Praying with Understanding

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Prayer, I believe is a conversation between us and God, either we are giving thanks, making requests or even asking questions. Yet it is not uncommon to feel like a prayer could be such a complicated and maybe even a delicate conversation to have, after all, it's God we are talking to here. There is no way that wouldn't be somehow daunting! I remember learning to pray as a child during family devotions and how nervous I'd get, mumbling through my words, hardly able to get anything coherent out. My auntie, bless her, would jump in the middle of one of my many long pauses to rescue me and carry on with the prayer but once we were done, my uncle would almost chide her for not giving me a chance to learn and develop my confidence. I didn't blame her; I found those long pauses very uncomfortable too! So, I usually understand when people tell me they do not know how to pray and would prefer others to pray for them or they'll just avoid it altogether and some even ask if
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What Love Is

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We have all been trying to figure out the impact this Covid-19 has had on us all, I mean in terms of health, work, lifestyle, family, education, just about everything. For weeks, it was all I thought about, or should I say worried about. Anything else in the news seemed less important and honestly there isn't much else in the news.

I have focused my prayers mostly on health and safety, praying we all come out of this pandemic ok, also trying not to think too much about having to live with it, if it doesn't go away totally. The world is filled with lots of uncertainty, pain and hurt and seeing people hurt each other is just so heart-breaking. We must learn to love one another; the sky is vast enough to allow all types of birds fly without colliding with each other. The earth is the fullness of God and all that is in it, You and I, everything around us. We have everything we need to survive and the wisdom to manage all those resources wisely. Why do we have to live in fear of one another? Why do we have to defend humanity? Why do we need to raise banners, placards and plead that some lives matter? Who says a race is superior to another?

We are all one and the same and ALL lives matter! Any man that looks at himself and thinks he is superior to another is free to do so in terms of class, education, money in the bank or even, looks! I am fine with that and that's about where it ends!

We must not lose sight of our humanity and respect for life. I always wonder what world we would live in and leave behind for our children, if we all at this moment in time take a stand to be our brother's keeper and be part of a peaceful world where love is the only language we speak?
What a wonderful world that would be!

Silence is no longer an option, we will all be held accountable for our actions or inactions.

I am a respecter of authority but authority/leadership without compassion is nothing, it will be reckless, harmful and prove to be ineffective. There is such a lack of compassion that sometimes I wander into the territory of God's thinking (extremely far from mine!) and muse...

Me: "was this how bad it was when You sent the flood to cover the earth in the days of Noah"?

God: "no, this is worse, but I am a covenant keeping God and I promised to show compassion"

Leaders lead in love; Followers follow in love; let's call out people for their wrong ways, in love. However you choose to manage your authority over your citizens, your employees, your family, your children, loved ones, if the heart behind it is always love, then it is certain that peace will allow you thrive and be rewarded with success in that position, whatever your level of faith or the presence or lack thereof, you were put in that position for a reason. What leader does not want to be successful?!

I do admit I find one quite exasperating (thankfully he's not my president) I still pray for him though.

There is only a difference between you and the next person if you care to spot the differences. The variety you find in the human species is a testament to the masterful artistry of our creator: God. Just look at how the earth has evolved and what it is today, how humans survive in the different parts of the world, how different we look from one to the other (even within the same family), what nature provides us to survive on, to interact with, how the elements treat us: harshly or kindly, the knowledge of science God has given us to protect and manage it all (environment and climate change). There is so much beauty in our cultures, languages, religions, food...how blessed we are to be able to learn and enjoy them all.

I can't be anything but thankful!

I see anyone that cannot appreciate these differences as only lacking the capacity to love and I pray for them. How can you be offended by the diversity that surrounds you? When I see the mix of the different type of people that inhabit this planet with me, hear the different languages (music to my ears), I bask in it all and I am truly thankful. I see brothers and sisters: each that I'm thankful for. Each of us carefully and specially made by the same God. Each made with a purpose, a destiny to fulfil.

We were made in love and it breaks my heart to see the extent to which we have lost that truth.
We were not built to be perfect, after all the first man Adam was moulded out of the dust of the earth, he was made imperfect, it took God breathing into his nostrils to make him a living being: Genesis 2:7 (Amplified Version), that was intentional. In Isaiah 2:22 (English Standard Version), God told us through His prophet, that we should stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he? It was clear all along, from the very beginning, through the fall of Adam, through the fall of Cain and many others but we were not discarded because that was the whole point! God is intentional, He wanted us to know it was always about love and that's why He sent us Christ Jesus to walk on earth and become a life giving spirit, to bring about restoration of soul so that we carry Him with us.

It was always about love, it cost Jesus His life, which He freely gave, but we are not called to make such a heavy sacrifice. We were only called to do these two things:

  1. LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.
  2. LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.

An absence of love will only lead to chaos, a focus on our differences divides us and plunges us further into this hole it seems we are fast disappearing into. Wake up and ask yourself the part you play in all this, are you so far gone that you refuse to believe that love can still find you and bring you back? Are you watching from the shadows enabling those that are hurtling us down that hole? Love will allow you speak up; love is kind by being truthful. We are all we've got, when everything fades away and I mean everything, love is all that will remain. Material things won't last forever, the rich greedily amassing all they can lay their hands on will not be buried with their riches, even if that happens, what good is it to them when they are dead? The bible says the grievous evil of riches being kept and hoarded by their owner is to his own misery. To that, I would say: 'try sharing'!
We are faithfully loved by the one who made us, let's live to love one another, we can start today, forget yesterday, it only takes an act or a word of kindness to get you started!

To all those hurting, I pray that you find peace and that your heart heals.

Racism is a disease and Love is the only cure.


I love you.



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