GOD'S DESIRE
It is the desire of God that every living being should uncover and understand his/ her purpose. Any person who does not understand his purpose is subject to frustration and abuse. In the simplest of its form, we all need to fit into that which we were born to accomplish.God keep on drawing us closer to him through experiences and desires. We find ourselves longing for deeper relationship with a higher being that cannot be filled with any thing on earth but Him and Him alone. Day after day He makes the call and invite us to an intimate fellowship with him.
MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING
Some few days ago, I met a very inspiring man and formed friendship with him. I invited him to a meeting where I intended to know him better. I wanted to understand what drives him, what makes him unique and why does he think so. In the beginning of the interview, he told me how he actually started to do what he does, and how he has actually grown into his organisation that is transforming young people in South Africa. I narrate his story here under. His real name ha been changed to protect his identity.
KENNY's story
In a small village, kaMajosi,
about 47Km west of Giyani, lived a noble young man, Kenny. He was known for
having answers to almost every question. Young people at school referred to him
as the Village encyclopedia. Kenny always gave an ear to anyone who had
something to say. At some point he would even host small life empowering
seminars for high schools learners. He lived his high school life to the best of
his abilities that earned him a good name in the community.
Few years later, he walked the
streets of Mamelodi. He was now wearing a new helmet. The village boy was now “Mr Smart Guy” rooming the streets of Mamelodi. He had just graduated as an
Environmental Health Practitionerd, and was walking as junior municipal
consultant. That gave him the same platform as he had back in the village; to
talk to people. That was something that he really loved doing all his life.
The streets of Mamelodi smelt his
scent on every weekend. Because he did not have much to do, he spent much of
his time in bars, night clubs and shebeens. He felt like the village had robbed him of fun and
now it was time to explore the different delicacies that the township and near
city life had to offer. From drinking he added cigarettes, which made him broke from time to time, but he took a puff of the wrong smoke and still, he did not relent. His friends would attest that he
said he needed to prove a point. But he never disclosed as to who needed an
explanation for his life.
It was not long that he found
himself having tabs in different bars and night clubs. Sometimes he would open
a tab for all his friends to have one or two rounds of their best shots, their
choice. His tabs sometimes ran to as high as R15, 000 at a time, a debt higher
than his basic salary. He woke up one morning on the entrance of a night-club
in Rosebank wearing white socks and boxers and a black vest. When he asked the securities guards for
answers, they all looked away and said; ‘boy, who taught you to drink? Go ask
your mama?” It was cold, Kenny was freezing, almost naked in the streets.
Turning point
He hid himself in a corner near a
waste bin. I listened to him narrate what happened shortly after that
morning.”I was so cold that morning. I could do anything for warmth. I had
never felt so cold like that ever before. I felt like my bones were breaking.
Few hours later, a young beautiful lady walked by and heard me groaning. She
lovingly approached me and looked at me with eyes I’ve never seen before. Her look made me feel empty and like I was being judged.” He stopped for a moment,
took a deep sigh and said, “thank you Jesus.” I wondered where that came from,
but I listened to him continue his story.
“She reached out to me and handed me her big scarf. She did not say a word. Then she gave me her coffee.” He
stopped talking for few minutes, he expressed a deep sigh of relief from what I
believe I was about to be enlightened. “That woman was sent from God to me. She
said to me in one blow that shot through my heart and left me shattered, ‘you
need God brother, you need God’. Then she asked me to walk with her to her car.
Her husband was waiting for her in the car. The husband walked out and handed
me his jacket, drove me to my flat and said no word to me. Just like that. I
wondered what kind of man would do that. When we arrive at my door, he opened
his mouth to ask one question, ‘why are you destroying yourself?’” With an
angry look, Kenny stood up and hit the table where we were having our
drink. My drink splashed all over the place. But I kept my cool.
“I felt like God was looking at
me right in the eye with indignation,” he continued. From that moment he told
me a very long story of how he started searching for meaning. No one had any
answer for his question. In his search for meaning, he ran even faster into the
path of destruction. He started drinking everyday of the week. He started
changing women weekly.
He spent most of his days drunk and
searching for answers. He spent all of his fortune trying to find meaning to
life, but there seemed to be no answer to his quest. The more he searched for
meaning, the more he drowned himself in alcohol and nicotine. Even worse, he
was drowning in dept. It was not long before the bank repossessed his car and
then he was “kicked” out of his flat because he could no longer afford to pay
his monthly rental fees.
He looked for God, and seemed as
if God has turned a blind eye on him.
The lady that picked him up in
the cold met him again on his way to drown his sorrows with friends. She called
him aside and invited him to church on the next Sunday. “I felt like this lady
was becoming a thorn in my flesh”, he said. “It felt like every time I meet
with her, she just adds more sorrow to my already diminishing life. She never
spoke much, but there was a strong convicting power in her that judged me when
I was around her.” Kenny continued.
That day, he turned back to his
new flat. He lied on his sleeper couch facing the counting what seemed to be
layers of sorrow the whole night.
I believe God wants me to preach
The thought of going to church,
meeting with a group of people who cry “without cause”, clap and dance all over
the place and sometimes keep their hands lifted up high too long was not
acceptable in Kenny’s mind. He tried to pass the thought around with some
friends and they laughed at him. May I say that none of his friends knew what
was going on in his life. They regarded him as “the man”. He still maintained his
high standard of intellect.
Need me to say, many times we go
around with people and we do not know what they are going through. We seek the
fun and joy of their presence but we never seek to discover the inner thought. Many
people go through life pretending as if everything is alright. They spend their
life hiding from the same people that share a meal with them.
Husbands and wives may spend their lives hiding the truth from each other in the name of “sparing them pain”. Children
suddenly lose their parents to a dreadful disease which these adults kept from
their children in the name of “sparing my children pain”. People spend their
days hiding from the truth. Like Kenny,
he never told anyone about the worm that was eating him from the inide. But his life was rotting slowly.
After his friends scorned him for telling them that he wanted to meet with the creator at church, he said something that baffled both
him and his friends: “I believe God wants me to preach.” That is somewhat
unexpected form someone who had never been in church. The same weekend he went
to a church nearby but he did not spend 30 minutes in side. He said the people
were pretending.
He spent the next five weeks
going from one church to another on Sundays. On each occasion, he did not spend
more than 30 minutes. His view was all church people are full of hypocrisy. But
even with that, the longing for God did not stop. It was like he was becoming addicted
to seeking the true meaning of Life from a God he never knew. His pursuit for
meaning isolated him from his friends. At work he was sidelined from meetings
because sometimes he would find himself switching to another world not known to
others and mysterious to him as well.
One Sunday morning he remembered
that lady who gave him coffee and a scarf in the cold. He remembered the warmth
that he observed from her face. The love that he believed her husband had for
her and the compassion he sensed from him when he borrowed him the jacket. It was
almost as if they were not from the same planet. All his life he knew people who
expected something from him. He was expected to perform to a high standard;
hence he suffered inside because he did not have anyone to talk to. But when it
came to this couple, whom he did not even, know their full details except the
name of the church that was on the bumper sticker of the car. He thought he
might as well try it. If he still finds pretending people, he was determined to
never try it again. He resolved in his heart that if the next church he visit
does not give him what he wants, he is never going to think of God or his intuition
of being a preacher ever again in his life.
Right in the arms of God
When God calls you, He puts in
place all the mechanism that will drive you to Him even if you are ignorant. Like
He did with Moses, when he was born, Pharoah, the monster king of Egypt in pursuit
of the Hebrew boys two years and younger. He was determined to kill all sons of
the Hebrew generation. But Moses managed to escape through a mini bucket in the
river to the enemy’s camp where he was raised by the same man who wanted him
dead. Later he ran for his life after killing an Egyptian man. Fast forward to
40years later, he is on a mountain standing in front of a burning bush that was
not consumed by fire. God had him where he wanted him to be. No more running
around. No more games. No more excuses.
Kenny woke up on a beautiful Sunday
morning. Put on his Red Suit, a white shirt and black tie. He asked his friend
to drive him to church early in the morning. When he arrived, the meeting had
already started. The atmosphere was intense; there were sounds of excitement,
joy and celebration. He described the people that he sow as those who had
appeared to have no worries about anything. They seemed to be in an atmosphere
not easy to contextualize. Kenny looked all around to see that everyone was
focused on God. It appeared as if God had visited that place and He had no
intention of returning after He left. So everyone had to make sure they impress
Him by pouring out their hearts on Him.
As was still wondering, he felt a
warm strong hand around his shoulder. He turned his head to be greeted a young
man in a black tuxedo. “Welcome home my brother. My name is Mpho, I’m an Usher.
This is the house of my father, and your father too. My I walk you to your
seat?” said the young man. Kenny did not utter a word; he was still in awe of
what he was seeing. “By the way,” continued Mpho, "it is an honour to have you
hear. Please tell me your name and if it is your first time here.”
“Kenny”. That’s all he said. “All
right brother Kenny”, responded Mpho, “is it your fist time here?” Kenny just nodded
his head as he reclined to a comfortable seat next to him. He felt like he was
in another world. The lady that assisted him that cold morning was singing. “I do
not remember the song, but it touched my heart, I cried that day. Throughout
the service my mind was wondering if I could ever have the same feeling another
day. I wondered what would happen if God came into me and made me feel what the
rest of the people in that church hall were feeling.” Said Kenny.
I looked at him as he narrates
the story to me. He had an expression of a love struck man who had just found
the girl he had been dreaming of all his youth. He accepted the Lord that day. And
he said after saying “’yes, Lord’, I felt like a mountain had just been removed
from my shoulder”. A new life had just begun.
From that day, Kenny speaks as
CEO of his life. God has turned his life around. He has since stopped drinking
and going all over the country speaking about what God can do if one lets Him in.
Through the years of desperation, he knows now that there is no meaning to life
without God.
I would love to share more of his
success, but the page is limited. but I can say that he has started an organisation that serves to capacitate young men and women all over South Africa. He helps people discover their potential, their drive and move on to a place where no one and nothing can stop them unless they do so themselves.
(It is written in honor and recognition of men and women who have found God and allowed Him to drive them to peak of their abilities and to salute men like Thulani Mphahlele, Author of The CEO Speaks and Stay on Track Diary (www.thulanimphahlele.com)), who has helped me plot this story.
God can do it for you too.
