The Genesis of our Corruption

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. (Luke 12:15)

There has been so much talk about corruption that it seems as the only topic everyone is thinking about. And of course the amounts being peddled around are almost beyond simple minds.

But I beg to shift the narrative.

I want us to look at the cause of this corruption. And we will have to go to a source before Kenya became a nation/ state.

The colonialist came and saw this land and craved it. That greed caused him to colonize it, taking the best lands for his subjects and dishing the rest to the sell outs, people who for a pittance could sell their mother. And they did it. Some sold off their whole families to remain in the favor of the oppressor.

The only superiority they possessed to colonize was guns and subtlety; and of course they could buy loyalty for trinkets. And of course the narrative that they were superior beings than the African was a very useful tool.

The missionary was the peddler of that narrative, whether wittingly or otherwise. What with their painting everything African as retrogressive, demonic and evil and everything Mzungu did as progressive, Christian and godly?

We of course had the grossly exaggerated lie that continues to date about Africa being cursed because Ham was cursed. And I will try to open our eyes to it a little now by asking us to read the Bible instead of asking others to read it for you.

The first truth is that Ham was not cursed. Just read your Bible.

The second is, even assuming Ham was cursed, which of course is not true according to the Bible, do you realize that more people are cursed than Africans? Ham spread across most of Asia according to the Biblical record.

You will see Babel, the place where they sought to build the first mega city being in Ham’s domain. Nineveh was also Ham’s city. The Assyrians were Ham’s descendants, among many other peoples and places you will see when you decide to read the Bible for yourself.

We were therefore led to believe that God was against us because we were cursed long ago. We therefore deserved nothing but plunder and occupation.

The Second World War exposed the colonialist as just another human being, subject to pain and hurts. They were not in any way superior to any other race on the battlefield.

That is how the Mau Mau was formed to fight for the lands that were ‘legally’ stolen from them.

When the colonialist discovered that even with their superior weaponry they were unable to vanquish people in their land, and that the intellectual and moral political tide was turning against them even in their own land, they decided to infiltrate the enemy so that they could change the narrative. Then they could win the war even in losing.

They created new heroes, heroes who really were answerable to them so that when they ‘surrendered’, they were in effect handing over power to themselves through their people. At the same time, their enemy was convinced that they had won and recognized these prepackaged heroes.

What makes this plausible?

Do you realize that none of the colonialists gave up their lands? Even the ones who decided to go back home were compensated and their lands taken over by the new rulers.

Like I have said elsewhere, it was the Mau Mau who lost their lands. It is therefore not surprising that many refused to come out of the forest because they were not convinced the war was over. Some are still in the forest today.

That changed narrative is one cause of the corruption we are talking about today. People in the wrong were rewarded handsomely while the fighters for their lands were vanquished. In short, the ones who took advantage of their positions to benefit became the winners from all directions. Their children were able to access the best education and so got the best government positions all the while the ones who gave up their education and families to fight for the land that was taken lost even the little land they had owned before putting their people first, meaning that they were impoverished when the ‘independence’ they were presumably fighting for was gotten.

The message was released that a position is worth whatever advantage it opens instead of the remuneration or opportunity to serve it offers.

People do not campaign for positions to serve (though that is what they say), but to look for gaps to loot. People do not look for employment in government because they are patriotic but because the government has a bottomless pit of loot. That is why you will see a messenger in procurement driving a car his monthly salary cannot fuel for a week and live in a house that even if he had been given advance salary for 500 years he could not afford to buy. Sadly, he is used as the model of effort, the ideal rags to riches story. And we know that the kind of work he does will not allow him time to venture in business.

The most qualified teachers flock to public schools, not to teach but have all the free time to do other things as they rely on the government salary for security. What is wrong with earning without working? That is the question many government workers ask. They are more zealous for the extra tuition than the hours they are paid for because the parents will give them a tax exempt payment.

Like with all of human endeavors, there will always be a remnant. There are diligent workers in government. There are incorruptible people in some of those corruption addictive offices, some who are either killed or moved elsewhere for their stand so that others can eat.

That narrative killed our work ethic. We devalued effort and elevated advantage. We despised hard work and valued a relative in the right office.

That is the reason we have cheating in exams. A parent has no qualms paying for his child to get an A so that he can go to a course that can place him in an eating position. A student does not feel the slightest guilt sleeping with the lecturer to get a good grade because they have not done any studying.

Very few people have a problem with their sister being the third wife if the husband is a man of means. Many parents do not have a problem with their daughter or son having a much older sugar parent (called sponsor) if the same is loaded. Very few people will question a secretary sleeping with her boss if the boss compensates her adequately enough to overflow to them. Morals come when the hand is not sticky enough to lick.

We have the problem of sin. It is only that we have institutionalized it in our psyche that we are unable to see it eating away at our souls.

We will therefore make noise when someone is caught in a scandal yet have no problem voting for them when they pour some of that loot on us. We will make so much noise when someone is mentioned yet are unable to resist when he puts that envelope in our offering basket or brings it to our fundraiser.

We are greedy for gain to the point that we disdain hard or honest work.

Take this recent case. A person was injured in an accident and injured two places, one easy to treat and the other difficult. They went to a number of hospitals looking for treatment for the hard part until they were referred to this famous private hospital. Sadly, the same hospital continued to treat the easy part and neglected the reason for the referral.

When the family realized that they were not doing anything, they asked to take him to another hospital. But the hospital brought too many bottlenecks to make sure they did not release him.

Until he died without anyone dealing with the operation he was brought for.

The infuriating fact in the story, however, is the billing. According to the family, the hospital continued ‘treating’ him long after he died. Now they cannot release the body because the bill must be cleared in full yet the hospital really did nothing the patient was brought for. And we are not dealing with a backstreet pretense of a hospital but one with referral facilities.

Now the family is stuck because they can’t bury their loved one because of that astronomical bill.

There is this other one where another major hospital was at pains trying to explain their million shilling bill. A dying person was brought to the facility and in the short time between admission and death the bill had shot to a million.

A terminal case is taken to a hospital. Instead of the hospital telling it like it is, they put the person in their equipment until the inevitable happens and the patient dies. But the bill is now in the millions. Why could they not have told the family that they were paying all those millions to lengthen the vegetative state?

But we have a rotten work ethic that rewards short cuts and celebrates advantage, however unjustified or cruel it may be.

How many contracts are cancelled because the final signatory was not given reason enough to smile before signing?

It is interesting that even the church must use greed to call for giving. Imagine that there must be gambling (a raffle) so that people are aiming at the car they will win when they give! I am not even talking about the ‘seed’ doctrine and paying to be prayed for or prophesied to. And raffles are not a recent development. I remember them even as a child. Like I have said, the narrative is older than Kenya being on the map.

Until very recently, a call to ministry was looked at as evidence that someone has lost some of his marbles. And the reason was simple; there was no guarantee of any income, or income respectable enough to be noticed. To date there are people even in church who cannot be convinced that someone can be called to leave formal employment or close business to serve God if they are not being paid by a church.

Until the same spirit jumped into the spiritual and manipulated the same to make it just like the world. Preachers started paying people to be ‘healed’ and many other stunts to make the offerings start flowing. Ministers started valuing shortcuts and advantage instead of seeking God and what He wants of His ministers and ministry.

A pastor preaches sermons that will open floodgates of advantage for him as opposed to those that will give God’s counsel to people needing it. He would rather pamper sinners and continue receiving offerings than rebuke sin and remain with people who will not be enough to pamper his expensive lifestyle.

Forget doctrinal purity if it is not contributing to a healthier bottom line. Unite with the abominable if they will help you maintain your positional advantage. Remember the Pharisees uniting with the Sadducees and Herodians to deal with the threat that was Jesus?

Greed.

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. (Ezekiel 16: 49, 50)

Valuing shortcuts and advantage against hard work will take us the Sodom way. We will have too much and no activity. And the human body and mind must be active. And we know that our hearts will normally lean towards sin.

That is where we beget sin and abominations.

Our national spirit is bleeding. And it is not just because of a few greedy fellows up there. Like the Bible says, the whole body is sick.

It is not the individuals and institutions that are to blame. We are all guilty from the way we look at opportunities and positions. And it is a major spiritual crisis that must be tackled before we even think of crucifying the outwardly guilty.

Is there a solution?

Of course there is. Many people will say that we return to what we were before the narrative was changed.

But I beg to differ. We are already too stained to be trusted to return to a past that was also not guiltless, however better it may appear compared to the present.

The Gospel is the solution. We must bring God and His standard to take charge of our polluted standard. He is the only one capable of not only redeeming it but also completely transforming it. And He does it by transforming our minds and hearts.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)

Only then will we be able to tackle corruption as we will have first purged it from our spirit.

Otherwise

There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked. (Isaiah 48:22)

We are on a self-destructive path. And we have no hope of sorting ourselves out, however genuine our concern is.

We must come up with a new narrative, not rewrite or modify the present one.

The new narrative must have Christ occupying the central position.

Why do I say so?

As the creator, He is the one most pained by the injustice corruption visits on the weak and defenseless.

He is hurt when the dam bursts and leaves children as orphans. He is the one who feels more pain when people are sleeping outside because their shanties have been flattened by the tycoon who grabbed the land on which they stood. He understands the pain families have when they are unable to bring closure to the death of a loved one because the hospital has detained the body until their millions are paid.

As the One who died for the sins of the world He understands the debauchery that is the product of reaping where your sweat is absent. And He loves you enough to want to save you out of that folly. Above all, He is ready to save you from such wasteful and destructive folly, especially because He knows where it all leads.

We must give Him the chance to take over our lives, completely. He must be allowed to run the narrative of our nation.

I do not think we have a better chance

I know some will say that this solution is simplistic, that corruption must be dealt with ruthlessly.

But we have our hearts to deal with first.

Taking the corrupt to the firing squad will instill fear, but with the kind of hearts we have, it will only be the fear of being caught.

But there is an even worse problem. Many innocent people will go to that firing squad. I have been framed falsely and know not just how it feels but how it happens. I have friends who stayed jobless for over five years as they fought to prove their innocence after they were sacked for corruption. By that time the criminal had time to cover his tracks.

Remember this policeman who was jailed the other day. And what was his crime? Doing his work.

I remember for the first time a whole estate demonstrating for a whole week in defense of this policeman when he was arrested because he had rid them of a nuisance who had been a pain in their neck for long. He was not only a thief; he was an untouchable sort of thief because he came from a family of means. You arrest him and the next day he would come not only to laugh at you but also issue threats, threats that were not in any way empty. It is the same money that have put the policeman in prison because all the witnesses testified in his defense.

In my last post (politics) I mentioned a few other incidents where justice is not a straight line, unless for the people with the kind of money to straighten it.

I didn’t know a criminal can go to court and pay a bond to block his arrest!

It is our hearts that need the changing. And only Christ is able to do the changing.

Will we accept Him?

Politics and Justice

And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. (Matthew 28: 12 – 15)

I have decided to venture into politics kidogo (in a small way) to help us understand the workings of the world as it could help us understand some tricky issues the Bible warns us to keep off.

Why are believers advised to keep off the worldly justice systems?

Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? (1Corinthians 6: 1, 2)

The first reason is that we serve another kingdom, a higher one.

It therefore means that the justice we can get from the earthly kingdom is inferior to the one we subscribe to. Our kingdom’s justice system is incorruptible whereas the world’s system is subject to many variables.

Let me talk about some recent cases in Kenya to help us understand.

There was this rich and influential man who caused death by dangerous driving and that caused a raucous when it happened. There were even eyewitnesses to the occurrence. Imagine the judicial officer concluded that there was insufficient evidence to convict him?

And the victim’s father may now be living on borrowed time because he refused to agree to be talked to nicely to drop the case. Yet a traffic offense, especially involving death, is the domain of the state.

If my memory serves me right there is a friend who was on the docks for probably five years because a person run into their car in the inner lane of a highway at night and fell back to be ran over by another motorist. The impact was on the door and so there was no reason anyone could accuse them of knocking somebody down. Incidentally, even the driver who ran over the victim was used as a witness in the case of dangerous driving. The case was only thrown out because the witnesses dried out (probably because of prayer). But five years of painful litigation which in my eyes was nonsensical. All this torture because they refused to speak nicely to the officers involved.

We have many people who have been jailed for professional negligence for the slightest error.

Yet do we remember this guy whose structure killed dozens and misplaced thousands? Yet nothing has so far been done to him. Imagine that even the police are waiting for him to go to record a statement?

That is the world’s justice for you.

The chicken thief is given seven years with hard labor when the drug merchant who deals with containers and warehouses gets a suspended sentence or small fine. The mega saboteur may many times not even see the inside of a courtroom.

That is not new, however.

The incident we see in Matthew is one such instance.

Christ has risen and the evidence is irrefutable. Unfortunately, the evidence threatened the authority and position of the rulers. Accepting it meant that they surrender their positions to the new order. That is why they used money to shift and sway the evidence in a way that suited them.

They paid the witnesses and the courts (governor). In other words they manufactured a new narrative with not a shred of truth to hold on to safeguard their status.

And this is where it leads me to talk politics.

Unlike what many Kenyans opine, Kenya does not have two tribes, the rich and the poor. We have two tribes, alright. But it is the rulers and the ruled. And it is the rulers who control everything, even the ones who think they have.

The unfortunate fact is that the rulers have not earned their positions. They were born into them. And of course they have money, tons of it, and therefore believe they can buy anything and anyone they want.

They therefore disdain the others because they know them only as pawns in their grand scheme of things. They behave like monarchies because they are a creation of the same. And they were created to sustain the same monarchy especially when we wanted to get our lands back.

They changed the narrative of the war so that the masses forgot what took the Mau Mau to the forest. The battle for land became one for independence, independence without the land.

I can say this because my father was in the forest and we were squatters and later evicted from land that was his before the war. Incidentally, this was the norm as most of the people who were in the forest lost their lands to the former home guards and their cohorts.

It was the same enemies of the war who were given the rulership, and of course the lands the queen’s subjects left, the ones who decided they would not live in a land on an equal level with their former subjects.

These rulers are above the law because they really are subject to the monarchy that gave them the leadership.

A case in point; recently someone swore himself, mock or not. He was invited for the famous handshake. Yet the people who swore him in were harassed to no end.

Incidentally, the rulers negotiate with blood, the blood of their subjects. And they do not feel the smallest hint of guilt when their subjects are dying, unless of course for the cameras. Remember in the Bible a king who sacrificed his crown prince to avert being overrun by a stronger army?

The ruling class does not admit new members. And this is where Kenya’s dilemma is.

Someone outside the class is the front runner to get a position the rulers know belongs to them. To the rulers that comedy must be stopped at all costs. A commoner cannot take what belongs to royalty.

I think that is the same reason the Nairobi governor is under siege. He decided to be accountable to those who elected him instead of the rulers and so must be brought down. And that is the reason he has been talking of cartels since he took his position. He has people who are accountable to the rulers instead of him and his agenda.

You see, populism is supposed to take someone only so far, and not anywhere near the rulers. You must therefore watch your steps least you overstep your position.

You are not supposed to get to the top position because of hard work according to the rulers. You are either born there or you can forget it.

That may be the reason for the push to change the constitution. It might be to make sure that even if a commoner gets the top position, he will not have the power the position should have as he will be subject to the rulers. And they can then bring him down when they want.

Rulers do not require rules. They are the rules as they are only meant to serve their interests. That is why some are jailed for corruption whereas others appear to be rewarded for the same, even when we are talking about the same incident. Of course we remember in school when students would organize a strike yet some ringleaders would become witnesses in the expulsion of their colleagues.

What am I saying?

Christian, you have no business putting your trust on this worldly system. You serve one with an infinitely superior level of fairness and justice and truth than this world and its systems. Should you not rather invest in knowing better the workings of the kingdom of heaven? Should you not rather build on the establishment of that kingdom in your life?

This is the reason I am appalled to see ministers of the Gospel lowering themselves and contesting political seats in such a system. They always make fools of themselves by the time they realize that the system has no place for values like theirs after they get swallowed into the mire of the world.

Sadly, even much of the church has started making dynasties of its leadership. And I am not talking about the Anglican church whose head is the queen, or whoever is the monarch in the kingdom.

How many ‘spiritual’ churches have the wife as the deputy of the pastor or bishop? How many make sure that the family is evenly spread to the whole leadership structure? Why then are we blaming political dynasties when we are wrong models? I believe this is the reason we are so fond of calling men father and mother. It is a method of entrenching the said dynasties.

The Holy Spirit flows in the church of Christ. It is true a father will pass his spiritual heritage to his children. However, it is important to remember that it is Christ who will choose where to deploy that spiritual investment. He is the one who dispenses (if you allow me to use that term) the gifts and callings for His own purposes. A pastor’s son could therefore be called into missions and you are forcing him into administration.

But you will realize that such churches have owners. Christ is only there as the brand or bait for the money to flow.

Why are the dynasties scared of someone who has risen from down there taking charge of a state? The same reason pastors are scared of the gifts and callings of people outside their circles.

They understand life differently and so will react to issues differently.

You see, the rulers have no conception of need. Hunger is therefore an academic topic for them. Insecurity is another topic.

A person dying because they couldn’t afford or access medical intervention is a concept for their minds, however passionate they may appear to speak about it. Children being unable to access free education because they can’t afford uniform or food is way beyond their capacity to understand. People dying because drugs were stolen from public hospitals makes no sense because they had personal doctors and had an expressway should they need to get to hospital. People walking because they can’t afford to pay hiked fares doesn’t make sense because they have never used public transport all their lives, unless for the fun of it.

But this other group understands life because that is how they grew up. They have walked barefoot because they couldn’t afford shoes. They have studied on empty stomachs because even being able to go to school was a miracle.

Let me give a Biblical example. David was king raised from down there. You do not fail to see him in touch with his subjects. We even see him pleading with God to let judgment fall on him instead of his subjects.

His son, however, though he takes over a rich kingdom, seeks to expand its glory by taxing them heavily to the extent that the secession of the northern kingdom is greatly due to that taxation. Yet he is immune to that suffering.

We see Hezekiah failing to appreciate the captivity, even emasculation of his offspring because those were things that to him only happened to the others out there.

We are bound to see a more concerted effort from the entitled against those who have risen from down there for that reason. They simply will not risk someone who understands the masses taking power from them because then their power will be at risk, of course because it is not justly theirs. Justice favors them because they are the peddlers of the same.

It is like they say so and so discovered Lake Victoria. You wonder whether the communities living around it were blind until then. But they are the ones with the narrative. They own the media outlets, the publishers, the transport companies. In short, they make sure that no other narrative survives. And that is how they killed the Mau Mau story by creating another narrative as the heroes, completely obliterating the actual struggle, its victims and heroes.

What is the aim of this post? You might be wondering.

Let us pray for this country of ours. There are very strong undercurrents of animosity, though basically between the two classes. And the entitled would not mind war as they not only have enough, but they also have enough places to run to. Their families are safe. In fact even if war broke, they are insulated enough from the same that they will only be seeing it in the media houses they run as they skew it to support their narrative. Sadly they will use the populace to fight their battles and not even recognize them, let alone reward them after the war ends. Or we have forgotten 2007? Or the people who were dying in demonstrations before the handshake?

People will be bought. Witnesses will be created to mire some names by the ruling class to kill the competition. Systems will be sabotaged to get rid of obstacles, men who are strong because they will not be corrupted to serve the rulers blindly. And sadly, lives will be lost in this class war as the rulers will stop at nothing to achieve their ends.

But let us preach the Gospel and live it. This world is passing away anyway.

Do not believe any political narrative. The Bible is the only word with God’s guarantee. Read it. Believe it. Live it.

Forgive me if I have disappointed you in dabbling in a political narrative. I just felt that it is important to let us know a few things that are happening amidst us. Sadly, the same happens in churches with a great regularity that some will not look at it unless I take it to politics. I am also using this post to challenge us to examine the way we run our churches to see whether they align with what Christ has revealed in His word. Treat this as a parable.

Focus, Perils and Prolils

For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. (Isaiah 50:7)

As I was building the message on the focus of true prophets, I came to look at focus in a bigger way, so much so that God was able to help me relate with some hurts of my past that were a direct consequence of my radical response to God’s call (is there another response? I wonder).

But I also came to appreciate something else; focus has the capacity to rescue you from the commonplace. There are temptations that you will not even notice when to others they are huge and sometimes unavoidable pitfalls. There are obstacles that you will skip over without even noticing that are barriers that will stop him moving for a very long time.

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3: 11 – 14)

I remember when we would go preaching very far from home as a mixed group of boys and girls, through bushes and sometimes even stay overnight yet never even once did we have issues of sexual impropriety or even the specialization, compartmentalization and possessiveness in relationships that normally occur in many such groups. Had we thought of sex, there were enough places and opportunities for it. We went to preach, not preaching to aid courtship. 

I find it surprising that churches have to close overnight prayer meetings or youth camps because the youth will misbehave. In fact they are closed because of the consistent sin in those events. You wonder how someone can go to a prayer meeting in church to have sex!

But it is not surprising because we have pastors who sleep with their parishioners. Yet they do not feel any shame or even conviction standing on the pulpit to preach. You wonder what it is they preach.it is even harder to imagine the kind of effort and sacrifice they expend to prepare those sermons. It is therefore not strange when the only compelling reason drawing their young people to the things of God is the sex they can access.

We used to organize youth events, from camps to missions, without the supervision of adults yet never had any such scandals. And the reason the adults would be uninterested in our things was because we were on fire with the Gospel of Christ. They therefore would not venture near us for fear that our radical response to Christ would rub in on them. They ‘hated’ us but also respected us because they knew that our faith was real, though they wanted none of it. Our commitment to Christ was the only boundary there was. Our focus on Christ and His word was the restraining factor most events lack today.

That focus made us deal ruthlessly with sin, even if it was a wrong perception. We did not need the physical evidence to deal with sin as sin has a subtle way of showing up. And because we were more or less sworn to a radical obedience to what we know God’s word says, we were not scared of confronting what we thought may have been a sin or an opportunity for the same.

As an example, two young people who started becoming close and exclusive was many times a tell tale sign of sexual sin, or at the least an invitation for the same. The team would unashamedly ask for the details of that closeness to see whether there was any complicity for sin.

Uncomfortable as it may look, even intrusive, it helped us maintain accountable relationships. And we courted and got married, in such kind of light.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1John 1:7)

The Christian fellowship had none of what we call mind your own business as we all subscribed to one Lord and therefore were community.

Of course we blundered sometimes. But we were genuine even in our error. And we had no problems admitting the error, even repenting the sin, many times of presumption and surface judgment.

But the love was genuine. Someone confronted you because they really cared for your spiritual health, not to cut you to size. Jealousy and envy were for the most part absent.

It is when salvation started becoming fashionable that the guard was let down and the focus was relaxed for many. You could hug the opposite sex and still feel fine. A girl could dress like a man and it was also okay.

Slowly by slowly the distinctions started becoming vague. It became alright to be a borderline believer. It was not essential to meet to share what God has been speaking and doing in our lives as we have been walking with Him and reading His word.

We slowly started becoming comfortable with borderline existence, even being lenient with some small sins that would have previously been radically dealt with.

It happened because we lost our focus.

Sadly, we are not the only guilty generation. As those of you who have been following my blog knows, I have a long history of involvement in ministry with several generations, the oldest being those who got saved in the 1939 revival. And they all say the same thing.

It happens when the rejection slowly turns to tolerance, then acceptance and finally great favor, even fame. All for being radical for the Gospel and word of Christ! That is when the mixed multitude joins the small band of the rejects after the tide has turned in their direction.

The warmth of a bigger group weakens the radical nature of the once tight band as the mixed multitudes must be accommodated, especially because we do not see them as such.

And it does not only happen with people. It is even worse in churches.

Churches whose foundation was discipleship end up wanting nothing to do with discipleship when the masses start flocking. Churches whose selling point was care for the needy literally chase the poor from their midst. And churches that were built through deep exposition of the word or prayer trash those old paths. Churches that were known for their holiness start becoming liberal in their relationship with the world. I know churches that stopped people from serving because they were not properly married having polygamists lead ministries. I know churches that would not wed young people who have engaged in sex hiring one openly in such a relationship.

What remains is a shell with nothing inside. The soul and spirit are long gone. But sadly we are feeding on our past exploits when we were a small band of radicals. We even forget what we were radical about. We have completely forgotten where we have come from. Or haven’t you listened to people giving testimonies or teaching and wonder why all their glory days are in the long past?

I admire Elisha for his consistency. From when he burnt his yoke of oxen to respond to the call to the day he died, his consistency never waned. He behaved the same when he was dealing with a desperate widow as he did when he was giving instructions to a king. Even his faithful assistant and heir apparent could not touch that focus, losing his position and getting leprosy for greed.

O for such consistency!

May God help us realign to our first focus and return to our first love!

Yet I know that there are some who joined the party when the focus was already lost. They have no idea what focus is as they have not experienced it. In fact they are irritated when they see someone so focused as they see it as abnormal behavior. These can only pray to see God as He is. Only then can they obtain a focus that is acceptable to Him.

But it many times will have to start with those who have walked with God, and fought the battle with God and our focus on Him as our only weapon, and won.

Will we pray for such a return?