BEAUTIFUL SUBSTANDARD

You ever noticed how adorable the girl looked when she smiled whose face is so freckled or pimpled?

You ever noticed how cute it was watching that poor family happily eat together of the same plate?

To the ladies…

You ever noticed how loving the guy was who never met a single quality on your checklist? Or how handsome the guy looked when he cried?

You ever noticed how simply beautiful that old ignorant woman was who kept talking superstitions with so much confidence and good intents that you couldn’t help but smile?

You ever realized how perfect those scattered eyelashes or uncarved eyebrows can be?

You ever saw how admirable that poor little boy was when he acted out a deed of love?

You ever saw the ease with which little children of different races bonded on first meeting?

Did you ever take a moment to notice…

You see the problem is we think we need to be perfect to be happy, but no, we don’t and we cannot. We don’t need to be perfect to be happy neither can we be no matter how hard we try. The one thing that connects us is the fact that we are humans, we were created to be family. We all hunger for that sense of belonging, and desire love that is real, unconditional and unfailing.

Love is the answer… it is that which binds  us, it is the one thing that can make us stop struggling so hard to belong,  to be noticed and to be considered better than others. It is the one thing that will make us stop jumping into  conclusions,  criticizing and judging others but rather hearing the full story and making fair decisions.

It is the one thing that will keep us from being biased in our dealings with people of varying tribe, race or religion, class or background, political party or mindset.

It is the one thing that will enable us see everyone as who they are-humans- first before what they are!

It will enable us know that we are all equal and that no one is better off because we all fall short..only in different ways.

Love will enable us live happy lives in the midst of imperfections. A life of happiness is the one we live when we keep our lives simple, improving on the things we can do, our strengths and using them in the service of others faithfully.

True love makes a perfect world. It deletes all imperfections and pastes beauty. It  makes a  show of standard, proving neither perfection nor standard to be happiness but rather happiness in substandard is what yields perfection.

However,

True lasting love is not natural. We cannot produce that lasting love by our broken selves but we know one who can because He is whole and He is love.

We know someone who can amend our imperfect world with love because He amends our hearts. It was necessary that he started with our hearts because the brokenness of the world around us is only a reflection of the brokenness of our hearts. He has shed love abroad in the hearts of those who accept his arm of fatherhood.

When He walked on earth as a man called Jesus, we knew Him to live, love and show happiness.

We knew him to have been born in an average home  of a carpenter and his dear wife.

We knew him to see perfection in an old woman who gave a few coins as her offering.

We knew him to see perfection in children of different backgrounds.

We knew him to see perfection in a woman who the society had condemned.

We knew him to see perfection in a disciple and friend (Peter) though impulsive and undecisive..

We knew him to see perfection in crying women who had lost their brother, his friend.

We knew him to see perfection in a short “sinful” taxcollector.

We knew him to see perfection in a  man who died a criminal beside him on a cross.

He, Jesus can give us the ability to truly love. He can give us the ability with which we can heal our broken world. He came, died and rose so that all who believed in this could be one with Him, partake in his nature and have him as their representative before God, he came to give us his nature of eternal life and love.

EVERYDAYJESUS’ ‘nomo’ phobia! (An update)

Since I was little, I had this strong phobia for both heights and depths. Jesus knows that unlike the woman at the well, He is not likely to find me at the well, because I would make every excuse that would excuse me from drawing from the well at my street in the Coal City let alone drawing from the well of living water- that is if well encounters or ‘being at the right place at the right time’ was a criterion for receiving the promised eternal Life.
Jesus knows too that I would never sing to ask Him to take me, and plant my feet on any higher grounds- that is if ‘ higher grounds’ were taken literally because I so cannot trade the comfort of the safe haven I have found on floors for any heights in this world- literally speaking, puhleez!
Recently, I saw myself running carefree to meet up with a deadline along a Ulysses huge overhead bridge at Abuja, with all the speeding vehicles underneath. So I was taken aback.
What had changed in me?
I realized that my phobia, (the fears behind my fears) were all gone. Then, I was not afraid of the heights but I was afraid of falling and crashing. I was not afraid of depths but I was simply afraid of falling and getting lost in the deep.
So what or who took away the fears behind my fears?
I’d say that only Love did.
I found Love and everything about me changed. The comfort and assurance in the love of my Father in Christ Jesus reassures me that He would never leave me by myself, therefore if I must crash or fall into any deep, then He would fall and crash with me. Thank God that God is safe. Besides, I know that He loves me much more than I love myself. The love of Christ changes us, and it has renewed my mind, and transformed me.
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”- Ephesians 4: 17b-19( NIV).
Because perfect love casts out all fears- including the fears behind the fears.