Two Left Feet? Keep On Dancing…

LONG LIVE THE SOUL SET FREE!!

This article is dedicated to the bold, the courageous the ones who dare to dream.

The ones who defy the odds to follow their heart and passion in life.

Long Live the Soul set free!!

With No roadmap,  they keep on running
With No parachute, they keep on jumping

With a drop of faith and childlike wonder they do what most of us know is what we should be doing but are too afraid to take the leap and make the jump.

The ones who jump first and later on figure out where the parachutes are, the ones who only have an idea of just the next one step and figure out the rest of the steps as they walk.

You know we are given just enough detail for just the next one step but not enough detail to calm our fear of the unknown or the uncertainties that change brings. Far too often, we don’t start because we can’t get our minds around the entire thing. We don’t take the first step because we can’t figure out the seventeenth step. But you don’t have to know the seventeenth step. You only have to know the first step. Because the first number is always 1. Start with 1.

Take a risk and take a chance,Carry on, Don’t be afraid to dream
While the world’s still turning, Every moment, make it happen

With two left feet, Keep on dancing

If you’re playing that drum but you got no rhythm
If you’re a little out of key but you’re always singing

Take a risk and take a chance,Carry on, Don’t be afraid to dream
While the world’s still turning, Every moment, make it happen

LONG LIVE THE SOUL SET FREE!!

 

Inspired by:

The Song –

“Long Live”  by For King and Country

The Book –

“How To Be Here” by Rob Bell.

 

 

Spilled Beans,Slings and Escalators

So then,

After you’ve spilled the beans and you realize that you got hurt so bad….

What follows?

How do you respond?

In case you wondering what beans am talking about read about it here….OMG! i spilled the beans…

The exercise of opening up your inside to let air in more often leads to many scenarios and re-living the hurtful moments has different effects on us and each responds differently. Some sweep it beneath the feet and refuse to deal with it, others set out on a mission to hurt others, others plot on how to hurt the person or the people that hurt them, while better still others seek for reconciliation with self and they make peace and move on to greater heights.

This blog is for those who decide to revenge, the ones who decide to get even and settle scores. Over time i have picked up a couple of thoughts on hurt and how to respond to hurtful situations from diverse people and felt it will be a good time to share them as a follow up to the article on disclosure and healing. Read about it here OMG i Spilled the beans…

People Hurt People

Firstly, institutions never hurt people, the church,school, company as an institution can never hurt you, an organisation that you worked for can never hurt you or a certain community, race or group of people. People hurt people. The hurt you probably feel were you to look deeper you’ll realize its a person within that organisation that hurt you. If you have any feelings of contempt or some form of hurt you feel towards an institution or organisation that you were part of, was caused by an individual in that organisation not the institution.How do you deal? First step is to start by searching yourself keenly and honestly then get to name that hurt for what it is, place it correctly and then proceed to deal with it. Naming the source of the hurt and Placing it is where it all begins.

Hurt,

Name It, Place It, Deal With It.

Once you’ve named it and placed it, the big task is what follows…See most times the human way to respond to hurt is usually to sling whatever mud that was thrown at you back to the person so that they can feel it the same that they made you feel. But wait…we all know and probably have quoted or posted on our Facebook and Instagram pages as captions on the “Serious Looking Pictures” this common but true tagline ” Hurt people hurt other people ” 

The truth is our human deceptive feelings tell us to swing back and hurt those people a good one, well hurting them wont do any good as they are already so hurt you will have ideally wasted your strength and emotional energy. People who hurt people are already hurting and your retaliation hurt wont cause significant hurt to them anyway. Ever tried wounding a wound? See..Not much damage happens there.

Revenge Always Escalates.

When you sling back the mud thrown at you what happens is you keep the mud and pain flowing. Let me explain: when someone hurts you and you decide to revenge what happens usually is you try to cause the pain four times as bad as they did and then the other person does the same and this time does it eight times more and the cycle continues. Revenge never reduces, it keeps going up up like an escalator and unless you decide to cut the flow it keeps adding more hurt, and like a snowball it keeps rolling and becoming bigger and bigger until someone does something to stop the flow…

Goodnews: You can cut that flow

Can this cycle be cut? Yes. You see it only takes one person to absorb that hurt and pain to cut the flow. When you choose to take in the pain it means you have to create some room in you to absorb it and my friends that is really hard, Our selfish self is not wired to do that. But their a turn to this, See when you choose to absorb the pain and cut the flow and make space in your heart for that pain and hurt, your heart expands – Grow a Big Heart kinda thing. Ever been in a fight or an argument and heard of the statement ” BE THE BIGGER PERSON ” what it actually means (My version) is that you create space for the pain and hurt and it ends with you, You take it all in and literally become the bigger person and cut this constant flow of pain and hurt.

Be the Bigger Person

Celeb, What about the people who keep hurting you over and over again, what do i do with such people?

There is a sermon i heard on Proverbs 26:11

Like a dog that returns to its vomit
            Is a fool who repeats his folly.

This is that type of person, the ones who keep hurting you over and over, People who have been in a toxic relationship or an abusive relationship kinda know what am talking about. I have learnt over time that its good to love people with God’s Love but others you are safer if you do so from a distance. Repeated offenders are described clearly in ( Prov 26:11 Like a dog that returns to its vomit , Is a fool who repeats his folly. ) but you know what they say don’t argue with a fool people might not notice the difference.

Love them as that is the best way to deal with them but from OVER THERE. Don’t harbor any contempt whatsoever in doing so and work towards being at peace with everyone. This means keeping clear by avoiding the hurtful situations from being repeated and setting up healthy boundaries to safeguard your heart as from it comes the issues of life.

To know it all is to forgive it all

Most people who hurt others are sometimes so broken and hurt to a point they don’t know of any other way than to trample on other people. Ever had a situation with a colleague at work who keeps hurting others only for you to one day learn he/she has lived in a house where one parent has been abusive all his/her life and that pain is what is being transferred to you without them noticing?  Ever been hurt by your friend only to learn later he/she has been in an abusive relationship all this time that made them be so bitter with members of the opposite sex? and what you experiencing is a manifestation of that hurt? What happened to your feelings towards them?

I can bet your feelings suddenly changed from contempt to compassion. Friends, there is something that happens when you learn abit of background of the person who hurt you. Sometimes what you are seeing and experiencing is an outburst of so much hurt that has been buried inside and it probably has nothing to do with you. Sometimes one way of dealing with hurt is finding out some background of the person who hurt you, because all you could be dealing with is a person who has known hurt all his/her life and in their battle with hurt they end up hurting others as a way of trying to correct their hurtful episodes.

Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender well.

Lastly, How about you get to pray for that person who has hurt you, not those long detailed prayers. Start by one sentence prayer, rather mention them to Jesus. Its hard to seek revenge for someone that you just prayed for. Go ahead and try this out on the person who came to mind while reading this article.

May God’s Love flow in your life and may you find it in you to forgive and pray for those that do you wrong.

Matthew 5:44

 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

Grace and Peace

Xelebrity 🙂

OMG i Spilled the beans…

Howdy,

Life has been happening…some days faster other days slower and in between my writing has somehow been overtaken by the motions of life up until the other day at a discussion about millennials and media uptake that a friend highlighted the shift in media uptake.  Millennials want info in 140 characters or 10 secs snaps, long paragraphs and videos are a thing of the past….check around there are options everywhere and information overload is real…so before i undo what am trying to explain let me get right with it and work on shortening my stories and blog posts.

My upbringing was rather interesting especially how i was punished for mischief, My cousin who took this sole responsibility of instilling morals and values had a thing where he made sure we talked openly about my sins before punishment was administered thoroughly and precisely.

The process of going through the details of what i had done and just the anticipation was more severe than the actual corporal punishment that followed after. The 30 minutes of discussion before is what i remember till date and interestingly that sort of worked magic in making sure i didn’t repeat the mistakes i was punished for. Where my cousin learnt this skill i have no idea though he was a Sunday school teacher at some point in his life but somehow that practice inspired my way of dealing with most difficult life issues till date.

I often look for people to talk about the most difficult issues that i need to figure out and i can openly tell you something good happens every-time i open up, sometimes i start talking and things seem to get into perspective or make sense and all the heaviness gets lifted.

Am almost hitting the 3rd millennia in my short stunt at life and i have discovered one route to psychological and emotional freedom is the consistent act of disclosure. Man! the moments i have spent opening up the issues inside to a friend, mentor, stranger or my pastor have been my most freeing of times. There is something profound about opening up the inside to let some air in, Quite often it’s not opening up to sort the matter out or figure out a solution sometimes its just pouring out what you feel inside to another living soul that does the wonders.

Life keeps happening and unfolding and people will hurt you or maybe they have already hurt you as you read this ( well, don’t we all have a story of how we’ve been hurt before) but the first step towards  freedom from this kind of hurt that will keep happening as long as we doing life is letting some light into the deepest and darkest spaces in our hearts and this light can only shine in there if you open up.

How about you try this exercise of disclosure this week? Get a confidant, a friend, mentor or better still a stranger, it can be a professional counselor or a random guy you seat next to on the bus or train on your way to work. You don’t have to give all your personal details but rather start by telling the details of the incidences that led to the hurt exactly as they happened and see what happens to your inside, it might happen then or later either way that spillage will go a long way in offloading that heaviness that’s piling on the inside...C’mon on get on and spill those issues….

DISCLOSURE = HEALING = FREEDOM

Disclosure leads to Healing which leads to True Freedom.

Grace and Peace,

Xelebrity 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

SINGLE AND DESPERATE

I got this piece in the mail from one of my friends and this being the season of love and relationships i thought its a different approach to the ever hot topic of single hood especially from a lady point of view and decided to share it with my faithful blog family 😊😊😊😊 after she gave me the go ahead.

Probably you’ve come across loads of articles on the same topic…but this one has some great lessons that jumped out for me and I hope you get to learn a thing or two 🙂 

Here goes the timely piece from Big Sister…..

I am still holding on to my early thirties’ and as a result describe myself as 33 and fourteen months of age. There is something about hitting 35 and still being single that makes me feel like a leaper. Interestingly I find that I know very many women in their 30s and some knocking on 40 and still single and waiting. I think I would describe my late 20s into 30 as desperately single. I say that because I remember convincing myself to date a guy I did not like, in fact his personality annoyed me. I had known this guy for years and I remember he had been so infatuated with me but I did not like him. Anyway he moved on met someone else got engaged and then broke the engagement. Years had gone by this time and I also found myself single again after making some bad relationship choices of my own. I had a dream about him, then inquired and found out about his broken engagement and I was sure this was a sign” (I went through the looking for signs phase for all my situationships), must be the Lord speaking (right). When I was in my early 20s I decided to jokingly set a fleece for this guy in my circle, there was a party and I knew he was out of town so I said, ‘God if you want me to marry this man he will show up at the party’, guess who showed up. The stress I went through for the next few weeks was ridiculous, eventually I found out he was dating someone and that was the last fleece I even cast. Back to this new sign..

I am not a very patient person and I figured after all the rejection I had given him he was not going to come to me so I sent him a long worded email on how the timing was perfect ( sometimes I look back on my actions and I am convinced I experience bouts of lunacy). So we had coffee, zero sparks on either side, it was obvious he was not feeling me any more than I was feeling him. The thing I did not like the most about him was how he would air his family drama on social media. See the way I was raised is that you cover your family, at least in public, you never air your dirty laundry where strangers can see. He also whined a lot (I thought he was such a whimp) and loved to criticize people. The only thing I liked about him was that he loved Jesus, true story. I say this not to bash him, because I am sure he is a nice guy, I just could not see it, but I was willing to marry this man if he asked, hence the single and desperate label.

So he rejected me, and did not even tell me, just stopped talking to me and then I found out from a third party. I have to admit my pride was so wounded, but after twitter stalking I admitted that he was better off with her, because she seemed to think he was ‘all that’ and then some. He deserved better than me and he got it, she really thought he hung the moon while I barely tolerated him.  I felt relief, which was a recurring feeling of all the relationships I had tried to get myself into but had not worked out, relief.

When I was younger and mentally stable (aka not searching for a partner) I prayed earnestly that God would keep me from the wrong man, even if I cried and pleaded in the name of being in love that he would not let me make a mistake of marrying someone he did not intend for me. God is faithful, he has honoured that prayer, and I can honestly say I am single because God is merciful, left to me I would be among the many married and miserable people.

I can now honestly say I understand why God in his wisdom choose for me to be single, and not because of some deep reason about some work I needed to do single, I was messed up and did not even know it. So my first tip to the single and desperate is seek God everyday with everything in you “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”. God is not intimidated by your desperation, he is not going to reward your desperation with a man. Sometimes we throw a tantrum to God like a little child and hope God will give us what we want to make us stop. Sometimes we just need to grow up, he is the parent, and he says no out of love and out of knowledge and unlike our natural parents he has the advantage of never being wrong. Your desperation will impact your faith because you might find yourself equating Gods love and approval to him getting you a partner. God loves you even if you never get a partner (I know I said never). We are not promised tomorrow, desperation for a different life tomorrow keeps you from enjoying today which sometimes is all you are getting. The bible says do not worry about tomorrow for today has enough worries of its own. When you spend your day asking God what he would want for you in that day you will find yourself drawing nearer to him and when you seek God believe me you will find him. The prayer I make every day is for the Lord to turn my heart to things that are his will, trust me, that prayer truly takes that desperation emotion away, miraculously. God’s will for his children is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, fight anything that takes that from you.

Second tip is be honest with God about your fears and your pain “my worshipers worship me in spirit and in truth”. God is not intimidated by our pain. Sometimes I think we internalise the art of speaking positively that we are not honest with ourselves or with God about how we feel. Job’s pain come to an end after he was honest with God about what he was feeling, he laid bare his emotions and God showed him where his thought process had been flawed, and then and only then did his healing begin. My desperation and healing did not end until I was honest with God about my emotions, the good, bad and ugly; my anger, my pain, the rejection I felt from him, how forgotten I felt. Not only did he make me see his love beyond my relationship status but he showed me how flawed my thinking had been all my life. He showed me wounds I did not know I had, wounds that were the driving force for all my decisions. I am the most self-aware person I know and I did not know how much fear I had, how much life had shaped my view of love and relationships and when he was done I thanked him for saving me from myself. Not to say that every single woman has a deeply rooted dysfunction, even though I believe every human being has some level of dysfunction (no one goes through the ugliness of this world and comes out unscathed); what I am saying is that if there is pain in your heart, you will never get it out until you acknowledge it to only he who can heal your heart.

Third trust in God, “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”. I am a control enthusiast (hehehehe). I panic when in situations that lack control, either in my hands on in the hands of someone I trust. Being older and single especially as a woman, and worse still when there is no one suitable for you requires a lot of faith that the God who gave up his only son for you would not keep anything good from you. I suggest telling yourself that whenever you get anxious about Gods timing. I work in an environment where many of the married men are having affairs, some of the married women too, I do not have to turn on the radio to find discouragement in marriage. Statistics on single women, on child bearing age not to mention medical reports are fear’s best friend. In this life you choose what you will feed, your faith or your fears, whichever one you decide to feed will direct your actions and your emotions. Sarah’s fear caused her to give her husband a mistress. In all fairness Sarah’s logic was sound, her fears were based on fact, statistically and scientifically she had reason to lose hope.  God is still in the business of delivering miracles, so put away the clock and trust him. Make a conscious decision to trust him in spite it all, even when it seems like you have been waiting for morning to reach for ten years. Jesus is the electricity that allows you to find light in the darkest of nights, but you have to turn on the light on through your faith.

I am still single, but thank God I am not desperate. I do not have a how to get a man tutorial, all I have is a the message that your right as a Christian is joy, and sometimes you have to fight for that joy, so fight for yours.

 

Keep Learning…Keep Moving…

     ~ You have way more power than you realize to shape your life ~  Rob Bell

Howdy,

Its been ages since i last wrote a blog, well lets just say i got a bit lazy and instead took to sharing small notes on Facebook  where i have come to realize that friends often interprete what you share as an indication of where you are at in your life journey,  unfortunately or maybe fortunately depending on how you look at it, we are living in the age where most people are known to take their life issues online including the private ones…so when you come across a great piece and pick out a paragraph that jumps out and speaks to you..woe unto you if you share it on Facebook especially the deep ones, you will get all manner of side chats and calls from different quarters finding out whether everything is OK and whether you need a shoulder to lean or ice cream dates…hehehe, have you found yourself in that spot lately…well there are many of us…so i am back to blogging where at least i have space and characters to explain where the inspiration is coming from…friends don’t get me wrong am not in any way suggesting that its improper to check out on a brother when you notice a trend of some deep, emotional quotes but sometimes re-read the posts again and figure out whether the situation is a matter of life and death or maybe they just having a reflective kinda day, you know those mornings you wake and want to quote your favorite preacher…Next time you see my deep post online it doesn’t necessarily mean am suffering or undergoing pain…sometimes its just lessons i’ve picked up or nice articles that i have come across and felt like writing on my page as a reminder just like the way we do on bathroom mirrors…ok…ok…for those who still do it 🙂

Onto the point of this blog post…My birthday was just the other day and one thing that was so clear in my short time on earth is life is always about forward motion…today you 25 sooner than later 30 will be knocking on your door and we don’t really get time to go back and kinda figure out most things in the past that somehow didn’t make sense or didn’t fit in our well crafted life puzzle. What happens mostly is while we are at the point of dealing with one puzzle a dozen other issues pop up and all of them require time and attention which somehow don’t seem to be ever enough…and somehow we end up getting stuck in in the past or in issues that we should have dealt with and moved forward with the years.

One big lesson for me in all the moments i found myself wondering what do to especially with the many issues that life throws at me >> GETTING STUCK IS REAL and many people are actually stuck in different spaces and situations ranging from unfulfilled careers…that job that is sucking the life out of you, dis-functional relationships that are not challenging you to grow and become a better selfless human being, stale business ventures that maybe have been passed with time or markets have changed and just need you to re-think and invest elsewhere, you see most people are simply walking about holding onto things, people, businesses, jobs and lingering around many unresolved issues. Some have been in those ruts for quite a long while now…there is actually an English word for it… its called being in a place of INDECISION. Indecision is defined as “ the inability to make a decision quickly”  but if you really look at it objectively its not the inability not to make decisions its actually DECIDING not to make a decision and choosing to linger around in that gray/unresolved space for long.

Truth is i have found myself in that situation many times and somehow that space of indecision kinda feels safe and secure compared to the brutal reality of doing something that involves change and might be abit uncomfortable to say the least…an interesting story which i learnt in Sunday school when i was 12 years old comes to mind, There were this 4 lepers in the bible ( 2 Kings 7:3) who in times of war were stuck in-between moving to the enemy camp where chances of being killed were very real or staying as they were, hungry, thirsty and beat down and the risk of death was also real for them in that space…this 4 lepers made a very critical evaluation which has been a big mantra for me over time…This 4 lepers i doubt they were scholars thought to themselves ” If we remain stuck here in the current situation we might as well die of hunger and thirst but again if we go to the enemy camp we will be killed either way, but hey, chances of survival on the other side of the enemy are higher than staying stuck in this famine stricken place they were hiding at and this guys woke up and left the familiar and God sort of made the enemies think a large army was coming and fled. The 4 lepers went in and found more than they needed and went back to tell the people in the city. The decision of moving to the unknown that this guys made saved an entire city from famine and death and got them a lot of fortune which couldn’t have been the case if they stayed behind.

The point is this…if you remain stuck in that situation that is not productive any longer or its time has long past wont do you any good, infact you will start to wither, where as moving forward to the unknown is scary and looks threatening… but has endless possibilities. Truth is you what you are fully aware of is your current situation and clearly its not working, what you don’t know for sure is what lies ahead and chances are it cant be worse than where you are currently… i mean how bad can it get compared to your current troubles?

If you stuck in a situation or place that not working i suggest you learn all lessons you need to from it as quickly as you can and then make strides and start working towards moving on to the amazing, thrilling, promising and somewhat scary UNKNOWN that awaits you in the future…for the same place can be a promised land for a season and that very same place can also be a prison if you still stick around longer after its time is over…When the time for a particular place or season comes to a close try and learn all you can from the season and situations so that the promised land doesn’t end being a prison…after all is said and done..KEEP LEARNING…KEEP MOVING…     #WALKOFFAITH

Let me leave you with an awakening quote from the book am currently reading:

So go marry someone, provided you’re equally yoked and you actually like being with each other. Go get a job, provided it’s not wicked. Go live somewhere in something with somebody or nobody. But put aside the passivity and the quest for complete fulfillment and the perfectionism and the preoccupation with the future, and for God’s sake start making some decisions in your life. Don’t wait for the liver-shiver. If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you will be in God’s will, so just go out and do something:

Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will

Johni Celeb.

 

 

You are not alone…

Life in all its twists and turns never ceases to amaze me. Blessings come in plenty at times and other times hard times come in surplus and all this issues are what make what we all call life. Life is rather packaged in time zones…a time to plant and a time to reap, a time to celebrate and a time to mourn, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to search and a time to give up.
This is the life we have come to know.
The good times when all is well are cherished and celebrated at times with friends and at other times just on our own, but the times of hardship, pain, loss….those times are the ones we dread. The times when things seem to turn around on us.
Have u ever been in what many call ” between a rock and a hard place” or have u had this situation that u thought u were the only one going through it.
Maybe it’s a financial crisis. Rent is not forthcoming, you got sacked recently and unpaid bills are waiting for you at home, You just got a call from the hospital and a loved one has been admitted and needs to undergo a life threatening surgery or treatment, maybe you recently got the “we need a break in this relationship” type of text or phone call.

All of us go through such times in one time or the other and at times this seasons of life beat us so hard we barely have the strength to get up on our feet. Such times leave us feeling like there is nothing more to this life or maybe God has just decided to punish us or maybe there is sin in our lives that God wants to punish us for. Do u identify with this situations? I have had one two many of such moments and mixed emotions fill my heart Dan at times they are troublesome.
But hold up!…in my situations i have come across a very interesting pattern…whenever am going through this hard times there is something miraculous that happens when I share the issues I am going through with my boys or the community of close friends around me. When i start sharing one person after the other starts jumping up and down almost taking over my conversation with similar stories and experiences and somehow this big weight starts to lift off my shoulders…have u ever had such experiences? You start sharing how broke you are and someone in the group shares his or her story of financial hardships and u feel yours is a small issue compared to what other people in the group are going through and somehow what seemed like a mountain feels like a small hill compared to what some people in the group are sharing.
There is a certain weight that gets lifted when we share our hardships and come to the realization that we are not alone and other people in our close groups are either going through similar situations or even harder ones.
There is a form of healing and hope that we receive when we learn that we are not alone in seasons of pain and suffering, at times people might not sort us out in any form but just the fact that we know we not alone and the situation is not just unique to us inspires hope and we get renewed strength to face the hardest of all hardships.
Are you going through a tough season in your life why don’t you go and seek your close friends and close community around you and try talk about this big mountains that you are going through and you will be surprised when u learn that you are not alone in this journey, either someone has gone through the same and has some lessons and wisdom for you or maybe some are even in worse circumstances am you will get relief to know that others are still holding on yet the situations they are in are far much worse than your current one.

God in His word encourages us in Hebrews 10:25 not to give up meeting together but to continually encourage each other.
He also reminds us in one of my most comforting verses of His being there for us at all times. In Hebrews 13:5 He says “Never will I leave you;
Never will I forsake you”
It’s my prayer that your hope and your strength will be renewed in the knowledge that YOU ARE NEVER ALONE in life and that our loving Father is just a prayer away actually why don’t you go ahead and talk to him about your current situation right now in prayer and thanksgiving.
Grace and peace to you all.

To the next to me place…

Lately i have been hanging out with two cool high energy boys (Bulamu and Seo) who have helped refresh all my childhood memories…from riding bikes…playing with toys…it has been one road through memory lane. one particular trick or game which i have been really enjoying is playing football with them and as usual they are doing it like we used to back in my days…if u couldn’t kick the ball or sensed the opponent was too close for you to get a clear shot…u would pick it by the hands and run away and the chase would ensue for some minutes before the game continued…the highlight of the day during my time was when i would go back home and before i got into the house i used to have this spot in our compound i loved sitting and examining my wounds from the match and apparently my dad would at times come by and sit next to me and help clean my wounds and apply antiseptic, elastoplast among other things. This few minutes of him attending to my football inflicted wounds were some of the best times i have had with my dad and there was this extra ordinary feeling of safety and wellbeing that i used to feel by just having my all knowing dad sit to the next to me place and attend to my wounds. At times i would run away because of the pain i imagined i would feel but he would chase me around the compound and sit me down and attend to my wounds and fix them…

this memory of my dad sitting next to me and sorting out my wounds has reminded me of how our Heavenly Father actually loves on us all the time including the times we feel frustrated, in pain, disappointed, including the many times we run away from him, He seems to never gives up on us, His Love chases us wherever we go until He finds us and sorts out our mess. This reflections have made my prayer different. i have more than once found myself inviting God to come and sit “To the next to me place” and just be with me through all situations…when am low, discouraged, frustrated, sad am finding comfort in asking Jesus to just come and hang out with me and sit to the next to me place because just like my dad i know he will sort my wounds and at other times he am finding Him doing more than my dad did. He has become a best friend, one who i can tell all my pain, frustrations, disappointments, fears, complains and at times my doubts. I have been having a refreshing time just conversing with God on the real as a best friend who most of the time i visualize as sitted to “the next to me place”.
May this be your desire to have Jesus sit “TO THE NEXT TO ME PLACE” and just hang out with Him and share all that’s in your heart with openness of heart as David did in Psalms 31

Dreams, Pages and Leadership.

A new blank book has been handed to each and everyone of us. (Yes 7Billion) humans on planet earth With 365 blank pages…well by the time I post this we will have used up a few of those pages but either way we still have 300 and something or thereabout of unwritten and unused pages of life.
Every new year we open up new chapters and create agendas, resolutions and set goals some easy to achieve others well let’s say are acts of faith but ideas and desires pop or rather are polished during the last few days of the year or the first few days of January.

It’s no different for me either, this year I have many ideas I have listed down that I want to work on and concepts that I have drafted down that maybe they will come to pass or they will like some in my past year be wishes and fantasies.
This past month (December 2012) as I was reflecting on the past year and working on ideas for the coming new year. I came across an article on times magazine about “Time Person of the year” and in particular was reading the story of the runner ups with the main Award being awarded to President Obama. (Congratulations are in order)
It was about Tim cook the successor of Steve jobs at Apple company who was the runner up to the top prize. A statement on the adjacent page jumped out and caught my attention I don’t remember what that other article was all about but I remember this statement.

Ideas, projects, goals, companies, products, countries don’t fail….it’s the leadership that does.

Wow…I re-read this statement I think more than 5x and there lay a revelation of a lifetime.
I started adding to the list…resolutions don’t fail, families don’t fail, churches, societies and this continued for a couple of days.
After a thinking and juggling with this phrase for a week the truth hit home,
all the main things i know are all tied someway to the leadership they get. My career will fail if I don’t steer it in the right way.
My resolutions will fail or this big idea I have will fail if don’t direct and lead it well.
Relationships, marriages, homes hit rock bottom if there is no leadership.
Crime rate grows if the young men lack leadership especially if they had no father figures in their life to teach them how to take responsibility.
All in all the challenge that’s ahead of me and u if u identify with this truth is to develop our leadership skills and more so if you have anyone looking up to you or following after you, encourage them to take responsibility and develop their leadership traits.
At an individual level take up leadership development classes this year and hang out with leaders around you and learn a thing or two on leadership and steer your projects, resolutions and ideas into success.

May you fill up the pages of your life with achieved dreams and ideas that fruit and make the world a better place all year long.

Happy Leading 🙂

The Lounge : End Of Year Party

The end of year party is happening Friday 21st December 2012 at Petma Restaurant on Kimathi Street Opp KFC from 8pm till late. Entry 200Kshs only. Good Music. Good people.
DJS on Rotation: DJ Celeb, DJ Soxxy, DJ Sanch and DJ Gach.

I did it!…..Then?

Hey fam it’s been a while since I have done a blog. A lot has happened while I was away and am really looking forward to share some of my experiences with you 🙂
This is is one of those blogs where I feel if i don’t stick to the title I can go on and on and just share what is in my heart and head…and this is when I get to tap myself in the head and shout softly Focus…Focus!

I don’t know how many of you have been in this situation before. Immediately you finish one season or phase of life…questions start popping…what is your next move, path, decision. It’s either after high school, college, university, an achievement or a job well done, after getting married or after getting a good job you’ve settled and the questions start popping.

This year has seen me finish my engineering degree and with finishing a lot of questions both from within my heart and from people around me have been coming my way, the common one being….What’s next? What are you planning to do?
This has got me thinking a lot and doing lots of evaluation of the previous season I was in and what lies ahead and one thing that is getting clearer by the day is what lies ahead needs a change in how I schedule my time, what I schedule it for and most importantly my life skills for this next phase need to be sharpened or adjusted or its a higher level.I can’t continue handling my time and resources the same way. The ball game has changed in this new season am getting into and i have to do something about it.

In my evaluations i came across something Pastor Albo of Nairobi Chapel Rongai has been studying about success and he asked this very important question

What are the Skills, experiences that have been a significant source of your success in your previous season and which ones do you need to let go of so that you are successful in your next season?

This applies to what we spend our time on.
It applies to who we spend our time with.
It applies to the kinds of books we read.
It applies to what you show interest in and even applies to
How we spend our leisure time doing

This and many other questions and have been helping me identify what I need to start doing and what to stop in order to excel and be successful in my next season of life…I must state here that am still in the path of trying to fully understand and know what I need to start doing in order to be successful in the next phase am getting into.

One character that am learning from in the bible is Moses. I mean this guy went through different seasons and each time he had to learn a whole new set of skill and experiences in order to succeed in the next season he got into. Exodus 2:11-14 this guy after growing up in a palace had to leave all the good life and spend 40years in the wilderness with sheep and farm animals to learn how to shepherd in preparation for leading the israelites fron Egypt. I mean he had to change the friends he used to hang out with (Nobles to Farm animals) to spending time looking after livestock so that he can be ready for to lead the israelites to their promised land. Talk of a radical turnaround!

I am learning a lot from Moses in terms of preparing and being very intentional in making sure i learn the new skills, pick up new habits while dropping some, and make all adjustments i need to inorder to excel and be the best i can in the season that am getting into this coming year.
I hope you can draw lessons from Moses and make the necessary adjustments you need to so that the next season of your life can be as successful as the one you just completed.

Let it be written, said of you and i….

He/She Did it….then Did it again and again.

Peace.
DJ Johni Celeb.