Ever felt like you were stuck in some bad 90s teenage movie, but you are actually 26, living in a different decade in Africa where life is anything but a tragic bubblegum teenage movie! Yeah? No? Just me then! Lol.
For as long as I can remember, my life has been anything but black and white. A reality I was not okay with as I really wanted to fit in; I would rarely fit in anywhere, be it school or in the playground during break-time and a decade later even in my adult life.
As a child living with little to no awareness of the Lord I based my entire existence on circumstances and taking in what the day had in store for me. For example, if I had a good Monday, my Tuesday would definitely be bad no questions asked, but if my Tuesday was great meaning I had two consecutive great days then there was a fault in the universe and definitely sad days were upon me.
A great portion of my childhood was not spent at church, I’d say we started going to church as a family when I was in Form 2 (equivalent to Grade 9 in South Africa). My whole life before then was just taking each day as it came. Well, I did know there was a God who created the Heavens and the Earth (I have Primary school Religious education to thank for that) but besides the RE syllabus I was clueless about God, let alone having a relationship with Him. Yet somehow he was actually always there, in every hardship I went through I always had that inner comfort of “you are not alone”, but I rarely entertained it because when I’d look at my surroundings I would be alone.
I’ve lived a worldly life for a great portion of my life, attributed to my lack of knowledge in the Lord and living by and through circumstances. It was a really dark place come to think about it yet God has always been there, moving pieces in my favour for me to establish a solid relationship with Him. We tend to allow life to be as loud as it possibly can and then assume that God is so subtle in speaking and slow in moving things. Whereas God is more powerful than life itself and much louder than it at that, the Bible says in Psalms 29:5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. First of all, have you seen the size of those Trees, God speaks family.
Some extraordinary life events happened and I found myself second guessing life. I was consumed by my health hardships and that battle within me to take my life actually led me to finally encounter my Father, Saviour, Comforter, God All Mighty. It took the hardest months of my life for me to finally see that my invisible companion had been beside me all along and finally I knew it… I knew and believed that he was right beside me. He is my identity/ your identity, the reason I live and breathe/ the reason you live and breath, my redeemer/your redeemer, my Everything/ your Everything!
I was dead but I am now alive by the Grace of God:
We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Do not let sin control the way you live, do not give in to sinful desires. Romans 6:9-12
Family, God is beside you right now, reading this with you, He most probably directed you to this Blog post. He is everywhere, He is in everything and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them (Romans 8:28).
I didn’t start this blog page because I’m good at writing and I can hold up a story, on the contrary people talk over me at most times and I’m often overlooked. Yet the Lord God told me to get my stories out there, encourage people as the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1:4 that He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. I’m far from perfect and that’s the beauty of being God’s child, you do not need to be, come as you are and let the perfect one (Holy Spirit) do His work in you.
The peace of God be with you and Happy Tuesday!