Chapter 71

Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta

Chapter 71

What do you really want in life? Someone told me the other day that we all want money. That’s all everybody wants. Money.

I disagreed strongly. Nobody wants money. We all need money but no-one wants money. The only thing ALL of us want is to be ACCEPTED by ourselves. That’s all! Sounds silly doesn’t it? Its true. Think about it. What do you want? You just want to accept who you are and get on with your life. What others think about you is irrelevant because you are the only one who knows who you really are.

It is in trying to accept ourselves that we deceive ourselves about what we really want. Money is a means of achieving the status that one thinks s/he requires in order to accept himself or herself. We look at the lives of others and wish ours could be the same.

We are commanded by God not to covet our neighbours possessions. We covet our neighbour’s possessions when we are unable to accept ourselves and think that our neighbour has a better life than we do. The worst of it is that we think that we cannot accept ourselves as we are. It is not until you drive your dream car, live in your dream house, shop in our dream city, holiday in your dream getaway, work in your dream job, etc, that you will accept yourself, isn’t it? Why? Why can’t you accept yourself as you are right now this minute without further delay?

Achievements do not make a person. You are already the person you will always be regardless of what you have achieved in life. Death makes this concept crystal clear. A university degree will not earn you a peaceful death or eternal life! Neither will a posh car or a come-and-see house! When on your death bed, what will matter most is whether you can accept yourself as you are at that time even if you may not have achieved all your goals. You can die any time. So shouldn’t you accept yourself as you are right now? What are you waiting for?

Coveting your neighbour’s possessions can lead you to commit murder like King David did when he coveted the beautiful wife of Uriah, Bath-sheba. King David was King of Israel yet he was unable to appreciate what God has blessed him with and to understand that if God had blessed him with all that he had, God could bless him with much more. He did not have to kill another man in order to have a wife like Bath-sheba. God could have provided him with such a wife.

You too are a child of God and God is capable of giving you everything you desire if you appreciate what God has already done for you instead of looking at what you think God has not done for you. I have come to a realization that I cannot find my missing something until I accept myself.

Do not allow yourself to think less of yourself and more of others by coveting your neighbour’s possessions. Remember that in God’s eyes, we are all equal. Let God bless you with what is yours. Do not cut yourself off from your blessings by coveting someone else’s.

Do not allow yourself to put more value in possessions than in life by coveting your neighbour’s possessions. Remember that you take nothing with you when you die. You are the only one who can give yourself what you really want in life. Do not prevent yourself from achieving what you really want in life by coveting your neighbour’s possessions.

Accept yourself now and pursue your own blessings.

Chapter 70

Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta

Chapter 70

What about killing? Killing is nowhere close to being as common as stealing. I have often wondered to myself whether I could ever be capable of killing someone. I cannot imagine killing even someone who has killed a loved one of mine. But then again, perhaps given the chance, I would! I am certain that I can never make a conscious decision and execute a plan to kill someone, anyone, of my own free will. In fact, if I was threatened with death and asked to kill someone, I would just let myself be killed.

In my country there is a group of errant youths who gathered themselves together into a sect. The sect members were unleashed into the society with a mission of establishing a parallel government and collecting taxes from all and sundry using threat of force. They are akin to the Mafioso, just not as sophisticated. The sect grew into an organized gang and some people said that it was funded and perhaps initiated by some powerful politicians. These sect members were ruthless in their demands and spared no-one. At the height of their power, the sect members instilled the fear of satan in everyone who encountered them. Eventually our government got tired of the menace the gang was creating and it is said that they formed a police squad to eradicate the menace. Soon enough a story was told that bodies of young men were being discovered in forests and mortuaries with bullet wounds in their heads inflicted at close range!

Someone told me that as far as he was concerned, that was the only means by which those rogues could be dealt with. And I asked myself, is it really? Is killing allowed if the person you are killing is a baaaaaaad man? Not according to the Bible. There are no exceptions. It just commands that you shall not kill. I thought that assassinating the young men was not a solution to the problem at all. In fact, it only enlarged the problem. The question that should have been asked in an effort to solve the problem of this gang of ruthless sadists was: “What is their motivation?” “What attracts the members to join such a group instead of joining organized society and living within the limits of the law?”

I thought that part of their inspiration must have been the fact that one of our cabinet ministers was himself training a private army of his own youths. Other cabinet ministers were even linked to the creation of the sect! The larger part of their inspiration is of course unemployment, illiteracy, poverty and other problems which require a lot of money to solve. I suppose our leaders were not prepared to consider the possibility of forming a body that could address the problems of these young men and perhaps create for them a quasi-army institution where they could be rehabilitated. Imagine killing all those young men? Did they really deserve to die? Are there any consequences to those who killed those evil young men?

The Bible contradicts itself on the issue of killing. Killing during war was allowed and God permitted the leaders anointed by Him to kill off a whole city of people who did not know Him. David killed goliath! So why should we not have killed those demons of sect members?

My understanding is that you can kill in self defence. In war, you can kill because you are defending your life. God will understand if you kill someone who is threatening your life. Even the law recognizes self-defence as a defence to a charge of murder.
Were those sect members killed in self-defence? Yes, they threatened our lives and did kill some innocent people. But the circumstances in which they were killed was not one of combat. The people who killed them ambushed them, overpowered them, rendered them helpless and killed them. Differentiating sect members from ordinary young men trying to fit into society was no easy task for the assassination squad. Some innocent young men were killed in the process. These were someone’s father, son, brother, cousin, nephew or uncle. Their heads were blown off for the sake of eradicating an uncontrollable sect. I wonder if those left grieving for their loves ones can understand that the killing was for a good cause and accept that their relative was a martyr!

I also wonder whether the killing of these young men is a crime attributable only to those who actually pulled the triggers. I read the story of King David and Uriah in the Bible. King David organized for Uriah to be placed at the front line in battle without back-up so that he could be killed by the enemy and King David could have Uriah’s beautiful wife, Bath-sheba. God held King David responsible for the death of Uriah even though King David only issued a directive. It seems then that you don’t have to be the killer to be affected by the killing. And the punishment God dealt on King David was that his son died.

DO NOT KILL. IF YOU DO, YOUR CHILDREN WILL DIE YOUNG.

From this experience of the attempt to eradicate the sect, I have a better understanding of how terrorist gangs invade a country and plant bombs to kill the citizenry! I am quite certain that the sect has not been eradicated and soon enough, they will have their revenge. And when they kill our children, we shall know who the real killer is. It is us for supporting leaders who are murderers.

Chapter 69

Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta

Chapter 69

Stealing is an interesting thing. Why do we steal? And don’t bother denying it. You know you have stolen something from someone at some point in your life. We all have. We just choose to interpret the act of stealing as something like: making a profit or contributing to the philosophy of Robin Hood and leveling the playing field. Some of us tell ourselves that anyway, the person we are stealing from will not notice so it’s not really stealing. Question is, why not just ask for it then? Others who steal from government will say that the money belongs to them anyway since they work so hard for the millions who depend on them. The basic rule about stealing is:

“There is nothing wrong with it as long as you don’t get caught.”

Employees are the most numerous thieves around. Criminals who rob and steal are very few compared to employees who steal things from the houses or offices in which they work. For them, taking something from their employer without permission is not theft. Its leveling the playing field. “ My boss is so much more better off than me, how can s/he be harmed by me just taking a t-shirt or some stationery?” That’s what they ask themselves and of course they do not bother to think any further about the answer to that question. I have thought about it and come to a rude awakening about what stealing really does to someone. The act of stealing transfers the thief’s blessings to the thief’s victim.

Have you ever wondered why those mean heartless rich bosses just go on getting richer and richer as their employees come and go and others stay on without progressing an inch in their finances still running after unreachable money? Those bosses survive on the blessings of the employees who steal from them. The more you steal from your employers, the more you bless them! If you want to be blessed, do not steal. Run away from any situation that tempts you to steal because in the end, you are transferring your blessings to someone else.

Employers all know that employees steal from them. This is why employers endeavour to put in place systems to prevent or discourage theft. Citizens evade tax hence the need for taxation regulations to ensure that taxes are paid. What should an employer do with a thief of an employee?

First, DO NOT be offended by the theft. THANK GOD for giving you enough for yourself and for the thief. Then, take away from the thief any right or responsibility that tempts them to steal. If this is not possible, then you must separate yourself from the thief.

Stealing does not only transfer your blessings to the person you have stolen from. The consequences of theft can be fatal. Leaders who steal from the poor cause untold suffering to millions of people who become impoverished and die from poverty and disease. The suffering caused to the person you steal from is also transferred to you and your children. Most of the time, you are oblivious to that suffering and when you begin to experience all manner of tragic events in your life, you are unable to connect them to your theft and tell yourself it is God’s will!

DO NOT STEAL. IF YOU DO, YOU EXCHANGE YOUR BLESSINGS FOR SUFFERING.

Chapter 68

Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta

Chapter 68

I was wondering about the ten commandments and asking myself what significance they really have on my life. The one about having only one God and not worshipping idols makes sense as I discovered when I converted from my atheism. What about the other ones?

When I look around me and the society I live in, I see that obeying the ten commandments is regarded as an impossibility. Something that any sane person would not bother trying to do. Stealing, coveting, adultery, murder, perjury all these things are common place.

The commandment that caught my attention and made me think deeply about its significance is the one about honouring your mother and father. That commandment struck me as unduly oppressive since parents are usually very difficult people to deal with. Their needs are insatiable and their sins are unforgivable! Yet we are commanded to honour them. There are no exceptions or conditions to this commandment.

I thought about the beginning of a relationship between a parent and a child. This starts with the child being born. This is how we come into this world. We are born. Some of us believe that once we come into this world, there is nowhere else to go. This is it. Is it really? Have you ever wondered what it is that causes a heart to start beating? Is there a scientific explanation for that thing? The trigger. The one that starts you growing into a person and keeps you alive until death? Am I just this body I am in and when I die I rot and become part of the soil and remain here on this earth? Something tells me that there is more.

Assuming that there is more, how is it possible for me to continue into another life after I die in this one? The logical answer is that I will have to be born into that other world just like I was born into this one.

If I do not obey the commandment to honour my parents, is it possible then, that I cannot be born into the other world and I will be stuck here in this one forever?! Is that why the commandment to honour my parents is a commandment and not just a directive or a suggestion?

I will need parents to give birth to me and bring me into the new world I go to when I die in this one. If I don’t honour my parents in this life, what are the chances that I will have parents in the next one and not be stuck here? Christians believe that when Jesus comes again, the dead shall rise. If that is so, how can it happen without parents? I have never ever met anyone who came into this world otherwise than by being born. I therefore cannot imagine the possibility of a continuity in my life unless I honour my parents.

The commandment contains a promise. The promise is that if you honour your parents, your days will be long. I must admit that obeying this commandment is the main reason I try so hard to find ways and means to forgive my parents for their wrongs and to understand them and to be take care of their needs. I must get to Heaven. I cannot imagine myself in Hell. The enlightenment I have experience thus far is a wonderful feeling. I can only imagine how blissful the enlightenment in Heaven must be.

Every good thing you do in this world always has to have a benefit for you otherwise there can be no motivation for doing good. Unfortunately, the rewards are invisible and most people cannot understand how something like honouring your parents can be a rewarding experience.

I understand that honouring my parents will buy me a ticket on the next train to Heaven. Those who think that we are here to stay are right to the extent that if you don’t honour your parents, you are stuck here forever!

The meaning of the word HONOUR is: to venerate or to revere or simply, to hold in high respect. So I am commanded to hold my parents in high respect. Imagine that! I thought high respect is for presidents and kings and queens and billionaires. In the presence of anyone who fits these titles, most of us who don’t would squirm with reverence hoping and wishing that that person could so much as glance in our direction and should s/he shake our hand, well ………… we would feel honoured. Funny huh? Yet the people who gave us this life so that we could feel honoured by being noticed by some rich nobody cannot so much as instill a shiver in us when we see them!

The simple fact that you are alive. That you have a life. Is because of your parents. As you read this chapter, you should let that fact sink deeply inside of you and come to a realization of how important your parents are to you. Those eyes, that mouth, those fingers, that body of yours and everything that is in it which you got for free would not be yours were it not for your parents.

So next time that you dream about meeting the president of your country or some CEO of a conglomerate or some super star or the winner of the next Big Brother series or whoever it is you revere, know that those people are nowhere close in significance to your parents who gave you the ability to recognize those people.

Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land that the Lord your God gives you.

Chapter 67

Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta

Chapter 67

Flirting is harmless fun. Is it not? You’ve had a long week at work, you go to a bar to enjoy a drink and a game of pool after watching your favourite team playing soccer on the big screen television. It’s called ‘releasing steam’. Letting go of all the pressure and tension that has been building up when you were bogged down at work. Waking up to a realization that: ‘All work and no play make Jack and Jill dull children.’

A suggestive leer, a few naughty words, a slap on the bum, a pinch here and there, even a peck on the cheek and when tipsy enough, a raunchy dance on the dance floor. You even adopt cuddly names to use on anyone of the opposite sex. When you go to a restaurant, you call the waitresses ‘darling’ and the waiters ‘boy’. “Come here darling and take my order.” Or “Boy, what’s new on your menu?” You have no discomfort when strangers put their hands on you. Is this harmless fun? Yes, if you are single and ready to mingle.

But what if you are married or committed in a long term relationship? Is flirting harmless fun to you? Not if you stop and think and come to a realization that marriage and long term commitments begin with flirting!

So here you are, a married man, leering at a woman (who is not his wife) on the dance floor and telling yourself, am just flirting, it’s harmless. Or a married woman with the arm of a man (who is not her husband) around her waist pulling her close to him and telling herself, am just flirting, its harmless.

After a few flirting sessions here and there, SUSPICION is aroused. Those around the married person begin to wonder: ‘Is that not so and so’s husband?’ or ‘Is that not so and so’s wife?’ And they take a keen interest on the harmless fun that the married person is having. They even join in hoping that they might get some! Some jealous ones confront the married person asking: ‘How come you did not come with so and so (in reference to their spouse)?’ The married person replies, ‘What’s wrong, am just flirting!’ And goes on with the enjoyment of this harmless fun.

In time, people start talking about how that married person behaves in the absence of their spouse. And they say all manner of things. The most popular one being: ‘that marriage or the relationship won’t last!’ They even start making bets about how long it will be before the marriage or relationship collapses. They are absolutely certain that for that person to be behaving in that manner, something is not right at home. And when they meet the spouse of the married person, they are so keen to enquire about how things are and they scrutinize the spouse’s countenance to see if the suspicion has been aroused in them. If they see no suspicion in the eyes of the spouse, their suspicion is dulled. Suspicion, feeds on suspicion. If you are suspicious, you need others to be suspicious like you so that you can all bask in the light of that suspicion knowing that the suspects are being brought out into the arena to entertain your suspicion.

On seeing that the spouse is not suspicious, the suspicious person worries that his/her ticket to watch the fight at the arena might go to waste and s/he CANNOT have that happen. So s/he takes time to think and ponder about the best way to arouse suspicion in the spouse without making himself/herself a suspect. No-one wants to be in the arena! Pretty soon, a light bulb flashes bright in the mind of the suspicious person as s/he comes to a realization of how the suspicion can be aroused in the spouse without making himself or herself a suspect. Email! Anonymous email messages sent to the spouse! Fantastic idea!

So the spouse begins to receive a few taunting email messages from someone who cares about his/her welfare and wishes to warn him/her about the danger s/he is in. NO evidence is needed to prove the allegations made about how the married person has been behaving. Suspicious behaviour is all that is needed. What is the spouse to do? If the spouse is an excitable impulsive creature who does not stop to wonder who this anonymous caring person really is, s/he will hit the roof and come down on the married person like a meteor from Mars. And the fighting begins. The suspicious people surge into the arena falling over each other to come and spectate and witness the gory fight and see the blood flowing with each blow. Suspicion has come to fruition. The flower of suspicion has blossomed and the suspicious spectators have come to see it wither and die like all flowers do.

In his or her defence, the married person says that s/he has NEVER done any of the things s/he is being accused of and challenges the spouse to prove any of those allegations. ‘Don’t you trust me? You know am not like other people! Don’t listen to those busy bodies who are just envious of you!’ The spouse knows very well that it is very possible that the contents of the email messages are fabricated and the same can be done to the spouse. But the question here is, why are the email messages being sent? Is it fair for you to expect your spouse to just quell the suspicion aroused in him/her in light of your behaviour, just because you are not like other people? Should it not be you stopping the flirting so that you show that you are not like other people?

The person who can solve the problem of arousing suspicion is not the one to whom the messages are being sent. The spouse has no idea what has aroused the suspicion! It is the married person who knows the source of the suspicion. But, s/he is not willing to stop and consider for even a minute the obvious fact that it is the flirting that has aroused the suspicion. Flirting is HARMLESS FUN! Is it not?

No self-respecting woman is a flirt. Flirting as far as women are concerned is ugly. You flirt as a woman and the whole world calls you a slut. If a man flirts, its harmless fun. A married man will tell his wife that flirting is not good for her. But he can flirt because he is a man. This is chauvinism in the 21st century.

Ask yourself: How do extra marital affairs and promiscuity get started? By flirting! Is that not obvious? And do men have extra marital affairs or not? They do, many many many of them so much so that it has become the norm. And yet, flirting to them is HARMLESS FUN.

Flirting is harmful and it is not funny! It hurts both you and your spouse. It arouses suspicion and in time, that suspicion grows into a hunt for blood. If you ever wondered WHAT A WOMAN REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WANTS. Here is the answer, plain and clear, easy to understand but DIFFICULT for any chauvinist of the 21st century to ever comprehend:

ALL A WOMAN REALLY WANTS IS FOR HER MAN TO STOP FLIRTING.

If all married and committed people could stop flirting and stop arousing suspicion, marriages would remain the sacred bonds that they are meant to be instead of being turned into the bondage that they have become.