WHEN SORRY DOESN’T COUNT

I love spending as much time as possible with the kids over the weekend. So I decided to take my daughters and my nieces and a nephew swimming at one of the popular hotels in town.

All the 5 kids were excited about the day out and so rushed to the bathrooms to change as soon as we got to the health club. I went in to help my 2year old daughter change as I was sure she will ask to get into the water. The older kids run out one after the other as soon as they were done dressing up leaving me in the changing room. When the little one was done dressing up, we walked out to join the rest in the pool.

What met my eyes caused a terrible adrenaline rush. Some people were bringing down party lights from a previous event and the lights which were running across the pool were dropping into the swimming pool water.

Oh my God, get out of the water, I shouted, seeing all our kids in the pool with a coach who did not seem to have thought about the potential risk. I didn’t want to know whether they had switched off the main switch or they were confident that the lines of lights did not have any possible area of power leakage. All I knew is that anything can happen and all I will hear is sorry.

How can someone fail to take such basic precaution? I was annoyed. What shocked me even more was noticing that after keeping the kids out of the water for almost 5minutes to wait for these service providers to finish their work. The service providers disappeared to do I don’t know what leaving the one side of the party lights hanging in the pool. There was clearly no urgency and no thought put into what they were doing.

Thank you God for protecting your people even when we do the dumbest of things sometimes. I just can’t get over it.

Father, I thank you for watching over us and our children. I thank you Lord that the children had fun today and no harm or scheme of the evil one came near them. I pray father that we shall continue to bask in your goodness and protection all the days of our lives. May you give all parents and child caretakers wisdom to care and watch over the children that you entrust us with. In Jesus' name I pray.

PART 2. NO NEED TO PROVE YOURSELF

Lessons from Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (continued)

I have fasted a few times in my life but never have I been able to pull off a total dry fast for more than two days. My preference is to always break the fast at 5/6pm with a proper meal and then have noting until the next day same time. I will do this for one day, three days or a week depending on what I feel compelled to do. I have tried the other types of fasts like dry fast, fluids only or the Daniel fast but I have accepted that they are not my portion.   Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights and the scriptures say, he was hungry when the devil came to tempt him.

Mathew 4:2-4

² After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’^[b]”

Now I can’t imagine what someone who has been fasting 40 days and forty nights would be going through. By the time the scripture categorically says he was hungry, I believe that Jesus had reached his breaking point. The problem I believe was not in the turning of stones into bread, but the quick realization that the devil was trying to plant seed of doubt in the mind of Jesus.  The devil was provoking Jesus by questioning his identity in God.  

Often times, we are faced with the same provocations. Are you really saved? Does God really love you? If you are the child of God, then pray and let us see an instant miracle. I encourage you to counter these thoughts, words or people with the word of God.   

Take out: Don’t give into the provocations of the devil when he starts to question your identity in Christ. You do not need to prove yourself to him or to anyone.

Part 1: IS THAT YOU LORD?

Lessons from Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness

Mathew 4:1-11 reads

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted^[a] by the devil. ² After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’^[b]”

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶ “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    and they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’^[c]”

⁷ Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’^[d]”

⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹ “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’^[e]”

¹¹ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Let’s think about this for a minute. Satan did not appear to Jesus as a serpent, a person or a disguised being. It was a voice that Jesus heard.  

When you take time off to seek the Lord, to pray and fast, you expect to hear God speaking to you through a voice on the inside of you or through his word or whatever form. Not much thought is given to the possibility of the devil interrupting this quality time. Jesus had been praying and fasting forty days and nights.

So how could Jesus have known that it was the devil tempting him and not a divine intervention from his father to save him from dropping dead? Is it the fact that he was the son of God that made him recognize the devils voice? No. I don’t think so. Jesus was a much human as we are and so there was a possibility of Jesus mistaking the devils voice for God’s voice. The devil knew that he had a chance with Jesus. So he gave it his best shot.

What the devil underestimated was the power plugging into the word, praying and fasting gives to a child of God. When plugged into God, you can sniff a disguised spirit even before it starts to speak.

 

Take out: Not every voice you hear while praying or fasting is God speaking. Be careful not to be deceived by the evil one. If in doubt ask the Holy Spirit.

The celebration of Life- Happy Birthday Kaaka Adyeeri Vasta

Often times, when one hears the words ‘celebration of life’ what comes to mind is someone passed away and now they are going to send the person off with numerous speeches usually positive about how the deceased impacted a life or lives. The deceased has all these good things said about them that they never get to hear or if they do since they are now spirit, we never get to know or hear how the nice sweet words made them feel.

We chose to make it different as our Kaaka Adyeeri Vasta turned 96 this weekend. As a family, our tradition is to meet once every month with all the kids for fellowship, praise, testimonies and prayer.  We agreed to make this meet up different by focusing on just praises to God and telling Kaaka much we love her. Kaaka has unfortunately lost her sight to eye pressure and gets memory lapses but has not forgotten to love and laugh from the heart. It was therefore not difficult to surprise her as she did not remember her birthday.

So the day started off with each family preparing a dish or two since we had ageed it was portlack. We met at moms place in Buwate and there induldged in the numerous scrumptious foods that left many of us full and ready to nap. We did not have the luxury of a nap as we immediately started our fellowship with singing of numerous hymns and songs.  It was so much fun as we sang songs from the different tribes represented; rutooro, runyankole, luganda, rukiga and a bit of English. The kiga and nyankole dances surely helped to break the food down.

It was great watching kaaka join in with her feeble claps and a smile. No doubt it warmed up her heart and she could not stop thanking us making her day and praising God for her life. This gave us so much fulfilment and joy.

At the end of the singing and dancing, all the kids were asked to testify after which Kamara prayed for them as we agreed in prayer and then sent them off to play. The adults continued in the rich fellowship of worship that ended with a prayer in runyankole led by Andrew with focus on our Kaaka.  

We then had the kids join us once again for the long awaited cake cutting moment. Some of them couldn’t wait as we saw the 2year old Shona run a finger over the icing and stuff it into her mouth. We sung for kaaka, took pictures and indulged in the cake.

This was then followed by speeches from each one of us celebrating Kaaka and acknowledging the great influence that she has had in our lives.

It was a day well spent. Thank you Lord for 96 years of a God fearing, loving, generous, strong and beautiful grand mother.

96 Years and still counting- Kaaka Adyeeri Vasta

11^th November 2017, we get to celebrate grand ma’s 96^th Birthday. We call her Kaaka which is the Tooro language version for grandma. I write this blog to celebrate her not just because she is my kaaka, but because I am honoured to have been named after her with both names Vasta Adyeeri.

Kaaka is a God fearing, tall, dark skinned, beautiful and very loving woman. I thank God that we have had a chance to see her and learn from her. She has laid a strong foundation for her children, grand children and great grand children by investing in the Spiritual capital and the benefits of that spiritual capital investment are still being ripped two to three generations down the road.

Four years ago, kaaka developed severe excruciating pain in her back, the doctors in Fort Portal after numerous tests could not identify the problem and so the family made a decision to move her to Kampala. She was admitted in Nsambya where very little attention was given to her and yet kept asking us to take her for one test after another. All these movements increased the constant back pain that would make her shiver and often cry out ‘Ayi Yesu’ (oh Jesus) under her breath not wanting to inconvenience or worry those around her. The doctors in Nsambya discharged her saying there was nothing much that could be done as the cause of the severe pain was her lower backbone wearing out due to old age. At home in Kampala, watching her in pain with nothing much to do became very disturbing and yet she strengthened us with singing of hymns through the pain and constantly talking to God.

The family physician who had been away returned from his engagements and mom quickly took kaaka to see him. The Doctor immediately admitted Kaaka as she was now very week, and started her on treatment. He then told us that kaaka has been battling an infection and that is what was causing the severe pain. It was looking bad, but God saw us through.

We had feared that Kaaka would not pull through, but God came through for us and today we celebrate 96 years of a life well lived and some more to come.

 

Oh Give Thanks

On Saturday 12^th August my colleagues and I visited a school in Mukono as part of our Employee volunteering activity. We got to meet some of the students and had one on one discussions with them. I met with a young girl called Kevin (not real name) and we had a very interesting chat. She was interested in knowing how I have made it in life and through school and wondered whether she can become anything much considering she is in a school that is hardly heard of and with a high rate of school drop outs because of early pregnancies or lack of school fees.  

While I don’t think I have made it in life yet, her question made me quickly thank God for his grace and favour that have brought me this far. I reflected on my life and as I spoke to her and shared my life story with her, I realized that I had nothing much to do with the successes I have today. I read hard, but I know people who read harder, I worked hard and know people that worked harder, I prayed but I also know people that prayed really hard. All in all it came to one thing, the Lord has favoured me and has shown me his goodness.

If we each stopped and reflected on our lives, we would have so many things to give thanks for. Give thanks for the fact that you have a home, give thanks for your children, give thanks that you can go to bed peacefully, give thanks for your friends, give thanks you can breathe unaided, give thanks you are alive, give thanks even for the things yet to come. There is someone who desires to have what you have and therefore let’s not focus our attention on what we don’t have but rather, let’s give thanks.

Psalm 118:1 says Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

The call to give thanks to God in this verse is not conditional. It is a call to all and it is not subject to circumstances. The psalmist gives thanks to God acknowledging God’s nature as being ‘good’ God.

It’s very easy to think that we should only give thanks when things are working in our favour, in the good times or when God has given us something we have been praying and believing for. But that’s not the case, we ought to give thanks at all times knowing that God in his goodness and love is working all things out for the good of those that love him.

What situation has been holding you back from giving thanks? Choose today to give thanks

You are not forgotten

Have you ever felt like God is just not coming through for you?

Well, I have just been struggling with that same feeling. Over the last one and a half years, I have known that it is time for me to move jobs to something else as my current role is no longer exciting after almost 4 years.

I prayed and did the obvious to prepare my CV which I believed looked descent and I started applying for jobs. Month after month I waited in great anticipation for at least a phone call to an interview but nothing came through. I then quickly realized that it wasn’t as obvious as I thought.

This often got me anxious, frustrated and sometimes really unhappy with God for not making a way for me. I mean it’s pretty obvious I need a way out of here, why is he not answering?

Jeremiah 29:11 says for I alone know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and hope. God has a detailed plan for everything regarding my life including my next career move and the detail of what time it will happen. This sounds like a well thought out plan to me. One I would love to work with, but how do I calm myself down while I work with God to unveil his perfect plan in my life?

It is good to know that God has not ignored my prayer, he is not deaf and he will not withhold anything good from me because of his nature as my loving father. The same is true for you. God knows about that situation you have been praying about but has not changed. That issue of finances, that stressful work place, that health condition, that relationship. Whatever it is that you have believed God for, don’t lose heart, God’s timing is perfect.

Philippians 4:6-7 says “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” May we each experience God’s perfect peace in the midst of that storm of life.

I am not forgotten and neither are you.