Merry Christmas and a Blessed 2015

Mark 1: 3 A voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.

Nairobi University Way at Dusk

I know this verse is used a lot in calling for turning away from our sins especially around this time of Christmas and even in its context John the Baptist preached repentance and baptism.

I want to muse today and let us think of the verse in another way.

ANNUNCIATION STORY
Here I'd like you to think about the annunciation story... here it is Annunciation Story if you haven't read it.

Shrine of Mary help of Christians, Don Bosco Upper Hill Nairobi

Anyway the story is about Angel Gabriel on a mission first to Zachary, John the baptists father to be and then later to Mary, mother of Jesus to be to tell them about the birth of their children.

REACTIONS

Mary asks how the physically impossible will happen and Gabriel says something to the effect of "Mary chill out, God's spirit has all this covered" and Mary is like "okay cool, I am the handmaid of the lord" - you should read the whole story that's where we get the Hail Mary prayer

Anyway Zachary on his part doesn't ask how it will happen he looks at his own and Elizabeth's abilities and says to the angel "With all due respect my wife and I are too old to pop babies" and Angel Gabriel be like "Shut up... oh well until you get a baby".

PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD
I am not an expert at translations but anyway here is my musing - the verse doesn't say prepare the way for the lord... which for me would mean "Get my act together the lord is coming" - it says prepare the way of the Lord.

Prepare the way of the Lord means to open our hearts to possibilities even the physically impossible things that God is capable of... be a bit like Mary and say I trust you - I am the handmaid of the lord.

Things are possible - sky above Nairobi

Prepare the way of the Lord means to respond to God's urging to love... Mary gets up and goes to take care of Elizabeth... she doesn't do a million calculations on how she needs to take care of herself or get a prince to marry her so that God's son could have a good education and the upbringing "he deserves".

FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO REPENT

Matumbato road in Upper Hill Nairobi

Not wanting to be a spoil sport - we might still want to repent to feel good about ourselves before Christmas and to put ourselves in a bargaining position with God for 2015... here are a few tips of stuff you and I can put in our confession or repentance or thanksgiving for not being muted when we needed to have been told like Zachary "shut up"etc

• Every time we think things are impossible because we are looking to what we call "our ability" instead of looking to God's continuing blessing and "endowment to us and to the human race"

• Every time we don't reach out to others in love and support because we think we will "strain ourselves"

• Every time we have prepared our path visible to our ego and forgotten the way of the Lord the way of LOVE - the way who is LOVE

ITS CHRISTMAS

We are one humanity... a unity - we are children of God. 

No more selfishness... no more myself, my ability, I can't, I can, I Like, I don't want...

It's time to prepare the way of the Lord open ourselves to that greatness that God is, open ourselves to the beauty that life, our world and humanity is. 

It is time to sing Joy to the World and Peace to all people of goodwill - time to lose the self in greatness

It's time to appreciate the depth of what being human is, the depth of being loved by God, the depth of being part of the world and the universe and God

It's time to LOVE as we are loved by God. Love ourselves and love others

Labeling and Inequality

MY VIRTUAL AREOPAGUS
I have found myself in too many equality equity arguments of late... it feels like we have a virtual Areopagus like the real one in ancient Greece where we pass judgement and argue and examine.

I recently had a loud argument with someone... the very common argument about Men VS Women being equal. He held that women could not work as much or lead as well as men did because they think differently.

Our argument centered on brains - my claim was that our brains are very much the same in terms of capacity and function and that the only reason sometimes boys appear to do some things well was because of the environment we grow up in - which allows them to explore and challenge themselves and puts girls in controlled activity... this create paths in the brains which are different

Anyway as arguments often go... this one became silly with this person arguing that because women have estrogen it alters their brain function... at that point I let go of the argument.

A couple of weeks ago I had another argument with a friend. This time the argument was about having a law specifically allowing for transgenders to be as they wished to be. My friend argued that there was no way could ask the rest of society to make allowances in the law of the land for people who were confused. She ended the argument with "I rest my case."
                                                       

If she had allowed a continuation I might have argued that "society" was indeed the confused party here. We as society have assumed we know all there is to know about a human being we can dictate to a tee "what is the right feelings for a man, what is the right attitude of a woman, what are the roles a man should have, how should a man appear and what should a woman wear" - we know... of course we know... but how do we know? What is our authority?
What is our academic backing for our knowledge? - We are the confused ones because we allow our cultures to dictate without questioning if what we conform and what we force others to be is really what they need to be.

LABELS
I then observed all the labels we had. Understandably so because as human beings we have survived extinction by being able to classify and label bad and good things.

To be a good husband, wife, student, employee there should be an equally bad husband, wife, student, employee.

Every time we label others as they are wrong or they are confused or they are inferior there is a subconscious label that says I am right, I am superior, I am upright, I am straight.

EUREKA
We are not bad people - we are just defending our positions. We have done everything we were supposed to do. We are men as men are supposed to be. We are women as women are supposed to be. We have lived by the book all our lives.
Who are these feminists, "equalitists", transgender activists to try and change things. If I don't lead and my wife follows our family will crumble.

Then if things change - who do I become? I have never decided for myself what to feel, what to be. I have lived my life with a "Guide to Life" - unprinted edition in my mind, taught in my school, enforced at home, at work.

There is an unspoken, unacknowledged fear in all of to start taking responsibility and choosing who to be, choosing how to be.

TIME TO BE - MAKE YOUR CHOICE
Well here is my magic bullet for inequality and inequity - it is time for us to be.

1. Define yourself as a human being - a beautiful creature
2. Acknowledge and accept what is natural/physical in you e.g. being male or female
3. See humanity as a unity (Dump the whole idea of "I am VS they are" - We are.
4. Put out your statement of what you want to be
5. Decide what you want to do, learn, experience and contribute to the world

E.g. I am a human being. I am female. I want to spend my life loving this man.
I will marry him, I will travel to Bali, Kilifi and Zanzibar. I will learn and teach Music to kids in my neighborhood. I want to be President of my country or a housewife (TBD - to be decided)

Armed with your statement

• It doesn't matter whether a man you know wants to spend his time having sex with other men.
• It doesn't matter that you nobody likes the food you cook except you and that hungry beggar.
• It doesn't matter that your BFF girlfriend wears boxers and clothes labeled "Men"
• It doesn't matter what people say you can or cannot do - you make the choice and you live for it and pursue it e.g. become President or the housewife.
• It doesn't matter whether we are in a recession

THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE

The world will be a better place not when we control everyone to be like everyone else
But when everyone frees themselves to be the best they can be to the unity of humanity

If we feel we have a place in this world
That there is something we bring to the world by being the best of us
Then we will only have words and gestures to make others be the best too that they can be.