All the People Said Amen

shikungigi

I’m listening to that song because it’s awesome. Matt Maher is awesome. If you don’t believe me, listen to the song. I’m in this matatu that has pictures of all the vice presidents of Kenya plastered all around the windows. The four presidents are staring at us from the windscreen. The thing about Shiku nowadays is that she can only write on board stuff. Thoughts and Stuff. That’s the stuff of late. The stuff that inspires me. I honestly didn’t have content for this post but then I remembered all it takes me to come up with content is just letting my fingers do the walking.

I come from a family that prays a whole lot. We pray before leaving the house. We pray before eating at a hotel. We pray 100 times at an extended family gathering, courtesy of dad.

Ask anyone who was at my aunt’s this Saturday. Lol, I ain’t hating by the way. So you can imagine how many amens are said in a day.

And in case you are wondering if those prayers work, well, just look at me. 😉 Anywho, there’s something about prayer. When I say we pray, I should really just be honest and say mum leads prayer. Mum is that woman who you will find hunched over a Bible when you stagger into the sitting room at 7 am. She’s the mama who will have that disappointed look if y’all are not enthusiastic about the family devotion session held every night.

You know the song by Randy Travis about mama praying? There you have it. That’s my mum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95YBY1TVT24

So all I want to tell you guys is this, prayer does things. Dad tells me that mum wakes in the middle of the night to pray for all of us. Regardless of whether we’re in the next room or in the bowels of some hostel. And then she’ll pray for all the people related to you, including your ex. 😀 I know she’ll read this and smile. Mum, keep doing this for us. We might not act like we appreciate it, but we do. Even when we doze off when praying ourselves.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

When I was young, mum taught Kim and I a prayer that we said it until we were old enough. Mark, the in-between bro probably had another version bestowed unto him and so did Claire. This chick can pray! They do this thing where they wait up for each other, mother and daughter and take turns to pray. She simply will not sleep before praying.

So, I pray you all have a blessed March full of God’s grace. Don’t forget to pray. Prayer is not necessarily what you were told to imagine when you were a kid. Just be there in the moment and talk to God. And listen. C.S.Lewis says something interesting about prayer. That, as humans we like manufacturing charitable thoughts towards ourselves when praying. For instance, when we pray for forgiveness, we want to try to feel forgiven. And we estimate the value of our prayers by how successful they are in generating these feelings. Misdirection. We also like telling ourselves things like “it is not the position of the body when we pray that matters, it is the position of the heart”. Guturia maru ma ngoro. And that is how we end up dozing off. I am guilty. Maybe you are too. Let’s take it upon ourselves to stop this self-deception. And all the people said…

When mama prayed, good things happen
When mama prayed, lives were changed
Not much more than five foot tall
But mountains big and small crumbled all away
When mama prayed

It isn’t like every one of them got answered
But the times they weren’t it seems to me were rare
You almost felt sorry for the devil
‘Cause heaven knows he didn’t have a prayer
When mama prayed

9 thoughts on “All the People Said Amen

  1. So true….reminds me of yet another song;

    I don’t always know what to believe
    and I don’t always know everything I need
    but faithfully my name is called each night,
    by quilted bedside,
    and the Devil may come seek me on a dare
    But he’ll be up against my Mama’s prayers.

  2. Yes! And the challenge is to also grow into a woman of prayer – so that you are able to hold up your family in prayer the same way.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *