I am a Christian, I am not religious

For many years in my search for redemption, I needed others to be the hand of God to me. To let me know that if things didn’t work out, they would stand with me even if I stopped believing. I could not bear the responsibility for making sure my pain would eventually be turned into something that would make God look good. What I really needed to know was that in spite of my pain, I would be okay even if things never turned around.

Redemption has been misunderstood. Modern Christianity defines redemption as ‘’A state of existence in which the faithful to God receives what they expect to receive out of life and out of God more like getting the desires of one’s heart.

When this caricature of redemption becomes the hallmark of our faith it creates a real problem for us and for others. It becomes difficult to approach God outside the context of getting what we want. It leads to either disillusionment with God or a petty and shallow faith experience. When God doesn’t wipe the slate clean for us or our problems lingers too long, we begin writing our own version of Christianity pretending that solutions are simple (black & white) or based on our good works or faithful prayers rather than God’s grace.

To others, this storming down of our faith is either an over exposed snap shot of God with every little contrast or an underdeveloped Polaroid that doesn’t look a thing like God. And it is one of the main reasons Christians come across as out of touch, irrelevant or even cruel to the rest of the world and trust me I have experienced all three with people before I started understanding God just for me.

We might not be able to fully admit it yet but deep down many of us feels like God owes us. We think that because we are chosen and somewhat religious that God should deliver. Some years back, I used to memorize such verses as Psalm 37:5 ‘’commit your way unto the Lord: trust also in him and He will bring it to pass. But when things don’t come to pass we feel tricked. To us his promise of redemption, to give us a good life is a transacted agreement with his signature on the dotted lines and he needs to pay up or be sent to collections 😃. 

We think of the word redeemed and imagine the removal of pain, we see something broken in our lives or in the lives of others and envision it getting fixed within a certain time frame and we pray like this – Dear God, please take this or that away, help me do this or stop doing that. Please make this or that happen for me, us, them.

But things do not always work out do they? Infact, incredibly important things do not always work out. People get cancer, people die of malaria, people give birth to special needs babies and some who want them little miracles don’t get to have them. Some jump into the lagoon or put a bullet in their heads when they can no longer see themselves in this world or they stumble on an addiction and the best years of their lives are wrung out like a wash rag.

When things don’t work out the way we expect, some of us start comparing ourselves and our lives to that of others. But God Lagbaja does not go to church and I bet she doesn’t have time for morning devotion like I do but she has a good job, lives in banana Island, travels 3 times a year, drives a Toyota Venza e.t.c. By the way I love that car.

Toyota Venza 2017 Model

I know a lot of people who others think are bad seeing the way they live their lives that there is no way God can answer their prayers, boy were wrong? Oh, yes, they were because you have no flipping idea what level there are with God.

Quit jumping to conclusions, quit complaining and take charge of your life. Find God by yourself for yourself. It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy – Romans 9:16

As for me, aanu ni mo rigba (I received mercy).

PEACE OUT!!!