Welcome to my blog!
“Jesus often insisted that people not only ask but be definite about what they wanted. … The ideal is that all of life, every vocation and profession, is to be used to glorify God.
Father, You have given me a fine mind. I believe You wanted that mind to be developed, sharpened, to know some of the wisdom of other men through the ages. You want my potential to be used to help You uplift some burden and lighten some portion of our world. All resources are Yours. So will You please make it possible for me to receive what I need for an education.
And, Father, I believe that You have big plans for me. Unshackle me from all thoughts of lack. Let me know that there are no limits to what You can do. Plant in my mind and heart the vivid pictures, the specific plans and dreams that reflect Your plans for me. And, oh, give me joy in dreaming – great Joy!”
A quote from Beyond Ourselves by Catherine Marshall (adapted by me where it reads ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘mine’ and ‘me’)
When I set out to design a career management programme, I was unemployed and in need of funds for my education. I had no house and expecting a third child. This book, read during one of those times of idling between bouts of interminable planning, inspired me. Most times I was thoroughly dejected, deflated and out of resolve, then I came across this piece:
“ Often during those discouraging days there was a vivid picture in my mind: I was groping my way along a pitch-black tunnel. There were passages, twistings and turnings off the main tunnel. I tried this way and that. Repeatedly I found only dead ends and was forced to grope my way back to the black centre shaft. I clung to the hope that somehow, sometime, I would emerge from darkness into the sunlight again. But in order to get there, I had to proceed resolutely straight ahead. I knew by now that there were no short cuts. Did this mean that I had to deal with God, who was insisting through circumstances that He alone knew the shortest way to the sunlight of His presence.” (ibid, p52)
Now expecting a fourth child, I have since established my own media and property companies, and work independently. The companies have yet to yield, in a handsome way, but I have found the vision and courage to take myself forward.
I have always insisted that I want to be a successful financial executive who is able to provide for his family, and creates opportunities and gives support to individual family members to excel in their chosen career paths. I also want to remain an active participant in the national transformation project underway in the Republic of South Africa, and in the mission to renew Africa.
My companies give me a platform to actualize the dream. I recently published a novel, When Seasons Charge (2007) [ISBN 978-0-620-40717-5]. Completing the book showed me how one can overcome the constant teasing and torture that life hurls at us without losing their mind, or ‘cool’ as some people prefer. It’s nice to be on a cover, and to see one effort yield a positive result. The book might not be a bestseller like Mrs. Marshall’s, but it certainly was a message for me! A message from above!
Our home, where my business is currently located, is opposite the Methodist church. I’m surrounded by priests. My property business partner is a pastor of the Resurrection Church. My wife’s uncle is a senior pastor at the Grace Bible Church. My younger brother is a church elder at the local Catholic Church, my church. A friend, from whose house I stayed and wrote my novel, was a priest until a serious misdemeanor, an act of confounding rage, got him disrobed. A partially-sighted friend at the University of North West in SA, is a family counselor and senior reverend at his church, and I helped mark a theology thesis recently – he is dedicated and driven, but he needs people he can trust to help him with things like proofreading etc. If God’s greatest asset is to work miracles, then it is friends like these that demonstrate His power. He shows you good and bad human beings, driven and helpful ones as well as the outrageously insecure and cruel.
I always try to get into people’s minds a lot, as many do into mine, but have always come unstuck –then marvel at the wonder that God plays in creating his children. It is sometimes, or maybe most times, a scary experience. How can people behave in the way they do? Killing others, loving each other, stealing from each other, supporting each other, cheating on their children, adopting orphans etc. Getting to know What People Are should be the most difficult thesis for any scholar.
This blog is created to get into that aspect of our lives. Understanding whether my weak Christian grounding is compatible with enterprise as Mrs. Marshall suggests. Is being poor the reason why one needs to be closer to God, or by contrast being rich a reason to stay away from Him? Or should the question be turned the other way round? Does the question of when does God turn His back on us or when is He closer to us, ever arise?
I read somewhere that I needed to make a spiritual investment for myself by going to church every Sunday. Now I’m an entrepreneur eking out a living on a cruel schedule that gives me no time for my wife and children, and my wife’s aunt says she does not understand this? If I can go to a meeting to discuss politics, then I certainly should have time for church. I do go to church. In fact, I visit churches. I am very Catholic but attend various churches following specific schedules. Some Sundays clash painfully with my business commitments and I’m only free by evenings. I thought that my businesses will be floating nicely after a certain period so that I can dedicate time and tweak my diary to: BACK TO NORMAL HUMAN BEING. It is getting increasingly impossible for me to do so.
I find solace in listening to gospel music on my computer as I work and radio church services. Does it make me less Christian? I do not know. One of the African leaders I admire, the late Oliver Reginald Tambo, was a devout Christian. I have yet to read his autobiography, and see how he used to handle his issues with the church whilst running a government-in-exile? That government with communists, whose progenitors branded religion an opium of the people. I grew up within an openly socialist organization myself. I met liberation theologians and theologists and read people like Walter Rodney, whose collection I lost when I was detained under Apartheid South Africa’s State of Emergency regulations. It is this constant struggle to self-define under trying social and economic circumstances. A persistent question whether I will reach spiritual freedom only with the approval of regular church goers?
Maybe this blog makes me a bad neighbor. But why should I want to build a fence when I have no reason to feel threatened? My opening up might attract strange reactions, and I will welcome them all. I will grow through them. Every Friday I will respond to issues raised here and elsewhere because the subject of spirituality requires that we should talk consistently.
Let’s engage!
