When you are an ‘Ass’

‘…Go your way into the village over against you, and as soon as ye entered into it ye shall find an ass tied, whereon a man sat: loose him and bring him unto me. And if any man says unto to you, why do you this? Say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither.’- Mark 11: 1-3

…There are times in our lives we find our selves bound in problems and situations we don’t understand and can’t seem to get out off. As far back as we can remember, it’s always been like this, we’ve prayed, fasted and nothing. It seems like God will not deliver us, ‘maybe He even can’t’, we think.

We are limited to our situations ‘tied and tired’. Nothing seems to work, and now, the sad thing is we are getting used to it. We begin to declare ‘it’s always been like this anyway, why should God change things now!’… We proclaim God has ignored us; we might just get comfortable with our discomfort. Besides people have begun to call us an ‘Ass’. The sad thing is that we have not only begun to feel like one we have suddenly begun to look like one.

What do we do when we are burdened with life’s problems?
What do we do when we seem yoked to a particular situation and we can’t do anything about?
What do we do when people stare at us in disgust and consider us irrelevant?
What do we do when we begin to feel irritated about our incompetence and ineptitude?
What do we do when the problem-solver does not solve the problem?

‘Wait?’

Yes!

Not because we want to, but because we have no choice but to.

‘Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint’ -Isaiah 40:31

No one has to teach us to wait; we wait because we don’t have a choice but to.
It is not, having to wait that is the problem, it is how to wait that bothers God.
And when we wait …with Faith, upon the Lord, God moves beyond our situation and reaches out to our need. In that very predicament we find our selves, He says ‘loose him and bring him unto me I have need of him’. And then at that point, He raises us and Glorifies His Name in us from the very situation we found our selves unto the point people celebrate our existence in God.

But then, can you envision if the donkey had boasted in itself as the multitude celebrated Hosanna?

We will probably say ‘foul!! Doesn’t it realize the celebration wasn’t for the 'ass' but for Him whom it carried?’

But don’t we all do that, carry the Glory for our selves just after God has delivered us?

God expects us to return all the Glory unto Him…and yes, even when you are an ass.

Written by ‘Rotimi Alade

Guess Who Is To Blame? … You!

‘…The Lord sent out a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so the ship was liken to be broken… and Jonah said unto them ‘take me up and cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is unto you’-Jonah 1:1-15

WHAT!…isn’t something wrong with that picture? What does he mean by, ‘throw me out’?

Amazing... What integrity!

How many of us can actually say that? Admit it’s our fault, or at least that we contributed to the problem especially when no one realizes, and say, ‘I guess the best thing you should do is ‘throw me out’. Or say ‘Oh! The company is experiencing a serious financial problem, hey boss! Fire me! Fire me! I am the cause.’

I don’t think anyone will say so… But Jonah did. He wasn’t going or doing what God told him to do. Most of the time we are not also actually doing what God told us to do, or worse, we are doing what he told us not to do.

How many have the courage to say after stealing a pen from your office in a multi-national company, that ‘I’m the cause why the company is facing a depression, fire me!’

Well I guess you are saying, ‘Rotex, it’s only just a pen!’

Oh! I presume it would be more dignifying if someone said ‘fire me’ after embezzling half of the company’s profit? (I think you will rather not say so, especially when no else one knows.)

Well, what I’m trying to get at is whether you stole a pen or a million-dollar-worth of pens, how many of us will admit that we are the (major or minor) contributory factor to the problem of the company or the society and dare I say the problem in our lives!

Most of us quickly believe or pretend to believe the problem is out there. We could sound patriotic and blame the west, or sound political and blame the government, or even still sound religious and blame the devil…. and like Jonah, we sleep in our ignorance or worse still in our arrogance.

The root to all ‘sea-sickness-problems’ is the sin of disobedience.

God expects us to admit our guilt when we go wrong. (…And yes especially when no one knows, because the truth is, God already knows.)

Only when we submit our self to Him and we throw our self out off the ship-of not doing what God expects from us, he will save us and also cease the ‘problem sea’ from raging.

Though I must admit that it isn’t easy admitting ones guilt especially when you consequently get swallowed by a ‘fish’, but will we rather get swallowed by the ‘deep blue sea’?

Things can only go right when we stop fleeing away from God and His word, and stop pretending that we are comfortable in the midst of trouble and then end up bringing everything or everybody down.

I am not proclaiming that you should go out and start shouting I’m the cause of all the political crises and economic depression in the world or worse still the death of thousands of people that died in the bombing of the World-Trade-center. But rather in our inner-closet, if we all could only submit to God and admit our guilt, (for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. -Rom 3:23) He will save us through Christ Jesus.

Only then can I promise you that He would bring peace to the ship…. of your life.

Written by ‘Rotimi Alade