BRONTE: The Resolution Of The Matter

“I climbed up a lion of rock

There overlooking the swirls of the world. All the shifting of sands that I saw.

Conflicting energy giving and taking, the fluid grace of it all.

Billowing shadows of clouds in the sand

While waves lay down all stretched and taught

Folding and wrinkling back to the source of it all

Every breath is give and take.

I love you oh gentlest of ways, who ripens us as we wrestle with you

The great homesickness we cannot shake.

You, the great forest surrounding us now, in silence it’s you that we sing

Billowing shadows of Heaven on earth as we lay down our lives and taught

Folding and wrinkling back to the source of it all

Every breath is give and take.”

GUNGOR

In my art, in what I write and what I sing, I share what I see. I share my story and I share my life.  I share my joys, my agonies, my confusions, my anxieties, my failures and my victories. I share them because I do not experience them as the only human to ever to; I experience them with the rest of humanity and all creation that;

Groans together in pains of childbirth wanting to be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the children of God.

I live out what I believe in this expression and on this canvas, that is art, in the presence of many witnesses that see, and understand and relate, and misunderstand and judge and don’t care. I live this before everyone that would dare read, that would dare listen; and this is the conclusion, whatever your own may be;

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

I believe there is nothing greater in this world than truth; the truth of conviction that changes us, and by truth, I mean the one truth- the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The truth I have known and believe is that;

Christ died for our sins, for my sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

This truth existed before I was, before the concept and reality of myself, before the struggles of myself, before all I see and comprehend in my feeble human tissue of a mind. It is a truth so true this is what it is, this is what it does, and has done to me;

It is living and active; sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the human heart.

We are born not to be just to be alive, but to live. We were made to thrive, not just survive. We were meant to live for so much more. We are more than this world has got to offer. We are more than the wars of our fathers; and this is not because we are able in ourselves, to be more. This is not because we want in ourselves to be more. It’s quite the contrary usually. This is therefore not even because we know what “more” is. Cogito ergo sum, is how some of us explain it. But this is what I know; I think because I AM–

I AM that I AM.

It is from He, who is, that we know what to be is, and therefore, what we are. He is the story teller. He is God, who is there before anything anyone ever was. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

We are born into the struggle. We are born into the fight, and hope becomes what we crave. Hope is the anthem of our souls. Hope is what reels and reels, and courses in our veins, and beats in our hearts to tell us we are alive! Hope is the motion.

He tells us all; what we are, why we are, why the fight is, what the struggle is, and where hope is found. It is found in he, that is above and beyond our human state but is just like us; tempted in every way yet without sin. One that therefore sympathizes with us in our every weakness.

Because he healed the wound of the human condition, there’s a new way to be human now;

For those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the first born among many brothers.

 

I heard this story. I sing this story. I write this story- the story of hope, and I believe.

Here, I climbed up a lion of rock.

Overlooking the swirls of the world, of my community and my country; all the shifting of sands that I see in what we think ourselves to be, in what we would do in the name of being “free”, in everything that we give into, empty and addictive. I see conflicting energy giving and taking. We long to live and not just be alive, but we miss the mark again and again, even when we realize it; and this is our lifestyle. This is our life philosophy. The story of hope is too dull and serious for us, so we and drink and eat, for tomorrow we die. Everything has become meaningless, that even when meaning presents itself right before us, we are to numb to see it, let alone, respond.

I see what claims to be the church of God in our country devour itself and faction after faction rise against the other, preaching everything and anything that the itching ears would want to hear, except that one truth and story that those ears don’t even know they long for; the ears and eyes of our human heart desire that truth above all else. We feel the hollow in living for ourselves.

I see a people desperate to know who they are. Desperate to know what was imposed by a world system that denied the right of self -determination, once. So, we call ourselves a democratic republic, but fight in the symbolic institutions of that democracy, over the country we look at as a kingdom and us, the chiefs. I see us want to be like everyone else with our art, with our fashion, with our everything. Who are we really, if most of what we are, isn’t who we are? Or is it? I see three struggles therefore;

I see the struggle of a people wanting to understand life in its fullness, but not seeking to. I see the young generations, struggle with and in their post-colonial identity. And I see a new era of postmodern relativist and humanist thinkers and a generation of entitled millennials take over about nothing they know.

How do I know these struggles?

The answer is livid and simple and real.

I know these struggles in myself.

But today, whilst these struggles exist, I do not write and sing about them as the emphasis. I begin with what I feel within, because of these struggles. You probably do too, whether you know it or not. It’s the wound of humanity that so faithfully delivers its wage- death. In this knowledge and because of the struggle, we long to be free of it. We long to hear the song and sound of hope resounding not just outside us, but within us as well; in our every constitution. We long to sing the anthem of our souls.

So, where is this hope? What is this hope? Where is the understanding of life? Where and what is this truth in the people that claim to know it and live? Where is it in yourself? Yes, I hear you. And this is where it is. It’s here. Let me tell you where I found it.

I found it in the struggles that I battled with and victoried over, only to go into war with them the next minute. I have known what every human has known and needs to know. It needn’t be rehashed but see, I forgot that;

It was while I was still weak; at the right time, that the truth of the gospel rang true in this once and always, chaotic heart. God shows his love for us, and for me, in that while we were still sinners, and still in the middle of fist fighting and feeling overwhelmed and in above our heads, that he died for us. He gave hope. He gives hope.

Yet even more saliently, I have learnt that he didn’t give this hope for the facts to disappear. No, that’s not the story; he gives hope for the facts to be overcome. Its refinement. Sanctification. War. The pilgrim’s journey. Frodo’s quest to Mordor. The last battle. The only battle. Life being lived in a fiery purification, to the glory of God. You must see the struggle of life as this merciful intervention and outpouring of salvation. If you can’t, the song of hope doesn’t make sense anymore. Its melody is lost.

Yes, I am still fallen.

Yes, still weak and still feeling the wound of the human condition that all makes us the same, because of myself and because of others.

But, He died that I would, that we would, make it through those facts, as he exemplified. I suffer so that I may reach the end of the suffering; that I may reach the object of this faith I have and by which I am justified- the salvation of my soul from itself. I tread on, heavy and tired because I’m going through and enduring to the end of the tiring journey. I am not bound and broken by the trials and brokenness of life even when I think I am. I am reminded of the song of hope, right there in the struggle.

What God is doing through it, is bigger that what it is. What I go through because of myself and because of others, isn’t undefeatable. It was and is defeated on the cross. Not that I shall not be part the struggle of life and feel and know its essence, but that I can go through it and even before the end, right there in the midst of everything, see the faithfulness of God, to his eternal glory.

We can only hear that tune and melody when we see and accept the struggle and the fight.

Every breath is give and take.

I see it all like a hymn. The constant refrain of the echo and change and all is beautiful. There is no giving without any taking. There’s no love without any loss. Everything, everyone building and breaking. I see the grace of it all! All is beautiful.

Yes. I am talking about the struggle and the pain and the despair; about the disappointments and heartbreak. I’m singing about them too. But this is why and this is the emphasis folks;

Because nothing we go through is wasted. He works all things out for good.

Because those he predestined, he also called and those he called he also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Because nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

And that the tested genuineness of faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

So, in my art, in what I write and what I sing, I share what I see. I share my story and I share my life.  I share my joys, my agonies, my confusions, my anxieties, my failures and my victories; and I live this before everyone that would dare read, that would dare listen. This is what I have learnt;

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

All the upsets and troubles of life are a death that we must grow from, and after. We don’t die to die. We die to live. Look around you and see how your community is hurting, how you are hurting, and live after that hurt, because you know why you hurt and what it is to produce in you- hope, and hope is never put to shame.

Our hope is the Lord and the work he will do in our hearts to change and convict us of our sin against each other, in the ways it manifests at the moment. Our hope is in Christ to resolve us concerning the understanding of ourselves that affects our contribution to healing this broken world; in our education, in our art, in our leadership, in our church, and in everything really. Our hope is in God, who made us and loves us and knows us and seeks to save us, desiring that none should perish but that all should come to repentance and the saving knowledge of his Son.

He will teach us that he came that we should have life and have it to abundance. Not just to be alive, but to live. He will teach us that in him, we live and move and have our being; even with our history and present and future, we will be resolved in the knowledge of who he has made us. He will show us that there is no greater love than for a man to lay his life down in service of another. We won’t just be a people that care about ourselves alone to be corrupt and selfish leaders. We won’t be a self-entitled millennial generation when we see the example of Christ’s love for us.

Listen and enjoy these songs. But hear the struggle and know it: –

1. For now; and for always, hear and know that sometimes life scares us into a stillness and panic. We can’t do a thing and settle to do the bare minimum. We forget that we were made to live for so much more.

But maybe redemption has stories to tell?

Maybe Forgiveness is where you fell? Where can you run to escape from yourself? Where are you gonna go?

Salvation is here.

2. Just one; more time, hear and know that even that thing that is the worst that could ever happen to you, and did, or could is not the knockout punch or the dagger that stops your heart and ensues the numbness. It isn’t the blow that obliterates you.

But realize that, maybe, that’s where life is born, when our facades are torn.

Pain gives birth to the promise ahead.

3. BRONTE; as a writer, once heard and knew the struggles and sacrifices in her very own life. In the stories of her and her sisters that we all read, I see the tragedy and pain you all see, that captivates your heart as well as mine, to be bound to these stories. But I see a longing for hope as well, and in my life, I know hope. I pray my art story shares with you the pain, but my prayer is that in the pain, you see the Hope being birthed right there. Right here.

For whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Christ, he must follow Christ and where Christ is there Christ servant shall be as well.

4. About Paradise; hear and know that we all search for paradise and what we think it is. But we won’t find peace until we know what paradise truly We are restless until we are rested in Christ. We won’t find paradise till the day we find Christ and rest in him.

For all creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

5. Hunted; hear and know that when everything is coming at you from all sides, you are not alone. Yes, the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. But, know especially and more than anything else that;

There ain’t no darkness strong enough that could tear you out from the heart of Jesus; no strength that could tear that love apart. For neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor death, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us, you and I from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Be encouraged; he has overcome the world.

The struggle is not meaningless.