I quoted this piece before whilst in Uganda in 2016 when over-quoting was under-rated:
"In going where you have to go, and doing what you have to do, and seeing what you have to see, you dull and blunt the instrument you write with. But I would rather have it bent and dulled and know I had to put it on the grindstone again and hammer it into shape and put a whetstone to it, and know that I had something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say, or smooth and well oiled in the closet, but unused." - Ernst Hemingway
'going where you have to go'
This past month I took to the skies and landed in middle-east Africa. Dé ja vu played its part seeing that Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are nations I'd visited before with Explore Africa 2016, a team comprised of ten living legends. This year saw a mightier crowd (twenty-eight members) allured by the auras of Africa, and what a privilege to have hopped on the bandwagon for this leg of Gcex 2018's eight month journey into the nations.
My travels before this one went as far as Inhambane where residence is as permanent as a hut and as official as car insurance, that is, for my parents and I. There is much to be said about life in Mozambique, the friends we have there and their culture and our awareness of the acculturation taking place. Also the primitive style and isolated setting we're growing accustomed to. Over the past year we've tasted of the realities emanate of living on an island; what you discover when you're cast away from family, friends, church, and an ever-evolving society. Whereas on the one hand our island style is undeterred by the directions of modern day society, on the other, the longing for a heavenly society is being awoken. Yes, life on the dunes and at the beach does make for a more peaceful environment than the big city life, stilll, this isn't it, home is elsewhere.
'doing what you have to do'
Over the past year I shared three blogs and they have to do with interpreting the Old and New Testaments in the light of Jesus' coming, that is, our homecoming. These didn't flow smoothly from the pencil. It was sharpened several times at various angles from the vantage points I set out to explore and may well be the reason why my pencil is often blunt. Simply put, peeling through scriptures related to Jesus' soon coming and tying this up with present day reality is tough, because for one, no man is an island.
1 Corinthians 14:1-6 shed some light where my vision was tunneled:
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
Upon reading this the practical application was obvious. The last time I spoke as much English as was necessary in middle-east Africa, I was a new English boy in an old and predominantly Afrikaans secondary school. Now, in the company of strangers and friends alike, ranging from three Peruvians, an American, a German and Swazi couple, and amongst Maasai, Ugandans and Rwandese; for the first time in a long time Afrikaans played second fiddle.
Reading on, verses 6-12 further stresses the same chords:
Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
'seeing what you have to see'
Nowhere did this truth radiate more than in Kenya when we sat around the fire, sharing its incomprehensible view. Here the periphery of my island was bridged to the city of believers, and the angle from which I saw the fire that is Holy Spirit found its fit where previously I pondered at the fire alone, unaware of the progression of the flames I wasn't watching.
In essence, any piece of scripture renders a variety of truths, all of which pertain to the cards each of us have been dealt at any given moment, together with the posture of our hearts in these moments. Thus it was asserted that in order to obtain true perspective and more importantly, keep it, you need the sort of company amongst whom you can prove and improve your panorama, because in the search for universal and prophetic truth, without opposing perspectives to test your knowledge and spirit, facts become theories and truth becomes relative. Otherwise the same may be said of our generation as Jesus said of his own:
We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep. Luke 7:32