its quite dark. I am sure there’s an explanation in meteorological terms of how the seasonal changes takes place, but to the lay person, the seasons come and go silently without us knowing the hour/time/day. All we know is that certain months of the year represent specific seasons, as we are now in autumn. We also behave in specific ways during certain seasons like eating a lot more in winter to keep ourselves warm etc. But there are usually signs that a certain season is upon you, e.g with winter approaching, it’s quite dark at 6am/pm, it’s chilly in the morning and early evening etc. But as to when the turning point took place is elusive - we only see when we are in the throws of that season that its arrived. Sometimes it takes certain events like late summer rains to usher in the new season, but either way the change seems sudden.

This got me thinking of the seasons in our lives. We have so many things to deal with, so much to contend with. You may be going through different seasons in different aspects of your life. Your personal life might be going exceptionally well but your work/career life may be going through turmoil. Or, everything could just be either going exceptionally well or extremely badly. And when these circumstances do change, it’s a ‘suddenly’ moment, without us knowing  the hour or time.

Whatever the case may be, all I know is that we serve an amazing Father who gave us a word in Eccl 3: 1 - 13 that “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…”. I am particularly excited to know that as verse 11 says “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”  So no matter what season we are in we ought to continue to serve and praise God.

Vanilla Soul in action at the Times Live iLIVE poetry showcase in March 2011

A challenge on perspective

This video truly challeged me : http://multimedia.timeslive.co.za/videos/2011/03/running-a-tour-de-france-on-one-leg/

It is about a man with one leg who runs 30 kilometers for four months (which equals approx 3600 km over months) to raise funds for the fight against cancer. What a task - this for something he believes in, mainly because he lost his leg to the disease. Now that's a man with a purpose. I think a lot of us spend some part of our time on earth in search of what our purpose is, as we go about our everyday lives. In the mean while, our lives seem incomplete or one would have a feeling like even though you might have it together but there is still something missing.

Because this man knows that his cause is to spend his life raising funds for the fight against cancer, his reason for waking up on a daily basis is filled with motivation and determination. I am sure that at the end of each day when he re-assesses his achievements he has a sense of satisfaction. I would like to get into his mind and see how it works to keep these high levels of motivation. I know I am still on a search for what my true purpose is. In the mean time, I am using what I have to do something as best I can by God's grace. As the Word says in Proverbs 3:16 - Commit to the Lord whatever you do and he will establish your plans.

My challenge to you is this: this man has one leg and manages to achieve as much as he has. How much more those of us without any physical or mental deformity? Shouldn't we be taking a leaf out of the lives of the many people with disabilities who have achieved so much more that people without disabilities?

Lord help us to change our perspective from what we think we can't do to what we can offer for you to multiply through us.

Traffic lights and points men

Travelling to work for me is somewhat bliss, unlike for most people who have to contend with traffic daily. I am fortunate enough to travel against traffic while most people have to endure this daily or plan their travel times around when they would miss being stuck in traffic. But on some occasions, like times when the traffic lights are not working etc, then I get to experience what some have come to be familiar with.

Being stuck in traffic is rather unsavoury and to say the least, frustrating. It makes it hard for one to really focus on the driving and the journey and rather on the destination. I would find myself thinking thoughts that I am sure you will identify with like “When am I going to get where I am going?” “Some drivers really need to reconsider going back to driving school.” I don’t want to be here right now” I should be where I am going already” “Grrrrrr!” at everything. I would notice everything wrong in that whole picture, which really does nothing more than add fuel to my discomfort.

 The experience and frustrations of traffic got me thinking about our journey as Christians. I thought about how sometimes, one can be frustrated to the point of screaming at some of the challenges we come across throughout our journey. They get so frustrating that we lose focus of where we are going – thereby making our driving experience more of a pain and less enjoyable.

Yet just as there would be traffic jams in our lives, there are also pointsmen who help ease the traffic and restore some form of normality. In Johannesburg we are fortunate to have the 702 Outsurance pointsmen (God bless the person who came up with that idea), who sometimes assist with traffic when things are bad. Our first pointsman is God Himself through the Holy Spirit, Jn 16:13. In order for us to follow the instructions of the pointsmen, we need to see and “hear” what He is saying. This means our eyes have to be on Him. So our spirit eyes need to be focused on Him, Ps 121:1-4.

Pointsmen use signals to direct us on when to stop, when to go, when to slow down etc. We also therefore, need to know and understand what the signs mean. In terms of our relationship with God, it is exactly the same way. Then we need to know what His signs mean so that we can follow in the signs as He is directing us. These in our spiritual lives can come in different forms therefore when we are tuned in, we are able to follow in those directions. Sometimes He used people, things, circumstances and events to direct us in certain paths, Luke 1:79, Ps 109:105-107.

Overall, they are there to make our journey smoother and help ease the traffic when it gets really heavy. One thing to remember is that the traffic jams are unavoidable sometimes, but the frustrations due to the traffic can be minimised when we are focused on the right pointsman. They restore order and normality to seemingly uncomfortable traffic situations.