Identity.
Who are you?
Why are you here?
I have found that one’s identity and one’s purpose are closely intertwined.
Since writing my first book, I have had the privilege of being interviewed severally. The question, ‘Who is Joyce Mwangi?’ is always the first question on set. I have previously fumbled over this question despite knowing very well it will be asked, for some reason it always gets me off guard.
To the best of my memory the very first time I was ever asked to speak without notes on a subject was in high school during the inter-house music and drama festival. The scheduled speaker grew cold feet and I was asked to speak, I forget the subject but am pretty sure I still have the certificate because guess what, I won in that category.
As life has progressed I have had numerous opportunities to speak in public. And sadly along the way I lost the art of speaking impromptu on any subject. I now prefer to research, to study, to write down my speaking notes and follow them through on d-day. That has become my comfort zone, the place I have been flourishing in for most of my adult life.
34 years ago today, I was born!
A year ago on a day like this, I was not as excited as I am today. I was feeling lost, feeling like I was just existing and flowing through life without any impact. Well, what do you know God my Father my friend came in and gave me reassurance that slowly wiped any doubt I had about my existence and purpose: Isn’t He kind? He spoke to me very clearly and let me know that He was doing something new in my life; I have a testimony that He has done and continues to do exactly that.
Today, I am excited! I am happy to be alive. I am content with what I am and where I am at: Contentment
16 Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings out chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18 Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
19 I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:16-19)
2017 didn’t begin so bright for me but it did get brighter and brighter as the year progressed. And the promise of God doing a new thing was one that I saw fulfilled over and over throughout the year.
I started blogging. Wrote my first series on the blog. The series turned into a book. First launched on Amazon Kindle then as a hardcopy. Met some wonderful people in the process of my writing and publishing. Did a couple of TV and Radio Interviews, got my story published in a newspaper and a leading magazine. A year of very many, many firsts for me – “I am doing a new thing . . .”
During the year 2017, I also learnt alot. Learnt on the job quite literally and made my share of mistakes as well. One of the mistakes I made is aptly summarized by the image below:
GoogleI spent a lot of time running around like a headless chicken, trying to take all the new things in. Trying to fit in and follow what everyone who I though was successful in blogging and publishing was doing. Lot of time and energy was wasted. Lots of lessons as well learned along the way. All leading back to the path the Lord would desire that I walk in.
So at the end of the year, I took stock and prayerfully made a few decisions that I am excited about for the new year 2018.
Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2)
Also Read: Luke 12:41-48; Galatian 5:22-23
In June this year (2017) I had the privilege to meet Uncle Moody Awori the 9th Vice President of the Republic of Kenya. I was so excited for the meeting, I was literally falling all over myself.
I had written my first book (Kenya National Anthem Devotional) and was now in the stage of seeking endorsement from various persons. So, this one day I am in an office just outside town; I had gone to meet a certain person to seek their endorsement for my book. It was not to be, they politely declined. While there, my friend Stanley, I have known him for 20 years and counting, called me. It was a bit strange because we don’t talk on phone as often; but it was all providence. I asked to call him later because I was in a meeting. After the meeting I called him back and said I would pass by his office in town. When we met, I told him what I was upto and why I was in that office earlier. He looked through the Kenya National Anthem series on my blog and immediately said, I know the man to endorse you: Uncle Moody Awori.
What does it mean to guard/keep your heart?
Does it mean an external or internal exercise or is a combination of both?
Are we to build a physical or virtual fence around our hearts or are we to inject vaccines into our hearts to build internal immunity or do we build fences and ensure we are up to date on ‘heart’ vaccines as well?
And what exactly are we guarding/keep our hearts against/from?
Last week my younger sister and I were walking in town heading to a bus stop. the streets were bustling with life, lots of people walking around and in some tight spaces people pushing to get way. I was walking slightly ahead of her in file as ‘Matatus’ (public transport mini vans) were parked on our right and others were moving on our left. there were other people walking, Matatu touts and drivers jostling for parking space and calling out for passengers.
Suddenly a street boy stood right in front of me and demanded for money. He also aptly informed me that he had a bag of feaces which he would generously smear on my person if I did not comply with his demands. I froze, then I started shaking. I then opened my wallet to look for money. All this time the street boy was unrelenting in his demands and threats; he never stopped talking even for a moment. He also made it very clear that he did not want coins, I must give him notes. I only had a fifty shillings note in my wallet, which I handed over to him. He demanded for more and threatened me the more. I gave him a twenty shillings coin, he pushed back the fifty shillings note and the twenty shillings coin to my hands and demanded for a hundred shillings note. I was now in begging mode. I opened my wallet for him to see, I did not have any other money (Thank God!). I begged him to take the seventy shillings and allow me to go. Finally he let me pass.
Likewise, tell the older women to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind, being submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited. ( Titus 2:3-5)
A couple of weeks ago my husband and I had an animated discussion concerning the various ‘issues’ that face our marriage and many marriages today. Then he quoted my Bible Teacher the one and only Pastor Jon Courson who said: and i parapharse “If older women would teach and walk with younger women as commanded in God’s Word they would drastically reduce the time pastors dedicate to counselling and in turn that time would be redirected to the teaching of God’s Word”
That conversation and statement took me to Titus 2:3-5 and I have been musing over those Words for some time now. Wondering out to myself the impact among those who call themselves Christians if we wholly fully obeyed God’s Word: and for this specific discourse, if older women obeyed God’s command to carry themselves in a respectable manner and then to teach what is good and to encourage the young women.
What impact would such obedience have on the Christian family unit?
What impact would such obedience have on the Pastorate?
What impact would such obedience have in the Body of Christ?
What impact would such obedience have in the society it occurs?
A few months ago we lost an angel in our ‘family’. I say family in quotes because this family is one though we are not related by blood has become more than blood family to me, to us. You know those people you meet and something happens, a connection that you cannot explain that binds you for life – yes – that is my ‘family’. There was a meme doing rounds a few moons back that said if you have been my friend for more than five years, you’re my cousin – you are officially my family. During the mourning period lots of words meant to comfort I presume were being said left right and center. But I felt most of these were not helpful at all, took me back to my loss of children and it would seem some of these phrases are standard – sadly so ???
As happens when a loved one, a friend, a colleague, a parishioner or a neighbor has lost life appropriate words are not easy to come by. Many people feel the urge to break the silence and in so doing end up saying such injurious things to the bereaved that it would have been better if they kept quiet. There is something in us humans that deceives us that we are only consoling the bereaved when we are talking: that was me until I was on the receiving end of such talk. I learnt the hard way, silence is golden!
Here are the 7 things to never tell a grieving parent.