Like an Ostrich … in the Garden

Tags

challenge, clearly, God, nature, ostrich, problem, run, see the road, Wisdom

It was another busy day, and I was on my way to a campsite where I had to restore communications in a hurry.  The way to the campsite was filled with wildlife as usual, but one member of the bird species was particularly fascinating as always.  As I drove along the winding dirt road, I saw an Ostrich about 200m ahead of me to my right.  

Driving onward at a dutiful 40km per hour (yes….40…), the road wound towards the Ostrich briefly and then away.  I was nowhere near where the Ostrich was, and would not in any way get anywhere near it. But only I knew that.  Only I, had the knowledge and vision to see that the road would turn away from the Ostrich completely and we would never meet.

But to the Ostrich, the vehicle signified a source of danger that was greater than it could understand … so it ran.  It ran faster than life itself straight towards the vehicle but at an angle such that it would have crossed the road ahead of me … had I been stationery … and would hopefully get away to safety… even though it was already safe.

Running like an Ostrich … in the Garden

However, I was not stationery and try as it might, the Ostrich was never going to get ahead of the vehicle if I kept driving since the road was winding away from the Ostrich as well.  I stopped, thinking how foolish this bird was to think that the best way to overcome a challenge was to cut across it’s path at top speed without understanding that challenge in the least bit.

Yet, how many times do we do that very same thing in our lives?

“Eeek! Not me!”, You might be thinking.

Hmmm… how about that conflict with the one(s) we love that we try to overcome by getting the upper hand in the conflict… instead of stopping to understand the source of the problem and then addressing it calmly… and end up exacerbating the problem… or even creating one where there was none…

…and that competitor whom we try to beat by reducing our prices without first understanding the real reason why our customers are moving to the competitor instead of staying with us…

… and that teenager or staff member we reprimand without first understanding what drove them to make the mistake in the first place…maybe it was not even a mistake, but the right thing to do under the circumstances…. maybe? Maybe there was no problem after all?

Hmmm… maybe a little prayer to God will help… to ask that He open our eyes to see the road more clearly, and to grant us His wisdom and guidance to address the challenges we face correctly.

Yes, I am sure it is better to walk with God in the Garden… than to run like an Ostrich every time I hear something come along that looks like a problem… straight into the… or a … problem.

Do pray with me for God’s wisdom, and …

Come … walk with me in the Garden.

Copyright © 2012. Ophelia Swai.  All Rights Reserved.

Crystal Clear … in the Garden

Tags

clarity, cricket, crystal clear, dream, game, God-fearing, guide, success

The challenges of life … always there, always present.  Each time you think you have completed something and can rest, another challenge comes through.  In what seems to be a determined effort to stretch you to the limit, the Garden throws another gauntlet and waits… as if to say: ‘catch this one if you can!’ Like a game of cricket, you keep swinging  your bat with all your skill and might, in the hope that this hit will be a good one, and you can run a full round without someone catching the ball and effectively stopping you in your tracks…

Many say that if you are lucky you will make a good hit and complete the round … realize your dreams.  But many, many times you do not finish, and have to complete the round in fits and starts.  Each time you fail to make a good hit, your completion of the round … the realization of your goals … begins to depend on someone else.  As you wait for someone else to swing the bat, you stand in place and wonder when it will be your turn again… when you will have the chance to make that good hit that will allow you to simply win the game, not just for yourself, but for your team, for your family, for your friends … You stand in place and wonder when you will find your own dream again, and stop living someone else’s dream.

Yes … if you are lucky…

But a good cricketer knows that to be a success in your game, you cannot depend on luck, but only on your skills as a team player and on your individual skills.  A good cricketer knows that you have to find the right way to make that hit good every time, with precision and with clarity as to what you want to achieve each time round … with crystal clear clarity as to what dream you want to achieve, why, and how you will achieve it.  That dream of success can only come with clarity about your natural talent, the areas where you need to improve, the dedicated growth of your skills, and the courage and determination to go for it and act swiftly when the opportunity comes… when your turn to hit that ball comes.

And a good God-fearing cricketer also knows that success is even more fulfilling, when it is guided by God to receive the clarity you need, and then use it wisely, purposefully and courageously to achieve that which is according to His will.

Are you planning on making a good hit?

Crystal Clear new beginning in the Garden

Come … walk with me in the Garden.

Copyright © 2012. Ophelia Swai.  All Rights Reserved.

Saving the Garden

Tags

beautiful garden, buffalo, deforestation, endangered, environment, Garden of Eden, global warming, God’s creation, nurture, saving, Sunrise

When God created man, it is said that He specifically gave man a command to  take care of all of His creation on earth.  The story of the Garden of Eden tells us, that it was only after God had given Adam that specific instruction that He noticed that Adam was ok taking care of creation, but was lonely… and the rest is history.

It was therefore with great amazement when I first visited that great and adventure-filled little corner of the Garden called the Serengeti, having expressed concern about the wild animals (and especially the buffalo), was told that all animals know man to be the ‘super-predator’. With that knowledge, comes fear of ‘man’.  Therefore, if man get’s into their personal space, their only reaction is to defend themselves from certain death.

A vulnerable buffalo will defend himself if you get too close … in the Garden

The congruence between the biblical story and man’s experience of animals in the wild gave me pause for thought.  God’s creation still views man as the master on earth, even though God banished man from the Garden of Eden.  This task of taking care and therefore of being the master of creation was never taken away by God.

It makes me sad therefore when I think and see how much man has abrogated his duties to concentrate so fully on himself as to render God’s creation endangered in so many different ways and so many different places … so much so that he has in turn endangered his very own existence.

Everywhere I turn, I see and hear of man’s activities resulting in deforestation, over-usage of land, pollution, global warming and lack of ever so important rain that gives us water and allows plants to grow… a core element of life itself.

Will we ever stop allowing ourselves to be deceived by that deceitful serpant and eating that fruit at the centre of the Garden out of selfishness and self-centredness? I know I dream of a utopia when I say this, but what if we stopped demolishing the Garden and started taking care of it as we were supposed to?  Would we not find ourselves right back in the Garden of Eden?

I thank God for the opportunity to experience His creation so beautifully in that little corner of the Garden, and I pray that more and more each day, we will all take a little step closer to fulfilling that command which God gave us so long ago … to take good care of His creation … and so create for our ourselves and future generations a place that we can truly recognize as an ever more beautiful Garden.

Teach your child to love God’s creation starting today… and play your part in saving our beautiful Garden from a certain extinction… no matter what anyone else is doing, for every little act helps to change our Garden and to change others who are with us in the Garden.  Do join me … and nurture the Garden with me… for an ever more beautiful sunrise everyday.

An ever more beautiful sunrise in the Garden

Come … walk with me in the Garden.

Copyright © 2012. Ophelia Swai.  All Rights Reserved.

Surprise! ... In the Garden

Tags

giraffe, God, nature

Reblogged from Ophelia Swai's Blog:

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I wake up every morning, 6 days a week, rushing through my paces.  I have many things to do before it is time for me to leave the house and get to my office.  It is always such a battle, because, I usually have found it hard to wake up on time in the first place.

But this morning I had woken up on time. 

Read more… 536 more words

What a wonderful morning to remember ... Come ... walk with me in the Garden

Loving God … in the Garden

Tags

authority, bird, blessing, child, commandments, faith, forgiving God, heaven, love, marabou stork, obey God, testimony

“Wewe ndege! Shuka!” a little girl said.  “Huyu ndege anasumbuasumbua … Wewe ndege! Shuka! Nitakuchapa!”.  The girl of about 2 ½ years was adamant that the bird must come down.   “You Bird! Come down!” she was saying.  “This bird is troublesome … You bird! Come down! Or I will smack you!”

She had arrived at the garden restaurant and immediately been attracted to the Marabou Stork that was walking about the garden in between the tables.  She ran towards it seeking to touch it, but she was surprised to have the bird suddenly flap its wings almost knocking her down in its haste, and fly off to the top of a table umbrella nearby.  She was very upset with it then… and began to mumble to herself.  I could not hear the words and wondered what the girl was up to …  until she began to shout at the bird to come down immediately or she would smack it.  A family member eventually came to take her away to a safer place to play … the play pen with the more friendly slides, seesaws and swings.

Just Another Day in the Garden

Clearly she had learned a very important lesson in life … disobedience would result in a smack.  It did not seem to matter to her how she would get to the bird to smack it… the lesson was that if one disobeyed, there would be consequences, and one could not escape those consequences.

I liked what her parents had taught at an early age, even though the smacking may be a little strong for some.  The point was that there would be negative consequences if one disobeyed an authority.  Interesting part was that she had instinctively taken authority over the bird… but that is a story for another day.

Then it got me thinking about our wonderful and forgiving God.  Our Father in heaven whom we disobey every day and who does not come down in anger to deny us food, shelter or clothing, or cause major calamities in our lives … but lovingly continues to knock on our life’s and heart’s doors and show us His way that we may receive His grace and blessings now, and even more abundantly in His heavenly kingdom. 

Yes, retribution exists, but our loving God instead prefers that we make a choice to love Him and so be empowered to obey Him with the greatest of ease. As a priest last Sunday said: “If you love someone, you do what they say, don’t you? And it is so easy to do when you truly love them.”

Even better, God does not command us to love and obey Him just for His own sake, but that we may live a life of true love filled with His blessings, and better yet, be prepared to receive the greatest blessing of being with Him in His heavenly kingdom.

Do we stop to think how much better life could be if we just obeyed His commandments diligently?  Does anyone have a testimony of obedience to God that led to a more fulfilled life than one could ever have imagined?  If you do, please share it, for I am sure that such big or little experiences will open up for us all a beautiful new beginning filled with God’s love, mercy and grace.

Do share with us your experience…

Come … walk with me in the Garden.

*The language spoken by the little girl is Swahili.

Copyright © 2012, Ophelia Swai. All Rights Reserved

Enough … in the Garden

Tags

elephant, elephant grass, fear, fear of poverty, God’s heavenly kingdom, greed, laziness, peace, poverty, pride, wildebeest, wildebeest migration

The wildebeest migration had come through again.  They always came in large numbers, but this time there were more than I had ever seen in 6 years of being in the little corner of the Garden.  They were just about everywhere… and the raucous from their rutting was almost deafening.

Sharing resources in the Garden

I had watched 2 of them fight one day… that fight that stopped as soon as they realized I was watching, even as their next of kin and friends continued about their business without butting in, whether to stop the fight or to contribute to it.  It was the rutting season for them and their fight was known to be a show of strength in competition for the females… an age old competition in creation.

The wildebeest are known to decimate the vegetation whenever they visit any place.  When they came by, the tall, tall elephant grass would be demolished so quickly, that we called them ‘the natural lawn mowers’.  Yet, even as they ate the vegetation to the ground, I did not once see any fights about food itself … something we human beings have not learned yet.  Despite their large numbers, and despite the scarcity of food when they begin to eat the food to the ground, they simply moved away to the next place, trusting that somehow there will always be a place with something to eat… trusting in nature and its ability to replenish itself so that they can feed well, even when there is a drought …

…in sharp contrast to the way we human beings live.  While the wildebeest go about freely, we live in constant fear of not having enough to eat or to entertain ourselves with … in fear of not having enough resources.  It gets harder when we have been brought up in a place where there is not enough to eat, and as we go about our days, the fear of poverty gnaws at us and drives half to death, as we struggle to get more than our fair share of daily bread… thinking that with more than enough to eat, we shall somehow prevent poverty from assaulting us in our young and old days.  Forgetting completely that God is the one that gives, we are willing to go to any lengths to assuage our needs… such lengths as to cause the death in mind, body and spirit of those around us through our words and deeds.

On the other end of the scale are those that will not lift a finger to do anything.  Don’t get me wrong … I am not talking about those that try to do something, but do not get the chance simply because there are no opportunities.  I am talking about those that have the opportunities, but simply refuse to do anything, out of laziness or pride regarding the type of jobs they will accept to do … unknowingly causing pain and distress to those around them that care for them and end up having to take care of them… unknowingly slowly killing the spirits of those who love them who are forced to watch them slowly destroy themselves.  Did God not say: ‘Thou shall not kill’?

So … the wildebeest can teach us something… that there can be enough to eat if we were all willing to work for it honestly, and then share what we can of it.  

No matter what end of the scale you are in, are you willing to make a change and give more to life … starting today?

The sun shines for everyone ... in the Garden

Come … walk with me in the Garden.

Like a chameleon … in the Garden

Tags

attitude, blame, chameleon, changes involuntarily, character, choice, environment, fear tactics, God, self preservation

When I was a child, I lived in abject fear of having a chameleon anywhere near my hair.  It started because I did not like the whole exercise of eating.  After a couple of mouthfuls I was no longer hungry and could not understand why I had to eat the whole entire meal!  So I kept giving my caregiver a truly onerous task of sitting with me and coaxing me to eat just one more spoonful for hours and hours every day at every meal except breakfast, as I got bored half to death by this onerous task of chewing and swallowing and chewing and swallowing and chewing….  Then one day she decided to use fear tactics to make me eat my meals quickly.

“If you don’t eat your food I will get a chameleon and put it on your head!”, she said forcefully.  At first I did not care since I did not really get what that meant.  What was a chameleon anyway?!

Realizing that the statement was not making any difference, she proceeded to say: “Heh!  You just continue playing with your food.  When the chameleon gets on your hair it will never let go of it! The only way to get it out will be to cut off all your hair!”

Now, that got my ears all perked up, my heart thumping with fright, and my mouth chewing.  I loved my hair (and she knew this), and could not imagine anyone cutting any part of it, much less all of it!  That was enough to change my perspective regarding whether I should eat my food with or without coaxing.

Of course the story about chameleons grabbing hair and never letting go was not real, but I took interest in chameleons since then.  I learned that a chameleon has the ability to change to the same color as its surroundings even as it moves.  I would sometimes watch one for hours as it moved across the branch of a tree in the garden to see what color it would be next… making sure it never got anywhere near me of course…

Now, I see how positive a characteristic this is for its self protection… and how closely we as human beings mimic this same characteristic … just as involuntarily as the chameleon changes… for self preservation?

The chameleon is defined by its surroundings … and so are we.

We naturally adapt to our surroundings and begin to take on the behavior and culture, as well as perspective of the world based upon the circumstances and people we are surrounded by.  Even more intense is the effect of the people we have closest to us daily … and just like the chameleon, this happens involuntarily.

And so, when our surroundings are filled with good things to lift up our spirits, and positive attitudes and God fearing friends, colleagues and relatives, we tend to pick up those characteristics and attitudes and find our spirits free.  But when our surroundings are filled with negativity that brings our spirits down … negative attitudes towards anything and everything, theft and plunder, jealousy, corruption and every kind of vice, we begin to see these as normal and slowly our conscience is killed.  We begin to see the world from a different perspective, and our hearts are filled with ideas and plans that draw us further and further away from God … involuntarily…

Changing colors ... in the Garden

… Or is it?  The spiral into negativity is very appealing, because often, with it comes the feeling of a loss of responsibility toward God and humanity, as the burden of life is lifted off our shoulders … ‘It is not our fault’, we say… ‘life is the way it has to be… that is just how it is … things just work that way around here .. this is just the way people are so we have to live with it .. it is because of the media, our leaders, my friends, my family…’.  These are the excuses we give ourselves, deferring the blame to our surroundings, as if we did not have a choice to make to take ourselves out of that negativity.

A chameleon changes involuntarily, but I believe that as a human being I have a choice to make.  I have a choice to change and live positively or to allow myself to change negatively… and simply blame my environment for the character that it enforces on me… ‘Hey! Don’t  blame me! This is for self defense!’, I hear you say.

I am making a choice to walk steadfastly in God’s light and love in the Garden no matter what my surroundings present to me.  I am making a choice to portray a bright and beautiful color from within me, which I pray will shine so brightly as to illuminate positively into my surroundings and make this world a better place to live.  Will you join me?

A beautiful light illuminating the Garden

Come … walk with me in the Garden.

Copyright © 2012. Ophelia Swai.  All Rights Reserved.

Nurturing … in the Garden

Tags

acceptance, commandments, follow the commandments, guided by the holy Spirit of God, hearts, Holy fear of God, minds, souls, understanding

Someone once said to me, when you feed a person today, you give them food to nurture themselves for only one day … and bind them to a lifetime of seeking food from you and others every day.

But, when you give a person the skills, tools and opportunity to get their own food, you free them up to serve themselves … and free yourself to save someone else.

Nurturing God's creation ... in the Garden

Similarly, I believe, for leaders of the flock… beware of binding the flock to a fear of men that is greater than a Holy fear of God… for you cannot be there every moment of every day to watch over them and their conduct.

Instead, guide them to the Holy Spirit of God, who will do what you cannot do in your absence from them.

As I see it, when you teach your flock the commandments of God, and strive to control them through man’s retribution, you create in them a fear of men in your presence … that is greater than the Holy fear of God.  Imagine what will happen when they are not in your presence … for the Spirit of God is not within them.

But, when you teach your flock the commandments of God, and strive to instill in them an understanding and acceptance of the Spirit of God, they will be guided by the Holy Spirit of God to follow the commandments of God … in the presence of God … whether they are in your presence or not … for their hearts will be  filled with he Holy Spirit, and the gift of the Holy fear of God.

Be not concerned with what other people will say of you and your flock… be more concerned with what God will say about your leadership of the flock that God has granted you.

Be less concerned by what a person looks like… instead keep greater vigil over what is inside their hearts, minds, souls.

Loving God's creation ... in the Garden

Come … walk with me in the Garden

Copyright © 2012, Ophelia Swai. All Rights Reserved

Obedience … in the Garden

Tags

baby elephant, children, elephant herd, fear, guide us, happiness, joy, obey God, parents, safe, trust, walk with God in the Garden

An elephant herd had come by the office.  When I drove down the slope to the parking lot I thought that they had moved on.  After all, had I not detoured to the staff mess for a whole 15 minutes?  I was so certain they had moved on, that I did not look around well enough and I was already out of my vehicle and walking down the pathway towards the office building before I noticed that there were elephants on either side of the lawn through which I was traipsing… almost singing like a lark at having got to the office on time after all.

I was too late to do anything about the situation… there was no point in running, and I had to steel myself and keep walking steadily.  I soon realized that the elephants actually wanted nothing to do with me.  They were too busy minding their own business.  I also noticed that almost all my colleagues were all along the office verandah standing in great awe at the elephant herd … we worked in the bush, but were still awed by the wonder and majesty of the Garden we were living in.

I got onto the verandah, opened my office door for a quick dash in if needed and joined my colleagues to watch the elephant herd.  It was a big herd with all ages in it.  We watched happily as a tiny baby elephant walked away from under the belly of its mother and began to explore.  They were getting comfortable with our like standing there and watching them.  But when people started to walk closer to try and take snaps of the little one, not just one, but a number of elephants moved closer around the little one and put it firmly back under the belly of one of them.  Great thing is… the little one quickly obeyed… and stayed there for safety.

Obedient baby elephant in the Garden

… The little one obeyed… and stayed there for safety.  Something that not all human children do… unless their parents really work hard at it… and even then, they chose whom to obey and whom not to… not just anybody in the community around them.  And so they grow up into adults, that do not quite obey their leaders, nor quite obey God.  Yes, this is a truly difficult lesson if there ever was one, as it requires such complete trust to obey… or fear. Yet it is obedience to God that is the fulfillment of all of God’s commandments, for we cannot obey God without obeying all of His commandments.

The baby elephant obeyed its elders, and so remained safe…and I know that if we obey God, He too will keep our souls safe… no matter what happens to our bodies, or our lives in this great and beautiful Garden that He has created.  I know too that by obeying God, we will find that not just our souls, but our bodies and lives are safer too, for He will guide us on the right way to take through the maze of life that we create for ourselves in the name of seeking happiness.  I know too that in obeying God, we begin to experience true and lasting happiness, a joy that seeps from deep within our souls and fills our whole being.

It is wonderful to walk with God in the Garden… for His mercy endures and never ends… do you want to join me?

Come … walk with me in the Garden

Copyright © 2012, Ophelia Swai. All Rights Reserved

Change … in the Garden

Tags

adjust, age old path, blessing, change, choose change, elephant, God, good fruit, herd of elephants, man and beast, resisting change

The construction crew had been working hard for just less than a year.  They had a deadline to complete the construction within days and they were tired.  The final touches and snagging were taking place… and the landscaping was in progress.  The tennis court was a crucial element in the construction… it had to be ready before the big day because the owner of the building site had to play a game every morning.  The compacting equipment was causing the ground to tremble giving out a low rumble … the laborers were briskly moving about putting whatever was needed in place

… Until they suddenly found themselves face to face with a herd of elephants.

Both man and beast froze as they looked at each other in shock.  None seemed to know what to do next… the elephants had not expected to come through the brush and find humans… the humans had not expected the elephants to come around an area where the humans were so many….

Eventually the elephants turned and walked away….

Only to return a year or so later to walk straight through the gardens that were so well manicured by then.  Fortunately they came through when everyone was asleep.  Yes, the elephants had decided to reclaim their age old path through the Garden, and even though they were aware that it would not be comfortable to pass through during the day with all the humans moving about… they knew they would be relatively comfortable passing through at night, when the humans were at rest.

The elephants were resisting change.  The human interference into their pathways in the Garden was not going to force them to change those pathways, and whenever they wanted to use them, they did… cautiously.

Elephants making their way through an age old path in the Garden

It is not often that we think of initiating a change in our lives, yet sometimes we do it, because we see something positive in the end.  More often it is forced upon us.  But when we do make the choice ourselves, we have hope that one day, at the end of the journey of change, we shall rest, and be able to say thank you to God for showing us the way and giving us the strength, courage, wisdom, grace to follow the way that He has shown us to the end. At the very least, we hope that we shall enjoy that wonderful blessing or result that draws us so strongly to the change.

Yet, change is never easy, and we usually spend every ounce of our energies fighting it or around it… even when we chose it ourselves.  We fight the change by trying to do everything we can to make our lives run as they used to before we began the change… so the baby wants to stay still after being born, and the doctor has to shock her/him into action lest s/he die of suffocation… 

Soon we reach the age where we are expected to start our own families.  By this time our characters are set, our ways are set, and while we look forward to married life and a family, we so often do not understand the need for yet another change… to adjust to the character and ways of the one we have chosen to spend the rest of our life with.  And so we begin to fight the change that marriage invariably forces upon us… even though we chose this change ourselves.

No… change is never easy…. But for those that persevere to the end, change can bear good fruits… and the closer one has been to God and the more one has involved God in that change, the better and longer lasting the fruits become.

If you are going through a change, stop now and think about the blessing that is within it… and the hope you have had about the fruits it would bear… is it worth it leaving this change now? Stop and ask God to guide you through it and ask that He clarify and strengthen your hope that He will bring you to bear good fruit and that He will give you rest, as you steadily walk ever closer to Him in His great and beautiful Garden.

Are you going through a change?

A beautiful sunrise is the change from darkness to light in the Garden

Come … walk with me in the Garden

Copyright © 2012. Ophelia Swai.  All Rights Reserved.