GOD.

From birth to death, at some point you find yourself crossed with the question surrounding GOD. even if simply as a concept. Who is GOD? Why should I follow GOD? What kind of GOD. Allows suffering? Some don’t even believe in GOD. And can you blame them?

This conversation is always polarized with someone attempting to convince another person of their strong belief systems. The beautiful thing about an article such as this is it allows us to have a thoughtful conversation on the matter.

Where do I begin? I like most Africans grew up in very religious households. Kinda like the classic prodigal son story, though less dramatic. So after years of experimenting, church hopping and altogether hardly attending church(current position). I came to an unlikely conclusion, maybe it wasn’t at all for me. I didn’t doubt the existence of GOD. I just didn’t know what that was supposed to mean.

I had, had the privilege of church hopping early on in life so I guess I was exposed to different Christian thoughts early. Through interaction I learnt about other religions and you know how when you get stuck. There gets to a certain point where every resort to help seems to do more harm than good. Yeah I was stuck.

So I shangad (planted) my feet deep in the ground, refusing to budge. All these religions are the same, just people looking to exploit. What’s the point of even trying, like I said classic prodigal son story.

There was an inkling pulling at my heart strings and no matter how I tried to swerve it. I found myself being faced with some serious questions? What do you actually believe? And if you do believe in GOD. Why would you not practice that belief?

I was convinced until I had a conversation with a certain girl this one time, on the concept of love and God. It’s safe to say I had a whole experience, some people received voice notes with long explanations of love. The conclusion to that experiment was simply I can’t comprehend GODs love, but I did feel undeserving and yet totally blessed. If that makes sense.

It was a mind trip that eventually led to reading my bible, just for just. No organisation, whatsoever just reading. Not much has changed to be honest, but now I’m more consistent with my reading.

Naturally this looks different for everyone depending on what you choose to believe in. Ordinarily this post would be about joining my church or something but I don’t have one. Its simply an encouragement to anyone who will have it, that whatever you choose to believe in this life, may you believe in it without any doubts and may your path be blessed.

My bias naturally is that I’m a Christian, I believe in Jehovah God and the sacrifice his son Jesus made on our behalf. This weekend is actually a great symbol of that sacrifice.

I am also of the understanding that we all have our own beliefs. Beliefs we hold dear and true till our grave. Some of us unlearn our old ones in search of new beliefs than align with who we are more and yet some simply preach at the alter of non belief.

Whatever ideology you cling to, whatever you choose to believe in. The world has finally stopped, literally stopped as people are forced to stay home. As business slows down, as time opens up and we find we have more than we know what to do with. If ever there was a time to rekindle a spiritual relationship its probably now.

Now that the world is in silence and you can think, you can probe, and if you don’t like it. You actually have the time to make a new way. With so much time, spending a couple of minutes daily bonding with God is life changing.

I’ve always known GOD. Is the way, I might have questioned it because I was looking through the lens of others. I was trying to measure GOD. By the actions of other mortals, I blamed GOD. For what others did, I didn’t even want to have the responsibility of using my gifts.

And this is also the reason why finding a church has been difficult. But ever since I started reading my manual(Bible) I’ve understood more about how to service the settings I come with. What is my purpose in this life? I might have already achieved it and not know or I might never achieve it and not know. But regardless of purpose, there is a way in which we are supposed to walk, I believe based on the Bible.

Jesus was the perfect example, then his disciples and prophets before their time were also great examples. Jesus taught on the basis of love, summing up the entire 10 commandments into two separate phrases.

1. You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, and mind.

2. You shall love your neighbour as you love yourself

The entire laws of GOD. hang on these two commands. I found a brilliant article that expands on some interesting concepts you might enjoy.

The simple truth is that we are all human, beautiful but extremely flawed. That is why we each need to have our own personal relationship with GOD. Because man is flawed, corrupt, tired, unforgiving, GOD. Is GOD. That has become enough for me and its given me a calm and joy like I’ve not known before. But that’s only my experience and if you doubt, or have been hesitant about your relationship.

I’ll simply advice, open up your manual(mines the Bible) read and make your own understanding before you rush to commit to something YOU don’t believe or understand. Take some time out in silence and find out what you want from your spiritual growth. Once you start asking yourself questions, you’ll start looking for answers and more so in the spiritual discussion.

We are all imperfect, all of us, that alone should make us more understanding but it doesn’t and maybe we can take this time to simply reflect on what we want, and maybe even whom we belong to. And if you don’t believe in GOD. That cant be helped but please practice love everywhere you happen to be. Practice love even towards yourselves.

For GOD. So loved the world…

I hope that whatever you do in this life you may build your own personal relationship with GOD.