BETTER HUMAN RACE

 BETTER HUMAN RACE

 

That science and technology have provided a betterment of the quality of life for the human race is not debatable. Health as an example. Better medical equipment, facilities and pharmaceuticals, if accessible, provide longevity of life better as where these resources are absent. Sometimes, such ideas challenge our belief that our days on earth are specified by God and none lives a second more than what was written of their days by God. Or how does this faith fit with UN reports that place average life expectancy in Africa at 64.2 and EU commission placement of average life expectancy in Europe at 81.7? Could God be giving Europeans more life than He gives Africans? That is debatable but the difference could only be that better quality of life results in longer life expectancy. On and on though, the human race keeps bettering itself all over. A case in point also is last Sunday's London marathon where Kenyan Sebastian Sawe ran under 2 hours at 1:59:30 as well as Ethiopian, Yomif at 1:59:41. The third person also broke the previous record of 2:00:35 held by the late Kelvin Kiptum. It is interesting that for many years, it was believed that it was humanly not possible to run a full marathon in under 2 hours. This was the reason that Kenyan great marathoner, Eliud Kipchoge undertook the Ineos challenge in Austria in an unofficial race with over 40 pacemakers, laser guided pace car and custom designed shoes to run under 2 hours. He sure did with 1:59:40 and interestingly, Sawe exceeded that time. Before his death, Kiptum said he could run 2:00 and was preparing for the 2024 Rotterdam Marathon. His death caused a lot of suspicions especially towards Eliud Kipchoge, people thinking he might have feared for his under 2 hours record. What of the sponsors of Eliud who invested so much to prove under 2 hours was possible? Then comes sawe and debutant Yomif in a normal race to prove that no special conditions are required to run under 2 hours. If it is true that Kiptum was killed for fear of his abilities, then the killers remain with egg on their face after Sawe's spectacle. Lesson? Because the human race gets better, then there's a need to develop the inner faith that you can do better, at least better than yourself. That belief could be key for better performance in the tasks and projects you undertake. And if anyone is a believer, then scripture confirms that, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' Phil 4:13.

 

@Stephen Mungai

OF THE PROPHETS, FEAR AND LOSS OF FEAR

 OF THE PROPHETS, FEAR AND LOSS OF FEAR

Mammito's skit that seemingly imitates Prophet Owuor was not only courageous and fearless but seemed very defamatory on the leader and faithfuls of his Holiness and repentance ministry. Doning similar to the Prophet's white outfit and with similar long beards, the comedian uses words in congruence to utterances of the prophet in past events. The daring comedian's skit has raised heated debate in social circles and invited the wrath of Owuor's congregants, some of whom have gone ahead to issues ultimatums to her to pull down the skit from her social media pages. She has also been threatened with court proceedings and I stand to see what happens to her hereafter or whether she will yield to the threats to apologize or pull down the videos. The story forces me to reflect or notice how preachers over the years have been imitated by comedians endlessly. Preachers seem to only come second to politicians as source of content for imitation by comedians and you ask yourself why? A politician can say all sort of outrageous things especially promises and insults to competitors in an attempt to woo voters to support them. On the other hand, a small bunch of preachers seem to also say outrageous things without being questioned or doubted especially by their followers. I stay on the side of not doubting anything that any preacher says because if one says they spoke to God directly or shared whatapp chat with God, who am I to doubt? If I have no way of proving it, then I let it be like the sayer said. The bottomline is that anyone can talk to God directly without going through the prophets or preaches and the holy bible has clear instructions from God and is where we can learn God's ways or prove it true or false, what the preachers say. Many strange things have been said by preachers on pulpits and it seems like those who proclaim strangest of things receive the greater number of followers. That is how the 310 preacher still enjoys great following and media coverage until today. Whatever the case, we need to be wary of false prophets as warned by Jesus in Matthew 24:11,24. One reason I choose to stay on the fear side away from mocking or pointing fingers at men of God regardless of what they do is the story of Elisha in 2 Kings 2:23-24. It tells of Elisha being mocked by youths who yelled, "Go up, you baldhead!" Elisha cursed them in the name of the Lord, after which two bears emerged from the woods and mauled 42 of them. Whether a similar thing happens to Mammito or not, I stay on a wait and see. Whether if nothing happens proves someone as a false prophet is also not for me to judge.

@Stephen Mungai

DAILY COURTESY

 DAILY COURTESY

Daily life for everyone involves interaction with the people someone knows and also those unknown to us. A rare breed of people are people identified by all who encounter them as one of behaviour and character. Some people are sufferers of Multiple personality disorder and are known to different groups of people differently. Everytime that I noticed myself to be having more than one characters to different people, I always tried hard to reconcile my 2 or more selves into one so that am the same person to all people. Have you ever tried to heap praises to a person somewhere and someone stood on a point of correction to give you their negative experience about that person? Like saying how honest and trustworthy a person is, then someone tells you how that very person refused to pay back what is owed to them? It shocks you at first before you discover that your person was after all not that honest. The gospel of christ is a tool for total transformation of a person's character and way of life. Even so works out other religions and the dictates of good humanity. That is why it feels good to visit families whose kids are trained on simple courtesy of welcome, thank you, sorry and how can I be of help? Training our kids in our ways of brash brutal and trumping upon all who sit on our way is a destruction of our future generations. More so should we always check on our behaviour to improve on where we are not doing very well. And just to re-teach ourselves. Say thank you when something good is done for you...whether you are paying for it or not. Keep your word to the best of your ability and excuse yourself incase you fall short of it. Keep your end of bargain in contracts including gentleman agreements. Say sorry when you have wronged someone. It is uncouth just to go mute knowing well that you wronged that person. Give someone way on the road even when in a hurry. Don't be like brother Njenga, a friend of mine who used to give me lift and would go abusing other road users, justifying inapropriate language and rushing to make it for mid-week fellowship. It is so easy to hold the door for someone coming behind you or pulling the seat for the other person in a restaurant. Let us not be too transactional so that you don't care because you think you may not meet or need that person again. Let every interaction be relational so you have no issue meeting that person again or their referals. I guess it may be much profitable for business people. The golden rule, Matthew 7:12 guides well, 'do unto others what you would have them do to you, Titus 3:2 tells us to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. Please choose to be courteous everyday. Won't we?

@Stephen Mungai

IT'S EQUAL TO SELFISHNESS

 IT'S EQUAL TO SELFISHNESS

A good number of articles that have gone up this wall relate to relationships or family for the truth is, many of the problems of our people begin in love relationships. Those articles never claimed to have all the answers but are based on the idea that a problem shared is half solved. This reflections, the feedback or the think-through about the issues discussed do somehow become helpful to someone and even with one person getting needed help is worth the bother. For that reason, let's just do another one and from onset say that the unresolved conflicts we find in our lives can be summarized with one word, selfishness. To be unresolved, a conflict requires just one of the 2 parties to be selfish. There are times when both parties are selfish and that makes it even harder. For a moment, let's unveil the true face of selfishness and to begin we ask, who among you is the provider in that relationship? If both of you are working and unless agreed, a woman cannot say like some do, 'your money is our money but my money is my money' that is simply selfish. Save for those women is a growing number of men being provided for by women. These men are given including pocket money by their wives or girlfriends. They just sit in the house to watch movies or are out with friends as their wives stay put on daily grind. Sometimes, these men's women spend huge sums of money to start businesses for their men and the story goes.....they can't maintain business because of laziness. They are used to handouts and when they keep the business, they bring no cent home to support their partners. These growing crop of men are too selfish for life. They want comfort at the expense of a hustling woman. It is uncouth that only one partner foots the bills consistently without help from the other regardless of who earns more. Everyone must contribute something. Of course there are agreed arrangements where one partner stays home for kids and house chores. That is a perfect arrangement if all parties are comfortable. Finances are a big source of conflicts in homes but underlying is usually an aspect of selfishness. Other sources of conflicts like infidelity don't escape selfishness because it's in pursuit to fulfilment of personal desires. While it is naive to assume that your relationship is fireproof and will last forever, it maybe necessary to make arrangements that protect you from the exceses of a selfish creature before they destroy your body and soul. Just point out the selfishneas when you see it and indicate your limits of such acts. James 4:1-2 states that fights and quarrels arise from selfish desires and passions waging war within people.

@Stephen Mungai