Pray

shikungigi

It’s Sunday. You know me. I love me some Sunday. Today was different though. It was Founders’ Day at AHS. The 90th anniversary. Coincidentally, it was school birthday at AGHS. But as they say, there’s no such thing as coincidence. School birthday was supposed to be last Sunday, but it was pushed to today for some reason. So I cheated on my alma mater and spent the day at across, mostly because my brother is in form four. Back when we lived at across, Founders’ Day was a modest ceremony. We all fit in the chapel, it took just two hours or so and we ate nice little baked stuff from the kitchen in the lawn behind the chapel. Kimori and I loved these times! Nowadays, the service takes the whole day, in the sun or if you’re early, the tents, and there are no sweet little snacks at the end! Just kawaida food. Childhood memories are just the best!

Anyway, that’s not why I’m writing. I’m writing because of something the preacher said. His message was on Christian character. He read, or rather the reading was from 1 Corinthians 3:10-17. This is the passage where Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for worshipping leadership and not growing. There were factions in the same church, focused on following either Paul or Apollos. He went on to mention prayer as an important aspect of Christian character. Earlier in the morning, Lucy wa Ngunjiri mentioned the same thing. How prayer is important and how it really doesn’t matter how long you pray for if you don’t have faith in the first place.

Then I remembered a short conversation I had with a friend last weekend where I started eating without praying and he was like, “What happened to your spirituality?” I laughed out loud when he asked that. I told him I’ve never been one who prays before every meal. If I had left that impression on him, it’s because he always requests me to pray or he does it himself. He went on to remind me about a serious food poisoning incident he went through. And I was like dude, chill out, pray now, because I know you’ll not be at peace before you do. And I stopped eating, we bowed down and prayed. Such little convos make me rethink my actions. I have nothing against praying before eating, in fact, I come from a family that prays before every meal if we’re together, but I don’t do it all the time. Sometimes I fall asleep when I’m supposed to be praying. Sometimes I forget altogether. A lot of times. Sometimes I just say a word or two as I am walking or in a matatu. I accept I’m not the most prayerful person by any measure. I know I need to do better. It’s not good to forget to chat people close to you up. You lose touch. Especially if that person is greater than he who is living in the world. Something else that Paul mentions in this passage goes like this:

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 1 Corinthians 3:7

Yes, we are just men. Men with weaknesses. Men who need to be kept in check. Men who will never be perfect. But if we keep looking to the author and perfecter of our faith, if we make an effort to chat with Him more, our growth is assured. People will not need to ask what you stand for. It’s easy to sway with the winds of doubt and self-sufficiency. It’s easy to think you know it all. It’s easy to listen to the voices that tell you it’s stupid to believe. And boy, are the voices many as you grow older! Choose to listen to the voice of truth.

Bible

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