WHAT IS CHRISTMAS. Is it a folklore about a baby named Jesus who was born in a stable and laid in a makeshift crib from a manger? Surely, Jesus is not still living that we are celebrating His birthday. Except that it was not an ordinary story, about an ordinary baby born, who lived an ordinary purpose.

We must not let our fellowship with other believers mask the lack of true relationships in our lives. It can happen when we allow the rituals, routines and our roles as members of any group to be the only connection we have in these communities. When we prioritize membership over interpersonal connections, we are no longer cued into people’s individual experience, feelings and aspirations. 

Without being tied to bollards to secure them in place, watercraft sway and lurch to the full force of the waves and winds. Without worship, our lives, likewise, become perennially reactive to the waves and winds of changing values and social realities that challenge the tenets of our faith.

William Young’s literary fiction, ‘The Shack’ revolves around a man who grew up in a family of broken father-son relationships, and is a powerful and often dark story about the importance of finding God’s fatherhood.

Once people have children, they immediately become parents even though they will need to learn what it takes to be  informed and responsible ones. When we marry, we become someone's spouse. Although it doesn't mean that we will instantly know how to be a good and faithful spouse, it's our responsibility to learn to be one. As children of God, we have the same responsibility to learn about God, the Father, and what it means to be a child of God.

Not nearly enough do we hear inspiring stories from believers who face severe health challenges while staying true to their faith and keeping their experiences authentic. They speak of their on-going battles with conditions like pleural effusion, prostatitis, gastrointestinal disorders, ulcerative colitis, or topical steroid withdrawal syndrome with as much ease as they talk about God’s goodness with evidence and conviction. Their stories are relatable because they make God so real without hiding the toll that these conditions take on their physical, emotional and mental well-being

We can easily spot believers who have a low tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity in the unpredictable nature of life. They lace their prayers with details that God should bless. They let their minds run in overdrive ruminating over the worst and best case scenarios hoping to minimize surprises. They blame the devil for everything because problems are always someone else’s fault. Even after praying, they worry about how their problems will be resolved. Underlying all that frenzy is the worry that they will be shortchanged. Overplanning (and over-praying) conceals their fear of losing control over the relationships they care about and the situations they are involved in. 

Are you fighting something today and feeling so overwhelmed that you do not know how to respond?

Whatever we perceive as a challenge is usually something that potentially exposes a hidden fear or a deeply embedded weakness in our lives. Yet, we are the ones God trusts to advance His Kingdom mission and He has positioned us and our nemeses exactly where He wants us to be in what is now a challenge for us.

WHAT DOES FREEDOM look like to you? We can all recognize the freedom that comes with financial independence, the religious freedom to practice our faith openly, the freedom to travel and live wherever we choose, the freedom found in an egalitarian society, and by retirement, the freedom from financial commitments. But one can enjoy all these freedoms and still not be free inside. There is a freedom that is not outwardly perceivable but those who experience them live and love very differently.

Jesus used the concept of seeds to help people visualize the potency and power of life that He has given His followers so that they would make a visible difference in their relationships and communities (Mark 4:26-32). Our gardens are the places where God has positioned us to live, work and flourish. So, if God has given you some mustard seeds to plant in your garden, would you hold them back because you feel unsure about the goodness of the grounds and insecure about your ability to plant seeds?

We are all aware of accelerating natural disasters and growing tensions in international relations around the world, and we think this is about physical danger and geopolitical instability. This lulls us into thinking that we are blessed to be living in relative safety and security. We retreat into spiritual napping and wait for the bad news to subside. In so doing, we miss what the bible warns us about such events – that they are actually signaling the approach of biblical end times.

Believers can be stuck in past events and traumas for several reasons. They may find it hard to move forward due to an absence of support, a fear of change or a lack of healthy coping mechanisms. At the same time, they may downplay the gaping hole in their lives and habitually dodge conversations with people who can help them. Perhaps we have been that person for a while. We are active members of different communities but few people really know us. We uphold a normalcy bias that leads us to believe that life is good as long as it continues to be the way it has always been, disregarding the hole in our lives.

Many will agree that life’s most valuable lessons do not come from time-bound structured programmes with well-defined goals and outcomes. Instead, the school where we learn the best lessons about God is often a little messy and chaotic, with little predictability about what we will get at the end. In fact, we often find faith when we take the plunge and dive into uncertain and unfamiliar situations that life presents, and when we give God’s Word greater territory in our mind over human reasoning.

Put together a piece of written work organized by a main title and other subtitles, chapters and topics, an author and a publisher, and you get a book that indulges the reader's literary appetite. Combine raw ingredients, condiments, the right cooking techniques and a recipe and you get a delectable dish created to satisfy. Arrange words of praise to God, musical notes, instruments and a voice, and we have some of the greatest worship songs ever!

Browse through any supermarket lanes, and you will find names for all kinds of products organized in different aisles to make it easy for shoppers to find what they need. All products have labels that fulfill unique roles – brand labels tell us who made the products, food labels describe what’s in the product and product safety, and promotional labels entice us to buy a larger volume than we need at a discounted price.

Researchers conduct studies to understand the likelihood of an outcome as a result of something happening or present. Risk assessment methodologies also rate risks based on the likelihood of a negative situation occurring after mitigating steps are put in place.

IMAGINE you are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you, causing you to spill coffee that can potentially stain all surfaces it touches. Why did you spill the coffee?

Many restaurants offer diners the choice of still or sparkling water. Whether bottled or straight from the tap, we know that reservoirs are the source of drinking water everywhere and we are well-informed about the benefits of drinking water for good health and proper functioning of our bodily systems.

Sticking to what works involves much less risks than switching to a different way of doing things. Does this sound familiar? Something that once worked to get us out of a sticky situation now becomes the normative way for us to get out of any new situation that makes us uncomfortable. In the process, we miss out on the adventure, learning and growth that comes from experiencing life with greater spontaneity.

There is a new word in town and it is ‘infodemic’. We are inundated with fake news, misinformation and disinformation not because of artificial intelligence but because of the insatiable human appetite for deception and half-truths. We even create cakes made to look like normal everyday objects to get a kick out of tricking people’s perception of what’s real and what’s not real.