Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
After confirming that my relationship with my husband was conducive to my quest, I decided to analyse my relationship with my children.
The first thing that immediately came to mind is that I had to change my relationship with them and start teaching them about God. Something I had never bothered with before I started on my search for my missing ‘something’. My daughter was still a baby and my niece and my nephew were primary school going children.
As far as my daughter was concerned, I decided that I would read the bible to her to start with and pulled out a children’s Bible I had purchased for my nephew when he was younger.
My niece and my nephew were already being taught about what the Bible says in their CRE class. I check my nephew’s homework on a daily basis and assign him my own homework in different subjects every day in addition to the school homework. Yes, I am demanding. I was therefore fully aware that their CRE class does not cover the idea of God being a hunk made of tiny little pieces called human beings or the meaning of WHO I AM, or connecting with your perfect self inside you, or about how God communicates to us by making us feel passionate about what we need to do, or about how the refusal to acknowledge the existence of God inside us is a dangerous thing, or about how doing good connects us with God, or about how deep thought constitutes prayer.
Soon after I started considering this issue, my rotary club organized a day for us to visit a school whose students we were told had ‘gone to the dogs’. Our assignment was to talk with the students and give them motivation to hang in there and reap the fruits of hard work. I signed up for the visit primarily because I was curious to see what children who had ‘gone to the dogs’ looked like and who their brave teachers were. Until the minute that I got up to introduce myself to the children, I had no idea what I was going to tell them. We had been told that drugs, alcohol, sex, sodomy, teenage pregnancies etc. were a part of these children’s lives. I was pretty sure that telling them to work hard and study hard was not going to get me anywhere.
When I started talking to the children, I told them that I was bringing them a message of love. I asked them whether they loved themselves and their answer was yes. I told them that throughout the time that we would be talking to them, from that day on till the day they died, they should be asking themselves one question: ‘Do I love myself?’ and if they do, then they should choose to do good. I asked them whether they knew what a good child does and they gave me a list of answers. I asked them whether they knew what lawyers and doctors and pilots and engineers do and they looked confused. I told them to concentrate on what they knew which is being good children.
After the introduction, the children and ourselves were divided into three groups. While talking to my group about God, I addressed with them the question I had asked them to keep asking themselves about whether they love themselves and if they do, they should do good. Thankfully, they all remembered. Next I picked on one boy who stood up at which point I asked him to go get me the HIV virus. He smiled and shook his head and said that he could not. I asked him why not? He said he did not know where to get it. I asked him whether he had seen it. His answer was no. I asked him whether it existed. His answer was yes. I asked him how he could know it existed yet he had never seen it and did not know where to get it from. He looked confused. I picked on one girl and asked her to stand up. I asked the boy whether he knew if she had the virus. His answer was no.
I then asked him whether he knew how to get infected with HIV. He gave me the answers in a flash. Unprotected sex, blood transfusion and dirty needles.
Going back to the question: ‘Do I love myself” and if the answer is yes, I do good. I asked the children whether the Bible says that God is good and God is love. Their answer was yes. So I told them that loving yourself and doing good is how you get infected with God since God is love and God is good. Just like with the HIV virus, you cannot see either God or the virus infecting you. I asked them whether they would like to be infected with God. Their answer was yes. I explained to them that EVERYTHING in the world belongs to God who they told me was the creator of heaven and earth and if they were infected with God, they could have ANYTHING their heart desired and whatever they wanted because God created our president and his long motorcade of Mercedes benzes, he created the big mansions that were staring at the children from the hill across from the school, he created the cars we came in, he created the whole world, even the president of America. If that’s what God has done, what could he not do for them?
I was left hoping that some of them got the message and would aspire to love themselves and make good choices in their lives believing that God would infect them and give them anything they wanted. I was certain that their teachers got the message and they could at least repeat it to them when necessary. I promised to buy them a mirror to be looking at themselves and asking the question whether they love themselves.
On my part, I was astonished at that revelation. Later on I sat and thought deeply about what I had taught those kids wondering whether I had lied to them. The HIV virus can be detected under a microscope but can a microscope detect an infection of God? I did not think so but I believed that what I told those children would give them hope because it gave me hope. All I had to do is love myself and make the good choices in my life. Then God would infect me and I could have anything I wanted. I decided to believe that since science could detect infections in our bodies that cause illnesses it could also detect a good infection if someone passionate about science could think about it.
While still thinking about how simple it was to teach those children about God and how he can help them, I went back to the idea of passion ruling my life. I wondered how it was that God could make me have that strong feeling that made me know what I needed to do. To answer that question, I went back again to the idea of God being a hunk made of little pieces of which I was one of. I then looked at my hand and asked myself how it was that I was able to tell my finger what it needed to do.
Science came to my rescue because I remembered studying about the nervous system and how the brain sends messages to different parts of the body using electrical currents. So according to science, an electrical current travels through my nervous system, hits my finger and makes my finger do what I want. So by parity of reasoning, what God does is He sends me messages by electrifying me into action. A strong surge of this electrical current is what passion is. Then I asked myself whether my finger trusted me to make sure that it will succeed in what am telling it to do. I was wondering about my faith in God at the time. As a finger of God’s body, could I trust God to ensure that what He was telling me to do would not harm me? The answer was yes because I knew that if I did something to hurt my finger, I would be hurting myself. By parity of reasoning, God would not tell me to do something that he knew would hurt me because He would be hurting Himself.
That was the point when I took a deep breath and jumped up and sang Kirk Franklin’s ‘Stomp’ song. I was jazzed up by that revelation.
But one more thing came to mind. I asked myself what would happen to me if I decided to give all the different parts of my body the freedom to choose what they wanted to do. I thought back to the story of creation and remembered that on the seventh day, God rested. To my mind, this ‘resting’ that God was supposed to be doing was not resting at all. He was reflecting on what he had just done. He had given his eyes, his nose, his mouth, his neck, his arms, his legs, his toes etc, the freedom to choose what they wanted to do and he realized what a BIG MISTAKE that was.
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
After confirming that my relationship with my husband was conducive to my quest, I decided to analyse my relationship with my children.
The first thing that immediately came to mind is that I had to change my relationship with them and start teaching them about God. Something I had never bothered with before I started on my search for my missing ‘something’. My daughter was still a baby and my niece and my nephew were primary school going children.
As far as my daughter was concerned, I decided that I would read the bible to her to start with and pulled out a children’s Bible I had purchased for my nephew when he was younger.
My niece and my nephew were already being taught about what the Bible says in their CRE class. I check my nephew’s homework on a daily basis and assign him my own homework in different subjects every day in addition to the school homework. Yes, I am demanding. I was therefore fully aware that their CRE class does not cover the idea of God being a hunk made of tiny little pieces called human beings or the meaning of WHO I AM, or connecting with your perfect self inside you, or about how God communicates to us by making us feel passionate about what we need to do, or about how the refusal to acknowledge the existence of God inside us is a dangerous thing, or about how doing good connects us with God, or about how deep thought constitutes prayer.
Soon after I started considering this issue, my rotary club organized a day for us to visit a school whose students we were told had ‘gone to the dogs’. Our assignment was to talk with the students and give them motivation to hang in there and reap the fruits of hard work. I signed up for the visit primarily because I was curious to see what children who had ‘gone to the dogs’ looked like and who their brave teachers were. Until the minute that I got up to introduce myself to the children, I had no idea what I was going to tell them. We had been told that drugs, alcohol, sex, sodomy, teenage pregnancies etc. were a part of these children’s lives. I was pretty sure that telling them to work hard and study hard was not going to get me anywhere.
When I started talking to the children, I told them that I was bringing them a message of love. I asked them whether they loved themselves and their answer was yes. I told them that throughout the time that we would be talking to them, from that day on till the day they died, they should be asking themselves one question: ‘Do I love myself?’ and if they do, then they should choose to do good. I asked them whether they knew what a good child does and they gave me a list of answers. I asked them whether they knew what lawyers and doctors and pilots and engineers do and they looked confused. I told them to concentrate on what they knew which is being good children.
After the introduction, the children and ourselves were divided into three groups. While talking to my group about God, I addressed with them the question I had asked them to keep asking themselves about whether they love themselves and if they do, they should do good. Thankfully, they all remembered. Next I picked on one boy who stood up at which point I asked him to go get me the HIV virus. He smiled and shook his head and said that he could not. I asked him why not? He said he did not know where to get it. I asked him whether he had seen it. His answer was no. I asked him whether it existed. His answer was yes. I asked him how he could know it existed yet he had never seen it and did not know where to get it from. He looked confused. I picked on one girl and asked her to stand up. I asked the boy whether he knew if she had the virus. His answer was no.
I then asked him whether he knew how to get infected with HIV. He gave me the answers in a flash. Unprotected sex, blood transfusion and dirty needles.
Going back to the question: ‘Do I love myself” and if the answer is yes, I do good. I asked the children whether the Bible says that God is good and God is love. Their answer was yes. So I told them that loving yourself and doing good is how you get infected with God since God is love and God is good. Just like with the HIV virus, you cannot see either God or the virus infecting you. I asked them whether they would like to be infected with God. Their answer was yes. I explained to them that EVERYTHING in the world belongs to God who they told me was the creator of heaven and earth and if they were infected with God, they could have ANYTHING their heart desired and whatever they wanted because God created our president and his long motorcade of Mercedes benzes, he created the big mansions that were staring at the children from the hill across from the school, he created the cars we came in, he created the whole world, even the president of America. If that’s what God has done, what could he not do for them?
I was left hoping that some of them got the message and would aspire to love themselves and make good choices in their lives believing that God would infect them and give them anything they wanted. I was certain that their teachers got the message and they could at least repeat it to them when necessary. I promised to buy them a mirror to be looking at themselves and asking the question whether they love themselves.
On my part, I was astonished at that revelation. Later on I sat and thought deeply about what I had taught those kids wondering whether I had lied to them. The HIV virus can be detected under a microscope but can a microscope detect an infection of God? I did not think so but I believed that what I told those children would give them hope because it gave me hope. All I had to do is love myself and make the good choices in my life. Then God would infect me and I could have anything I wanted. I decided to believe that since science could detect infections in our bodies that cause illnesses it could also detect a good infection if someone passionate about science could think about it.
While still thinking about how simple it was to teach those children about God and how he can help them, I went back to the idea of passion ruling my life. I wondered how it was that God could make me have that strong feeling that made me know what I needed to do. To answer that question, I went back again to the idea of God being a hunk made of little pieces of which I was one of. I then looked at my hand and asked myself how it was that I was able to tell my finger what it needed to do.
Science came to my rescue because I remembered studying about the nervous system and how the brain sends messages to different parts of the body using electrical currents. So according to science, an electrical current travels through my nervous system, hits my finger and makes my finger do what I want. So by parity of reasoning, what God does is He sends me messages by electrifying me into action. A strong surge of this electrical current is what passion is. Then I asked myself whether my finger trusted me to make sure that it will succeed in what am telling it to do. I was wondering about my faith in God at the time. As a finger of God’s body, could I trust God to ensure that what He was telling me to do would not harm me? The answer was yes because I knew that if I did something to hurt my finger, I would be hurting myself. By parity of reasoning, God would not tell me to do something that he knew would hurt me because He would be hurting Himself.
That was the point when I took a deep breath and jumped up and sang Kirk Franklin’s ‘Stomp’ song. I was jazzed up by that revelation.
But one more thing came to mind. I asked myself what would happen to me if I decided to give all the different parts of my body the freedom to choose what they wanted to do. I thought back to the story of creation and remembered that on the seventh day, God rested. To my mind, this ‘resting’ that God was supposed to be doing was not resting at all. He was reflecting on what he had just done. He had given his eyes, his nose, his mouth, his neck, his arms, his legs, his toes etc, the freedom to choose what they wanted to do and he realized what a BIG MISTAKE that was.
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