At this period, every depth of emotional
stress is tested. The inquisition of
life is fed to us as bread; and we chew with a voracious speed. A void remains in our hearts at this period,
and so many options look like they can get to fill it. It takes grace to make
the right choices at this point, as the turbulence of this time sometimes make
us navigate the worst and best of bends. These are some of the trials of the
sojourning youth.
Born
in a spiritual home, where morning devotion is compulsory and we learnt to put
verses in our heads just like our class subjects. Children church was like a
pool where we came together, but what we had to swim in was scriptures, bible
stories, and different form of spiritual exercises. We were groomed to love
God, it was not uncommon for us to hear things like “ IF YOU LIE YOU WILL GO TO
HELL FIRE OH”, sing songs like:
If you do good kingdom
If you do good kingdom
Kingdom waiting for you
If you do bad, no more kingdom
No more kingdom waiting for you
However,
we became taller and began to have broader chests. Some of us had to apply “Ethylated spirit” on our chins and
jaws, so that we had more beards; others brushed their hair and used comb to
draw the sporting wave lines. For the
buns, the sizes of the boobs, hips and “Bakassi”, became something to give
attention to and it even made some feel bad about how they were. It now became
a matter whether the boys laughed when she passed or they are awed by her elegance
and grace. “Maybe, I need to make the skirts tighter and shorter or just leave
a part open to attract attention”, became a subject matter in some of the
minds.
Some
people were “perfect” all through,
and did not have many challenges. I really appreciate God for their lives and
pray for grace to stand through the thick and thin. But for some of us, we really did not just
understand why we shouldn’t be in control of our lives. All those scriptures
that were drummed into our heads when we were little we got to rationalize them
and the new information we got from them made more sense. Sometimes, some scriptures only made sense
when they were explained in the room, but when we got to the outside world,
they just seemed impracticable. I say
this with all sincerity and deepest sureness:
there was still a part of us that loved God and pricked us as we went
farther away. We got lost in various degrees of depth, some of us still
listened, while some others forsook the right way entirely and ran the race for
the other team (In this world, you are either for God or for the devil). And
they ran it very well.
There is something I have gotten to observe( It may be
wrong), those with the best of future in the Christian race, most times are the
ones that get to go through the worst of challenges in their youthful stage.
Hence: I have gotten to believe the devil most times sort after the best of
futures in their strategic placement and try to keep them engrossed in
different struggles so that they do not get to understand the Excellency of
function that awaits them in Christ Jesus. Anything that is precious to the
devil, the devil likes to get it for himself too and I am excited to let us
know that we are very important to Christ Jesus.
Unfortunately,
for some of us the “CHURCH” made our
exodus a little bit faster. They made us
feel that Jesus hated us and that we were already too lost: this they most
times did unknowingly. The message of “Jesus
loves us” was brought in the shades of condemnation, so when it came to us;
the pricking of the conscience made us choose the latter as the message. We
were made to feel as if we were the worst, few of us had the opportunity to be
corrected in love instead we became the talk of the church. We were left aside,
and the absence of love almost drove us down the cliff. At the points where we
thought of coming back, we thought we had done too much to be accepted back.
The idea of Sinning and asking for forgiveness, doing it over and over
again...made us feel bad, so we just gave up oh. We tried to put ourselves in Gods shoes, how
will he feel? “Am I not just abusing his
grace”?
However,
I bring today a message of peace and Love that God loves you and that you are
important to him as a son. Deep down
within you, there remains a search for what completes you and I am glad to
announce to you that it is the love of
Christ. For some of us we were trained to fear God rather love him, and bask in his love. We did not lie not
because we loved God, but because we did not want to go to hell fire; the fire
of hell kept us in check rather than the fear of God. So the idea we had about
God was a task master waiting to flog and cast us into well when we misbehaved.
But scripture says that the love of God constrains us (2 Cor 5: 14) and perfect
love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), how do we combine this realities? This
explains to me that I should live in God’s love, stay there, swim in it and it
controls my actions. I won’t like to hurt daddy (God) because I love him, and
even when I do; I perfectly get it that he loves me and will not cast me away.
On this matter, my thought has always been that, in my worst it is him... in my
best, it is still him, and in him I live and have my being.
What manner of
love that the father has bestowed upon you that you should be called his son...
he loves you even in the depth of your struggle, and that is why his beckon to
you now is “Come son! I love you with the whole of my heart, even with what you
have done... Come let me cleanse and make you whole”. I knowingly did this oh
and I like it, “Still come! In my love, an avalanche of matters is sorted. “See
the way I am just simplifying the matter to just love, he / she had sinned
...as in better sin (Pidgin), killed, robbed, raped, aborted, Casanova,
prostitute” someone might think, but still again in the midst of all Gods
awesomeness, anger, judgment... one of the only truth that could accommodate
his being is love: For “God is love” (1 john 4: 8). When we live our lives in
this world, through the prism of love, things will be made better. Then even
someone who went to steal and is to be sentenced to prison, when he catches the
revelation of God’s love, will feel sorry for his act, be willing to serve the
prison term for his crime because he knows that the prison walls cannot keep
him from the beauty and refreshing of God’s love. Like the thief on the cross,
death will not matter, as long as you will be part of the bride when the bride
groom appears for the final feast.
Youths!
God loves you greatly and richly. He understands the delicate situation of your
present age. He knows you really want to........... (Fill in the blank space),
but in him alone will your completeness be. Him alone can help you whether the
storm. It is out of his love for you, that he doesn’t want you to act that
wrong way. The Devil knows that you are greatly loved and cherished, that is
why he is doing so much to take you to the other side. You are very important
to God and he loves you greatly. I really want to encourage that we make sure
our children grow to know that God loves them: when we begin understand how
much God loves us, loving him back flows back easily (1 john 4: 19).
#singing:
Jesus loves me this I know
For the bible tells me so
Little ones to him belong
They are weak but he is strong
Yes Jesus loves me
Yes Jesus loves me
#that
Grace is abused does not change grace from being grace. Love is Gods nature...
enjoy God as a father, and it will easier to run to him in times of struggles
and he is ever ready to make us whole.
