L.I.F.E. (Living in Father’s Expression)
THE HEART OF WISDOM
Not all grey hair is a sign of wisdom,
Samuel Phillips
some is a reminder of wasted years.
Our lives on earth are quite interesting, if seen clearly for what they are. The day a child is born, that very day he starts to die. Every birthday celebrated is one year subtracted. The grave is not far from us and the tree of life is always near for anyone who is paying attention. For death is life and life is death. None of us have years to live, we were only given days. And that’s why scripture says “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom”. Wisdom is God’s Spirit of creativity. So to create is to give life and not to create is not to give life. The question is, what are you creating daily and what are you giving life to? Do not live life as if life and death belongs to you. Yes, life and death is in the power of your tongue, but your tongue is also subject to the One Who has the power to destroy it by fire.
Live your life in humility before God and do His purpose. For gray hair of old age is not always the symbol of wisdom and the regret of wasted years is real.
In Afrika, old age is synonymous with wisdom. And that’s why an Afrikan proverb says that “When a child washes his hands clean, he will be permitted to eat with the elders”. This proverb may mean several things to several cultures in Afrika but generally it means that when a child begins to manifest wisdom, then he is given the chance to speak in the midst of the elders.
I grew up in Afrika knowing this proverb and the potency of its meaning. It made a whole lot of sense to me back then that someday I too was going to be called an elder, because somehow I always found myself among older men. In fact, I barely have friends my own age. But over the years in the same Afrika, and even as we stepped into the internet age, things started changing. Life was changing. The act of honor and respect for elders started changing. People to people interactions started changing to silence over phones. Friendships started becoming numbers and photos on Facebook and Instagram. They say truth should be found in the mouths of elders, but right before my eyes, I could see elders dancing in lies, speaking with forked tongues like snakes and wisdom started to fade into oblivion. Wisdom started to become what we merely talk about but not what we manifest. I started seeing that the elders who were supposed to be the carriers and custodians of wisdom were beginning to manifest foolishness. Foolishness started gaining strength and wisdom was been mocked at, because many sit in the midst of the elders, not because they are wise, but because they have money. Wisdom has been brought over to the kingdom of foolishness, and the elders who can afford to sell their souls are now the gatekeepers who are allowing foolishness into the home of wisdom.
And so, the Afrikan way of truth was corrupted and now Afrikans grope in the dark, reaching out to anything that pays, while neglecting the wisdom that says that he who beats the devil’s drum will dance the dance of death.
I see old politicians in our Afrikan nations making policies, decisions, choices that lack wisdom and for which the generation next will suffer. Wisdom was supposed to be found in the bosom of the elders, but in the dispensation that we find ourselves in, foolishness and the worship of money and gain have taken over, to the detriment of the beauty called Motherland Afrika.
A new generation of wise sons
God, nature, the universe does not wait for anyone. If the generation of wise men that we have now have decided to sell their Afrikan lot for money and that which nourishes the body and not the soul, then there must arise a new generation of young people who know what it means to be wise and by that knowledge will create a new pathway of truth, justice, equity, balance, honesty, love, kindness, compassion and brotherliness that will secure for us a future in Afrika. I watched the protests going on all over the world concerning the Black Lives Matter story and I tried to understand some things about it all. Certainly I love the fact that we are beginning to see and hear more people take the responsibility for a better Afrikan narrative, but the question is this, what really is the foundation of this whole protest and what is the vision or goal we are trying to achieve through it? I will leave you with those questions.
A wise son
Of Jesus it is written thus,
” And it happened, as He spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” (Luke 11:27)
This story talks about Jesus sharing some revelational words of wisdom to the crowd and a woman among them made the above statement. Now imagine yourself as a young Afrikan man speaking on TV, or a radio show, or the street, in a conference, or wherever else you are speaking, will men be able to listen to your words and proclaim that Afrika the Motherland is blessed for having you? Please think about this critically.
As Afrikans, we must begin to shift our hearts away from just ourselves alone or our immediate families and to start to think, speak and act Afrika, while creating a new culture that upholds love, compassion, brotherhood, Ubuntu instead of the self-hate that we have for ourselves. For the truth is, let’s say for example the white race suddenly disappeared from our world completely, do we have the moral and inner strength to uphold a new and unified Afrikan Black race?
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