An Open Letter to My Unborn Children and Grandchildren

My Dear Children and Grandchildren,

I was reading in Proverbs 13:22 that, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.” As a man, this proverb struck me deep in my spirit! I hope that I leave you all a financial inheritance that will take care of you as you establish your own lives, vocations and families but I know that this is not enough. Earlier in verse 7 it says, “There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing; And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches”, this verse shows that a financial inheritance may not be enough of an inheritance at all! So what can I leave you my young ones that will last the next 20 or 50 years? Genesis 17:7 shows exactly the type of inheritance I wish to leave for you, it is the same inheritance Abraham, by God, left for his descendants, “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.”

My dear children, knowing Jesus is the greatest inheritance I can leave for you! I pray that as you go through your lives that you hold on to and serve Jesus as I have served Jesus! This is the only inheritance that does not devalue or get taxed, it is the only inheritance that will not be affected by an economic recession, or run out. I am not perfect but I pray that by the grace of God, in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, will raise you according to the Word! I pray my decisions may be godly, I pray that I may share the fullness of the Gospel with you! I love you with all of my heart and my desire is to see you grow in your walk with God!

I know I will not always be there and that a time will come when I will go to be with the Lord through death. Please my children do not lose heart! For this is all our calling, to live for God, and to die and live with God! I will be watching and be with you, according to Hebrews 12:1, I pray that I am part of the great cloud of witnesses surrounding you as you run the race called life. I can say that it is only God who has been with me through the best times of my life, as well as carried me through the most difficult times of my life! May you know the security that I have in Jesus, may that become your security! Finally and above all, pass this inheritance down to your children and your grandchildren for this is true gold!

All my love,
Your father, Ndumiso

Whack The Fox

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Home Alone

This week I’ve spent most (like 90%) of my time at home. There are several reasons for this, firstly my doctor recommended that I take it easy and not walk unless it was absolutely necessary because my knee is still painful and it needs time to rest and heal. Secondly, I don’t know anyone in Adelaide who I can just randomly chill with during the day, in the middle of the week. Lastly, I don’t know what there is to do in this place. But the time home alone has been painfully interesting…

I cannot remember the last time I spent a week in near seclusion with nothing really to do (except for unpack, but that doesn’t count coz it’s so boring). I’m glad that it was only for this week and that next week the real estate course starts and it will be full stream head from there. However, I can say that when you are left with no one but yourself (and God) to chill with, you get to see the real you. The you that you don’t really want to see, (the) that is why you keep yourself busy, you. It’s pretty confrontational! Like I mentioned in my previous post, you are now face to face with your flaws and fears and there is nowhere to run. It’s like the movie Home Alone but instead of running away from and tricking robbers, you are the enemy. It reminds me of that popular secular quote, “You are your own worst enemy”.

I needed this week! We need to be able to identify the issues within ourselves if we are ever going to be able to make steps to fix them before we try take on the rest of the world. If your life is always too busy and you can’t spend even a few hours by yourself (without TV, books, computers, etc) then you need that time. Maybe that is why we accept so many of the world’s social issues, we try to keep busy so that we have an excuse to ignore it or expect someone else to deal with it, yet we are so profoundly excellent at identifying them. Well another popular quote would be, “Charity begins at home”. How can we fix the world’s problems if we do not take care of our own first? My biblical reference is Luke 6:42, "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye.”

This week for me has helped me identify the planks that are in my eyes (so to speak) so that I can better see the rest of the world (call it 20/20 vision). It’s so easy to see all the specks that are out there and ignore our planks. What is the speck or plank that you have lodged in your eye? Who are you when you all by yourself and cannot hide behind your friendships, personality or your vocation? If you are always looking out and noticing the problems of the world and don’t want to look at the own state of your heart, then what you are doing is in vain! I’m learning and we all should learn to spend time with ourselves, catch the thoughts that go through our heads, the attitudes that we ascribe to, the prejudices we justify. Is this who you want to be??? If you are happy then there is no need to read on...

After some reflection, if this is not who you want to be, then there is only one sure solution! If you are a Christian, you should turn away from (repent) of those attitudes and thoughts. Ask Jesus for forgiveness and ask Him to renew your heart and mind! If you are not a Christian (or you call yourself one but do not really love Jesus) you are probably sick and tired of the person you really are behind closed doors, when you are home alone. Jesus can change you. Most importantly, you cannot change yourself! It is our sin (i.e., selfish living, etc) that separates us from Him, which according to the bible (Romans 6:23) leads to our death, both physical and spiritual (eternal) death. He can remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Jesus is God, He came to earth born of the virgin Mary, lived a perfect life that we cannot live and was murdered (crucified) by us, for all our sins (including our bad attitudes), and died the death that we should die. Because He was perfect (lived a perfect life without sin), death couldn’t hold Him so He raised up on the third day, defeating sin and death for us, forever! That is the good news of the love of Jesus! It is a free gift from God open to ANYONE who receives it!

Jesus can change you! I am a prime example of God’s mercy and forgiveness. I am far from being perfect as I saw clearly this week but I know I am totally different to the person I was 3 years ago! It’s a process and I would not change this for anything! The fulfilment I get from God by far surpasses all the cheap thrills I used to run to years ago! Now I can do a week home alone, 3 years ago I couldn't do 3 hours.

Coming To Adelaide

Hello everyone! I’m back, at least back in the blogging scene. For those that don’t know I have moved to Adelaide. This move has been brought about by my visa requirements that needed me to leave Melbourne and come to Adelaide. It has taken me a while to understand that God had the final say in this move, this move did not surprise God and it doesn’t affect the plan He has for my life, it is the plan!

But here I am… Still a bit spiritually and emotionally confused and disoriented. It feels like a dream that won’t end and in all honesty I feel like a stranger in Moscow (like MJ) and I want to go home. On the other hand I feel like this is my training ground. When I drove into town I felt (for lack of a better word) sedate and anxiously peaceful.

I feel God has lead me to this point to teach me something wouldn’t have learnt if I was in my familiar or comfortable environment. When you look in the Bible, many a man had to spend time in the “wilderness”. Adelaide is a beautiful city and I wouldn’t want anyone to think it’s a bad place (it may be boring but it’s not bad). But many a man in the Bible had to go through an uncomfortable season in order to grow into the person that God wanted them to be and to accomplish the destiny God set in front of them. David, Joseph, the apostle Paul, Moses and even Jesus are just a few of the examples of men that have had to go through a wilderness period in order to grow. In all honesty, I see that I need to grow! I need to get deeper with Jesus! When I look at myself right now I see so many things that need to be cut out of my life so many flaws that I know I need to get rid of now, rather than later!

Now my attitude is slowly becoming one of conquest, conquering my fears and conquering this city! I know God is a good and loving God and as such, I believe that there is a blessing for me here and even though I don’t know what it is I will seek it by seeking God with all my heart!

I have no idea how long I will be here, I don’t know what it is I have to do here but I’m here! It’s an adventure, a tressure hunt, a reconnaissance mission, its exciting. All I can say is be careful Adelaide here I come!

African Spirit

Last week I had the honour and privilege to go and see the Soweto Gospel Choir perform live at the Robert Blackwood Concert Hall at Monash University, Clayton Campus here in Melbourne.

A week later and all I can say is “WOW!” The name of this tour and album are a true reflection of what you will experience, the African Spirit… Sitting in that concert hall, I forgot where I was. For a few hours, I felt like I was back at home! Back in Zimbabwe. I had almost forgotten what the African Spirit felt like. I connected with God in a unique way as the music, dance and culture saturated my soul and spirit.

The music was divine and I found myself singing along to songs that I knew and loved as well as being touched by the new songs! The sound was angelic and even if you didn’t understand what they were saying, the message definitely came across through the spirit in the music. It was authentically African with no apologies, drawing tears from my eyes as I realised how much I love and miss Africa. The African flavour cannot be duplicated or matched, the life that is in it is just incomparable.

What is the African Spirit? For fear of doing it injustice I will just briefly give a few of my insights. I believe the African Spirit is rejoicing even when circumstance does not give reason to rejoice, it is finding beauty in spite of surrounding ugliness, it is unity and a hope for peace and love. I believe the African Spirit is passionate, intricate and strong and has an unsearchable depth to it! I would even go as far as to, cautiously, say that the African Spirit is a unique impartation or manifestation of the Holy Spirit of God!

The Soweto Gospel Choir made me proud to be African. They made me embrace my heritage and see hope for the continent that has been written off my most of the world! I have not written off Africa! I have a dream to see it unified through the Holy Spirit. I pray God will include me in the spiritual revival that will take place in Africa. The songs of the Soweto Gospel Choir are prophetic and speak to this generation and the ones to come!

Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

Isn’t it funny how uncertain life is, often you look back and you wonder how you ever got to where you are. The funny thing is that most of the time we never see things coming. At the beginning of this year, while everyone around me was making New Year’s resolutions I sat back thinking how is life going to surprise me this year. My gosh, this year (so far) has been nothing as I expected it to be and i'm sure there are plenty of surprises on the way.

When I look back at last year, it was a year that was riddled with many happy and sad moments that took me by surprise. We have to realise that things in life are always changing, friends come and go, happy and hard times come and go, things that initially bring you joy become a source of pain and situations that once comforted you make you writhe with unease.

Therefore, as I look into the future I wonder what tomorrow brings. Part of it scares me as disappointment is always around the corner, and guess what? You'll never see it coming! One thing realised is that breakthrough is right around the corner too. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that even though things are always changing, God will always be the same. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow! Knowing that God is always for me and that His love is unconditional and never changing. Knowing that Jesus has a plan for my life that includes all the hiccups, highs and lows keeps me on top and optimistic.

So, as change comes, all I can say is “Bring it on!”