LIFE & MEANING
The GROWJOURNALSeptember - December 2013.
Editor:
David Dungji Chinke
Contributors:
Yilkat Gopye
Lami Chinke
ISSN: 2141 - 9507
Published in Nigeria
© 2013 by Engraved in Gold Media Enterprises
+2348065721408
Jos, Plateau State Nigeria
" EDITORIAL : A GOD I WANT TO SEE; THE MIND OF A CHILD
A child, But a Man
A child is a wonderful creature, all that makes the world, innocent, blissful, full of cheer, unable to be offended, curious like a wild deer, loving like a puppy, snug like in the cold hamattan. Who can give me the mind of a child? Can only offend for a second after which he/she wipes every offence away with a smile or a chattering laugh, that echo’s into the very soul. Ah… what would I do to keep a man/woman as a child? What would I do to retain this most blissful feeling? Even If I were to bare them again and again and again just to keep me company, they would always grow beyond my reckoning; I would always be left alone without the sweet smile and laughter. But what a wicked world it is that has no room for children, oh what a wicked world it is that smites and slaps away this gesture of love; it spits and laughs at this offering of peace - childhood? Oh what a wicked world it is that turns children to beasts even at that tender age, oh what a wicked world that turns adults to children – that there can be no compromise between love and hate, peace and bliss, fun and laughter – good, just pure and untainted good. That’s all we have, a child, that if the child should grow and grow without being turned into a devil before he gets there, then and only then would the world have its peace!! But alas it is not so – for a devil rules and rules he does with non but impunity – A Man that hath not but lost His Childhood!!! or so it seems that; it is all I see from the urgings that are clear – a propaganda from the abyss as it where a hidden voice in the shadows – to see the author is an abomination, as one turns and glances right and left, up and down, sudden jumps and shivers at an unidentifiable figure leaping around in the dark. A God I want to see
Alas; I wish I was still a child; a child who’s God is naught but the mare human figure of his earthly father or better still I used to call him dad, a person I saw every morning, drove me to school or gave me pocket money to go myself. He was physically there all but to wipe away my tears when necessary, a man I could see. But alas I am not a child anymore and it was then at his death bed that I was indeed jolted to my feet in surprise that even he that most glorious being that held my heart captive in volitional submission that even he; called out his own fathers name. oh dear I am forced to rescind my feelings into manhood and thus a mind of my own; that I am no more innocent and no more that gullible descent being that laughs and chuckles in the morning. That when I saw him disappear into the darkness seemingly forever, the pain and loud cries offered from the depth of my being were more a testament to the gory fact that it took three hefty men to restrain my slim lanky person and from my gut came forth a cry grim and ugly not like that of a child but a full grown man who now knew the ugly truth ; you are but a loner in this dark ugly world. This edition of the GROW Journal tries to put a personal touch into highlighting the real struggles faced by the children and youth of every generation as they come and go! Unsure of why they are here, who they must serve? Themselves, or God, and if God, how certain are they of His Faithfulness, FAITH Is indeed a major theme; the WORKS of everyday experience have a long story to tell.
" COVER : LIFE & MEANING FOR THE CHRISTIAN ADULT YOUTH; A CONFUSED BIG PICTURE
By
David Dungji Chinke
A contributor to this Journal, Stephanie Downs had written a beautiful article about endings, she began with a story on her childhood watching tv with her dad. She ended by exhorting us to end well. I use that particular article as example because it touches on something I would love to focus on in this article; not particularly the Last days as we have seen before but more about the periods of our lives. This time I will be focusing this article about the period of life that comes just before the middle age when the child who once sat near mom or dad watching tv has grown up and is now plunged into a society to fend for himself / herself. This adult is no longer a teenager, not even a young adult, maybe in his/her late twenties, early thirties or late thirties. During this life period, the person begins to really test presuppositions and he or she is forced to begin to drop some of those presuppositions, pick up some, and begins to make up his or her mind on where he or she is headed. Sometimes he is forced to snap out of the dream world he had unconsciously created all the years he/she was a dependant (assuming such dependency had completely ended). This stage of life is easier for some and harder for some, the question still on my mind as I write is that many within this age group still may not encounter this crises until much later in life. But still I do not relent: Areas in which these young aspiring leaders are faced with conflict include:
1. Work and vocation
2. Spiritual growth and decisions in line with spiritual establishment
3. Ambition and Societal status / financial well being
4. Marriage, old and new relationships
5. Social awareness and conflict
Work and Vocation
Work is difficult to find, if secured, the boss has to be pleased, authority becomes an issue and how to respond to such authority! Corruption becomes an issue.
Spiritual growth
Human beings generally move towards God in difficult times or in times when they need his help! Christian fellowships flourish within the school environment especially universities because students are always concerned with passing exams and success. When they finally graduate from the universities, and are plunged into the world, spiritual growth might become a secondary pursuit.
Ambition and Societal status / financial well being
There is the expectation that a life of following and worshiping God would bring forth a reciprocal blessing and establishment. Often connected with work and business achievements, ambition begins to increase, failures become apparent and hence the drive to push harder and break through financially in society. Ambition may push many into illegal vocations, sometimes its poverty and sometimes these two combined.
Marriage, old and new relationships
Relationships expand horizons, sometimes they seek to diminish or reduce such a persons scope: such relationships influence presuppositions, spirituality, focus, growth, and ambition. Some begin to think of marriage, others are less adventurous. Some relationships that were built during childhood and teen age break up others build up as the persons life begins to form towards the next stage of his of her life. The concept of friendship and enmity begin to reform and thus some of those concepts will erode and new worldview on who is his/her friend will form. This concepts are important as relates to his Christian belief system. For the married or intended ones, the way they perceive the families they were brought up in would begin to change. Relationships within those families might improve or degenerate, also, status might change within such families and this may indeed be the cause of some of these conflicts.
Social awareness and conflict
The result of work, ambitions, financial status, relationships etc, will naturally lead to a new and increased social awareness. This will naturally result in conflicts within and often without. Generally the Christian youth is faced with a culture he has to either challenge or accept and absorb. This cultural and societal statuesque and how he responds to it will determine all those areas in which he is most affected: his work satisfaction, his spiritual growth and stability, his financial stability and prosperity his status and ambition. He begins to cultivate a better and more informed idea of class, freedom, possession, genda, institutions, government. all in all the Christian youth discovers that his moral foundation differs markedly from the world he lives in, he discovers that expectations do not conform to realities that he must learn and adjust to the world in order to survive; inadvertently he is forced to choose between the temporal today and the ideas founded on an eternal tomorrow he was brought up with. Forced to imbibe a certain level of the hedonistic doctrine of salvation for natural consumers! A contemporary Adult Youth is forced to reason in the following lines:
Is there any Salvation for Consumers?
Inadvertently he asks an involuntary question silently to himself; does the world need to be saved? If not what is the value in putting live organisms on a plannet like earth to populate it, if not for some salvific purpose, some sort of higher living? Bringing it down to human terms, why do we raise animals, fence them in an enclosure and feed them till they are fat enough for slaughter? For me, sometimes I keep animals just for their aesthetics and so do many others I know. Does God keep us here on earth just to marvel at his own greatness? That as he gazes upon our beauty, intelligence and progress; it makes him proud and happy? That even he can boast to Satan and say “Look at this my servant Job- there is non like him”. Let the question be asked clearly: what is the value of human existence? Do we populate the earth to be meat for the slaughter or do we have a greater purpose? (The youth is forced into these hitherto too deep or vague and atheistic philosophical patterns of thought) If not why the popular consumption theology or theory “we live to eat” – a life of merry making, sexual orgy and food consumption? The value of human existence as more than an animal is the fact that we can reason beyond the immediate pleasures of the now! That we can reason and decide for a greater dominion. But there are some who would rather throw that all away for the pleasures of today, the now; eat, drink for tomorrow we die. The good book “The Bible” does clearly negate this With the writings of great wise men like, David, Solomon, and the words of Jesus etc. but clearly those were the days we took its words seriously as if it meant any good for us as the inspired words of God Himself. The postmodern age relies on a mix of much that is allowable prospering the mortal body and thus escaping punity. But who says we must obey post modernity? Who says we must comply ? as one teacher of mine once put it: “if my God is not Kind, loving and forgiving and in the general sense of it ; “Good” then he is not my God and I will not serve him”. Typical of how the human mind works that even though we pledge allegiance to a God we do not even know; we only pay lip service to him in anticipation of a more tangible manifestation? How else can one explain the flood to accommodate post modernity itself with all its loops and holes? How come is it that in so many countries of the civilized world the bodies of so called Christian beliefs are fallen flat to the urgings of atheism , hedonism and paganism? Ever since the outpouring of criticism for the rap group “bonethugs” for their outburst “dogsinatas” have we indeed begun to discover the very opposite? Does our theology, philosophy, psychology and bibliology slap us right back in the face with the very theology we try so hard to dismiss? And so then should we just relax and chop? Or do we need to tie our belts to our stomachs in anticipation of clarifying our belief and hence the possibility of a promise keeping God who will also cater for our physical needs for a better today and tomorrow? In this case the tomorrow of the physical and the spiritual?
In conclusion
If the Christian church would bend down to clarify these questions and build a more water proof body of practicable doctrines to suit this most productive select group found in its citizenry; The real “young Adult” not the one between 13 and 21 but the one who is nearing 39 and would have (by the time he is 40 ) been ready to plunge into a jungle world built from the principles of the realities found in the ghetto, such a youth would have a body of support rising from a solid foundation of Christ, a community of brothers and sisters and elders whose economy is founded on true imperishable principles and not one pushed to its ebb to compromise with the sinful dying civilization of a world fully submitted to evil and Satanism.
" VAMPIRES?
By David Dungji Chinke
Vampires are said to be “mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of a living creatures regardless of weather they are undead or a living person”. And also Wikipedia adds that “although vampire entities have been recorded in many cultures , and may go back to prehistoric times, the term vampire was not popularized until the early 18th century after and influx of vampire superstition into western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent”… (Wikipedia.org/wiki/vampire) Many modern legends and myths have been built from these ancient concepts and mostly among the youth (mostly from cultural myths and modern movies). in African folk law they are generally called witches and wizards who walk the day as ordinary people but in the night they suck the blood of other people. Those that do not live as ordinary human beings are more of spirits that live in the jungle and visit human societies to look for blood. The most popular among the urban youth though come from concepts popularized in western cultures through films like the popular “Blade”. The vampires are mostly seen as a socio political group that not only feed on other human beings but also control the economy and lives of ordinary humans. Having extra ordinary strength and speed they are far from ordinary humans. The most outstanding characteristic of these creatures is that they cannot walk the streets in the day time because they are allergic to ultraviolent sun rays among other things like garlic. Therefore their life is limited to the night time when they carry out their nefarious activities. But what does the bible say about such beliefs? It is clear that the bible does confirm the existence of demons who are fallen angels, but the characteristics of blood sucking creatures are not named in the evangelical bible as part of the characteristic of demons. When the bible speaks about sacrifices being offered to God it makes it clear that sacrifices must be burnt or God Himself sends fire to burn the slaughtered animal. Though sins can only be cleansed by the shedding of blood, Christ Himself the son of God sheds his own blood once and for all time for the sins of humanity. In fact God declares human sacrifice an evil. The one other characteristic of a vampire that appears in the bible is that of nocturnal appearance. Non of a appearances of angels and Theophanous apparitions are limited to the night except one occasion. Jacob when returning to his homeland and afraid of his brother Esau, is challenged by a man in the night while alone. He wrestled with the man who dislocated his hip joint just by touching it. The point that catches my attention is when the man begs to be let go before it is day break; seemingly afraid of being seen by day. Jacob ceases the opportunity to also ask for a blessing which the man gives obviously having the power to do so – changing Jacobs name to Israel – in the manner of God’s blessing to Abraham. The fact that the man did not want to stay till day break raises the question, to young inquisitive minds of the modern age; why? Was he a vampire? Or a vampire type of being? Jacob called him God. Obviously the man could harm him but refused to do so, only dislocating his limb to weaken him so as to be allowed to go before daybreak. In other words the being was playing with Jacob and obviously the little sparing match had taken longer than he had desired. Not wanting to go further than that he asked Jacob to let him go. This being was far from a vampire, is it possible that this being was the truer more benevolent and original version of what the world views as vampires? Again a vampire is seen in many cultures as a person who rises from the dead and so relies on blood for nourishment. The concept of resurrection is deeply engrained in Christian theology through Christ but never in the form of vampirism infact, clearly working against any form of vampirism weather cannibalistic (Jesus asked to be given ordinary food when he appeared to the disciples) or economic vampirism - The gospel of Jesus Christ He continued to reiterate is the good news to the poor. So again I ask, do vampires exist? Maybe in the form of demons who force human beings to kill each other for ritual purposes, maybe economic vampires in the excesses of capitalism and communalistic slavery. Definitely many are beginning to douse the use of the term vampire in the derogative form for others without just cause or evidence! But truly inspiring is the bibles description of such extra human concepts and the insight its gives to such concepts.
" CHRIST REVIVAL MISSION – A VISION STILL IN ITS INFANCY
By David Dungji Chinke
A long story of a little boy born in Tollong Garram, in the Plateau Region of Nigeria:
Among a minority dialect of the Ngas tribe who settled in the lowlands, born to a natural warriors clan, a lineage of men who preferred to dare nature, the spirit world and even the will and gut of invading kings. In such ways peace was made even in wisdom and tact; the line was long… Garram was victim of invasion time and time again from hoards of Danfodio’s horse men but now there was need to unite the peoples and clans in the pattern of the ancient Kwararafa dynasty. It was early in the morning… Chinke was a young child when from afar off he witnessed the first signing of the treaty… from the distant Shandam came a group of travelers beating the drum of friendship… peace was to alight in the troubled region of Garram again… farming and prosperity will begin again…. To be continued. After many years of peace born of wisdom and tact… Chinke the chief of Tollong was visited by august visitors from the nearby village along with three strange looking men; “red” skinned as it were but never strangers to Chinke having been a man of history and vast knowledge… shock and awe were visible in his expression that day but deeper inside; relief and conviction… the peace they had achieved all these years was on the edge and he did not know how long he would be able to convince his kinsmen that things would continue as they were, it was time a peace maker came on the scene. Gobel was just a little boy then but something in him told him that the coming of these men would effect a major change in his life… To be continued. A little boy, and youngest among his siblings, he had to accompany mama to the farm, Bala and Nagin were far older and raced on ahead even before mama and little Gorip could get there in order to complete their allotted portions… on his way he would stop and pick tiny crabs hiding under rocks near the bank of the river… mother would shout out to him… “Gorip, we have no time, hurry up, stop bothering those tiny crabs”… he ran over to mama’s side and onward to the farm… Gorip was the third child born to Gobel a well respected leader in his clan, this young lad fancied himself important and indeed kingly if anyone would care… but mama would have non of that … its either you work or you would not eat… on the farm, they settled down to work, but Gorip was still childish at the age of 5, after she cried and cried for gorip to stop playing - to no avail - a long silence would follow and then when he least expected and decided to sit a little to nibble on the “tori” he had plucked from a nearby baobab tree, suddenly a sharp pain on his back sent him back on his feet (she had hurled a rock at him)… quickly he bent down even while weeping profusely to continue with the farm work… To be continued. A little goat was the offering to the gods and an oath was sworn before the shrine, if little Gorip was to have a roof over his head and food to fill his stomach, Gobel would have to swear an oath before the gods to uphold his own part of the bargain when the time came… it was difficult, the work was hard, would he survive? If not for the hard training his mother had given him… but as he sat and ate with his leprous cousin from the same dish he could not help but think of Bala and Nagin… far away under the now obviously more loving care of mama… oh how he missed them all. But it was almost time for Christmas and all his friends had Christmas wares but he did not , even his half brothers and sisters were better off than him, whenever they met him in school, they would boast of the new things baba had bought them for Christmas. Gorip made up his mind; he must have his own… he started crying from his aunt’s house that day straight home and sat in front of Gobel’s hut… sobbing loudly. Gobel hid inside his hut… oh life was hard and the outcome of some decisions he had made were not what he had wished… he wanted to evade the boy but there was something in his cry that softened Gobels mind… he stormed out of his hut, “what is it”? he startled the little boy… on Christmas day Gorip was a spectacle… half bread is better than non… though his three quarter trousers made out of a used salt bag had the pockets at the back so that he had to turn his hand backward to mimic the modern pose and look like a “dan gaye” it was enough and though the young girls laughed at him… for Gorip, it did not matter, this was the closest he got to something he could call his own… To be continued. In what was called form two, Gorip had held close to his heart Gobels instructions:
1. Never play with school
2. Never run away from a fight
3. Never come home after dark
4. Never hit a woman
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