None of us is self-made

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How did you break into your career or first job? Did a lecturer help you get an internship? Did a security guard slip your CV into the building? Did an uncle (for real) call up their friend who knows someone at company Z and get you to meet the boss?

Once you were in the job, did some hold your hand, show you the ropes, tug you to lunch, introduce you to your first clients?

Truth be told, few, if any of us, are self made. I got my first job because my father knew someone who needed an office/editorial assistant and he pushed my name. I got an internship in an organisation where I knew no one because a lecturer seconded me. On my first day on the job, one person took me along on an assignment and shared the credit with me. I got my first byline in a national newspaper. It was day one and I was shining because someone gave me a break. I got several other jobs because someone mentioned my name in a room I wasn’t in. Are those the ones called destiny helpers? Thank you my destiny helpers.

However, some people have it harder. They finish school and there’s no one to forward them job opportunities, distribute their CV or mention them to a recruiter or write their recommendation letters. They join an organisation and there is no one to hold their hand, show them the ropes or even take them to lunch to show them the best kibandaski.

There was that story in Kenyan media a few years ago about a girl who got an A- in KCSE 15 years ago but did not get her placement letter to the university. Consequently she was hustling at home, fighting poverty to raise her kids and her siblings. I was mad at her, at her entire village, location and county. Surely there was no one with the ability to open doors for this promising young girl? No one knew her? No one could push her cause? Not even an old school teacher or distant relative?

Later Kenyan hotelier Mohamed Mersi posted a biting critique on how Kenyan professionals are not offering internship opportunities to students who desperately need these to graduate.

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered, Proverbs 11:25 says.
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. (Proverbs 3:27).

Are you holding the door open for someone who also needs to be in the room? Are you pulling someone on your way up? Are you seeing someone’s potential and mentioning their name in rooms they are not in?
Are you the friend who bursts open a roof to get their paralysed friend to Jesus?
Are you creating opportunities for others or you are like the Pharisee who do not get in and won’t let others also go in?

How are you spreading kindness?
How can you be an answer to someone’s prayer? Are you able to give someone a chance to learn or allow them start from scratch or try out something new? Are you able to extend grace to people starting out or who want to start afresh? Are you able to teach them a few tricks of the trade or just be patient with them as they navigate new spaces?

We lose nothing by pulling up another. And by helping others get to the mountain top, we too get there. Scripture has many exhortations on doing the good we are able to do.
“Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you,” Jesus said.
“Do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Hebrews 13:16

“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”
Isaiah 1:17

Ask and it will be given

I realise that sometimes people are blind to needs because those in need are not speaking up about their cause. No one knows you are looking for an internship, or a new job, promotion, career break, or college money.

Sadly people are just too busy to care about other people’s personal problems unless the owners of the problems vocalise their need. Even Jesus asked several people in the New Testament, “What do you want me to do for you?”

So if you are in this category, speak up to those who can hold the door open for you.
And if you are in a position to pull up a seat for someone at your table, do so.
God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.

Faith like a child

Last year I read my share of theological books. I learned a lot. But at the end of the year, I realised how so much I do not know; knowing God and his will and work felt increasingly complex.

There was stuff that was previously non-issue to me that I suddenly found theologians wrestling over. Then there were things I knew that I discovered I don’t.

But oh so many schools of thoughts over so many issues. Was I a reformist? Calvinist? Pentecostal? Ecumenical? Did I believe women should be ordained? Was the rapture literal? Is heaven a place? Are some destined to never believe? Once saved always saved? Are there aliens? Could a good God send people to a physical hell where there is actual burning forever? Are we already in the tribulation? What of the resurrection of the saints? Are we being saved or already saved? Are we sons or will be be adopted as sons?

My brain was spinning on so many possible interpretations of stuff I normally didn’t tire my pretty brain on. If these theologians with their years of study of original Bible languages and Jewish history and customs and archeology what-nots could not always agree on what God is saying, what hope was there for me with my English-as-a-second language grasp, who has to rely on Bible texts translated by others with their I-dont-know motives?
What hope was their for the unschooled man in a far-flung village with no internet who has to have another read scripture for them? What hope was there for the person with access to only one Bible translation in their local or neighbouring language?

Could we ever understand and know God’s word and consequently his will without hermeneutics and systemic and biblical theology training? Would we ever get it? Are the treasures of God’s kingdom so hidden?
Knowing God and his word felt so complex and out there that instead of getting closer, I felt separated from Him. I was becoming a functional deist, studying God, trying to understand God, but losing the presentness and the realness.
Those Bible scholars were preaching a great gospel but I felt imperfect for it and so far from understanding God’s truths.

I ended the year feeling a tad  disillusioned.
This year I am reminded of Jesus words about faith and faith like a child. Jesus asked us to accept the kingdom like little children. Little children do not complicate issues. They have not learnt the cynicism of broken promises, that people lie, that resources are limited. They live in a world of infinite possibilities. They think mom or dad are gods who can move the world.

That’s how I want to come to God this year- like a little child. Accepting his word at his word and not overthinking it. Moving at the impulse of his spirit and not over analysing things. Praying for what’s in my heart instead of trying to out explain why God can’t answer that prayer because he is busy saving Syrian refugees.

Part of being childlike is understanding the heart of the Father. God is many things, but Jesus wanted that we may know God as our Father in heaven. He taught us to pray to a father. And the father’s heart is good and loving and always out to embrace us. He’s the kind of father who’s numbered every hair, who sees each sparrow as it falls, he’s the father of the prodigal, waiting watching for his return.

The Father’s heart is not about protocol but love, mercy and grace. It’s about relationship. Personal unrehearsed come-as-you-are this-is-your-home relationship.
I was already accepted, adopted, approved, perfected, an insider. It was the father’s will to give me the kingdom. 

I pray that I will be able to let go of the cynicism of this age and catch the heart of the Father for me.

God give me childlike faith.