Hello Greatness,

Full Disclaimer: What you are about to read is in no way me putting down any Christian doctrines, neither am I telling you to ignore your teachings. I hope you get my true message.

I’m a man on a mission!!! That’s what one of my very well respected pastors says all the time. I think I got so used to him saying that on Sundays that I never really took time to actually understand that he’s not just talking about a spiritual mission but also a physical one. It really dawned on me about the truth of what he says when he was being transferred, then it hit me that he had always told us that there will really come a day when he would leave us. That got me thinking about a lot of things. How many things have we shoved off as not so serious because we are so familiar with it? We get so used to hearing it that it has no relevance to us as much as it should. Now, does that mean that we should only get to hear the truth once in a while? I mean, should it become occasional just because I don’t want it to lose relevance? Well, I’d leave that thought with you, please share your thoughts in the comment section because I really want to know.

There’s a reason I started the way I did. How many times have we thought about what the end goal of our life is? Well, apart from fulfilling purpose. When we fulfill our purpose, and can boldly declare like Paul that, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7). Then we know that for saying something like that, then the next thing is to get to Heaven. Well, doesn’t that sound something like, Oh!! I’ve heard that before? The main goal of the Christian race is to make Heaven. We have been indoctrinated by the church as to how we can actually be one of those who make it to Heaven. But we’ve heard it so many times that it’s not as fresh as the first time we heard it. I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard it in so many ways and I realized one truth. But keep reading to find out that truth.

I’ve been taught that one of the ways to make it to Heaven is to follow the ten commandments God gave to Moses. You know the ones…. thou shalt not this, thou shalt not that. Another way to make it to Heaven was when Jesus Himself came to simplify the “Thous.” He broke it into just three. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Love yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself. These three, although broken down into three does not necessarily work for the human mind. We want practical answers. Like yeah I get what it means to love God, loving myself is not so difficult, like duh!! The part we have issues with is how to love others as much as I love myself. Like excuse me, have you seen how rude some people are? How can I love them as much as myself when I wouldn’t treat myself the same way they treat me? We have these internal conflicts with ourselves and we just want to know how we are supposed to achieve this exactly. Then we look to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 to show us exactly what Jesus means when He speaks about love. Truth be told, I’ve read it and memorized it. Told myself that my whole life will exude this passage. Then someone just comes and steps on my toes. How am I not supposed to hold grudges? People just come purposefully just to test your patience, and you just see that passage you’ve read go down the drain. Do I just give up on this whole love thing? Well, you can’t. The whole purpose of the Christian race hinges on it, otherwise Jesus wouldn’t have talked about it.

Oh!!! How God is very interested in our daily lives. I’m sure He’s seen how we struggle with these thoughts and how we think some of these things are too good to be true. That’s why He’s found ways to get our attention in different ways. I saw in Psalm 15 how these commandments have been broken down in different ways. If you think the 3 commandments Jesus gave seem complicated and it feels like Love in 1 Corinthians 13 is like a code too difficult to crack, then well, here’s something else that could help you. I hope this breakdown of Psalm 15 helps you like it did me:

• Live a blameless life: When I wrote this down, I was like way to go girl!!! You’ve complicated things worse than it was before. Then I realized that I was assuming I could do this alone without the help of the Holy Spirit.
• Speak the truth: this era we currently are seems to abhor the truth. Just try as hard as possible not to compromise. Leave places you are not appreciated or accepted if need be.
• No gossip: now this is a very hard truth. One way to achieve this is to try as much as possible to avoid people that talk about others too much. One of my sisters gave me the best advice one time; she said to avoid gossip by thinking about the fact that if I talked about others with someone else, don’t I think I will also be the subject of discussion sometime?
• Keep your promise: there’s nothing more honorable than someone who has integrity. I write this as the thought of the chocolate I promised one of my nieces springs to mind.
• Stop taking advantage of people: the world is already difficult enough as it is for some people. Don’t be the reason someone has a sleepless night, or cry. Don’t embarrass someone coz you’ve lent them some money.

Oh whew!!! That was a lot of thought. Glad I got that out. I really hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I loved writing it. Oh, and btw!! Let me redeem my promise. The truth I’ve realized about this whole thing, and that has kept the message still alive in me and keeping me on my toes is the fact that I know God really does want to have a relationship with me. You see, there’s nothing like having firsthand knowledge of something. Your relationship with God does give you access to that knowledge. Please take advantage of the truths that you hear. I’m glad that I at least took advantage of my pastor’s words before he left. Don’t wait till reality hits before you start to pine for these truths. Trust me, they always come in handy.

With exceeding love,

Mz_Ola.