KENYA’S MASHUJAA DAY: WHAT THE KENYAN CHURCH NEEDS TO NOTE

HEALING THE NATION

Hey everyone, how are you all? I am so happy to be back here. I just hope that for those of you who’ve been following me, will take the time to forgive my absence. I have been trying to re-adjust to school life and I am so glad that I can now use this blog to impact, challenge and motivate my followers. Please do not feel left out or neglected, I am back and I’m here to be that blessing to many who read my posts. Remember, feel free to hit me up so that we could share and discuss these issues at a personal level. Love you all!

Now, here we are, Kenya is celebrating yet another Mashujaa Day. The air is filled with excitement as every citizen of Kenya rejoices in the fact they are still an independent country thanks to its heroes. These heroes are what are known in Swahili as “Mashujaa”. These are the men and women who fought for the country’s independence from the British colonial rule…every one of these men and women are revered for their roles in the struggle.

The country’s heroes suffered greatly. Not only were our country’s beloved heroes beaten up, flogged, thrown in prison and persecuted, they endured! Give them credit where it is due, they never backed down even opting to lose their lives rather than live under oppression. And whether or not the country today realizes this, these great men and women defined the nature of Kenyan pride, philosophy and identity. We are undivided. We are one! We refuse to live under the yoke of oppression even that which originates from our own people. This very point, the church in Kenya understood.

In the second stage of gaining Kenya’s freedom, key church leaders stepped up to challenge unjust systems in the country’s governance. Not only did they rise up to speak, they, like the Heroes before, made a scene about it and suffered greatly for it. They did not relent, but they stood for one truth: The Gospel’s message was freedom from sin and injustice and the mere existence of the church in the country ought to reflect that fact. How incredible?

Here were a class of senior, revered ministers of the Gospel who did not esteem their positions higher than their true callings as followers of Jesus but let themselves suffer for the rest of the country to experience true freedom. It is no small feat to achieve such a treasured thing as freedom, but it is sad when the heart and values of those before are not seen to trickle down into today’s crop of leaders and ministers. But let it be said now, There is hope and someone reading this might agree and find him/herself to be that hero that the Kenya today needs.

The struggle is still not over until we are truly one in heart, mind, agenda and identity.

MARVEL’S GHOST RIDER: THE CONCEPT OF BRIDGING TWO WORLDS

WHY MARVEL’S GHOST RIDER IS WORTH LOOKING INTO

“This is what I look like when I’m smiling”

-Johnny Blaze

With rumors beginning to flood the internet and fan-boys (such as myself) and fan-girls going with the buzz of the small screen flow, I felt that it is about time that we discussed this peculiar character; Ghost Rider. I have to point out here that the character has been rumored to appear soon on Netflix with a new actor as the vexed Johnny Blaze. Although this is some big news, I feel that there are still some fans who’ll greatly miss Nicholas’ Cage’s portrayals of the character.

To start this off I feel that I should be clear here and point out that although some of you out there might rate McFarlane’s Spawn higher than Ghost Rider, I want to assure you now that there is more to consider here when it comes to the latter. You see, unlike Ghost Rider, Spawn is limited to the spiritual aspect and does not fully, ‘walk both worlds’ as Ghost Rider does. Again, Spawn is a single individual who does not quite draw on any other being’s power other than his own in order to do what he does. Last but not least, I’d love to point out that Ghost Rider’s ties to Zarathos are quite unique and raise the Rider’s threat-level higher than that of Spawn when it comes to raw might and power. [Don’t get me wrong here, but Spawn IS an amazing character with incredible power, though he is no match for Ghost Rider as you’ll soon see].

Ghost Rider’s link to the mystical is through the ancient demon, Zarathos. Zarathos was Mephisto’s challenger when it came to seeking rulership over hell. What’s interesting about this is that he was almost as old and as powerful as Mephisto, and had already amassed for himself a large number of followers in his bid to take over Mephisto’s throne. By the time he was discovered and trapped in a crystal by Mephisto, he had waxed powerful. This way hell’s threatening divide was stopped up and mended.

Later on, Mephisto uses this very crystal to create the Ghost Rider. A process he undertakes by merging the crystal to the ‘soon-to-be’ Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze. What makes this particular Ghost Rider special to me is the fact that he did not make his pact with Mephisto out of selfishness, but rather out of selflessness. In his pursuit to save his dad, Johnny does the unthinkable and makes a deal with Mephisto who had since pursued and tracked him down for his own personal reasons. Conveniently for Mephisto, Johnny was in a desperate state and he used this to his own advantage and made the desperate Johnny into the Ghost Rider, while simultaneously denying him the one thing he wanted; the health and life of his father.

Tragic though, this may be, it speaks volumes about how we become what we least expect because of devastating circumstances that come our way. As though led by misfortune, Johnny’s loss became his greatest consolation for justice as he took on the mantle of the Ghost Rider! Now, tasked with the job returning wandering escaped souls [back] to hell, Johnny takes on the eery, mysterious and mystical persona of the dark angel, Zarathos.

Endowed with incredible power, the Ghost Rider is born. Zarathos’ power is freely given to Johnny to bring in the escaped spirits to their rightful place but [then again] here’s the twist; Zarathos lends all of his power to Johnny because through him, he gets to do that which he has painfully longed to do…he gets to bring justice to himself by getting revenge on the one being that put him in his present situation, Mephisto. This great power is alluded to in the World War Hulk Series when Ghost Rider intentionally avoids fighting the Hilk because of fears that the collateral damage would be severe. Basically, he knew that his might, combined with that of an enraged Hulk would cause death and that was not his mission when confronting him.

Why I bring this up is because of a little known fact; the Rider fights against Mephisto, rather than for him. In this way he is a very remarkable character. Intimidating though the Rider might be, he does not shy away from being what the Rider’s innate nature is-a fusion of two beings to create one new one-the Spirit of Vengeance. Allow me to make my point here; it is at this point that the Rider truly walks both worlds. He is as much a son of sorrow as a human being, as well as the expression of a disgraced spirit. He is capable of understanding as well as navigating his way mentally and physically in the astral and the physical plane.

As a Christian, I find this tremendously helpful in concretizing my understanding of what the Christian is. He is very much a being walking in two worlds; that of the spirit and the material. Not only is he called to do so, he is to embody the divine spirit that lives in him; that is, Jesus Christ himself. As the Scriptures would say, “as he lived, so also ought we to live…[and] as he is so also shall we be.” This has profound implications, especially when we consider that we become ‘Sons of God’ (see my previous posts on the concept of ‘son of god’ as applied to Christ). We are also said to be be transformed…but I’ll go more into that in a separate post soon.

Please remind me!

Remember, to keep riding and keep searching :-)!

MUHAMMAD ALI: WHAT KENYA CAN LEARN

WHY HISTORY IS MADE BY THE UNEXPECTED, NOT JUST THE HOPEFULS

“An unjust law is no law”

-St. Augustine

“A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”

-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

There is a blanket of gloom that seems to have come over the world as it mourns a dear child of its own who passed away recently. Muhammad Ali; a man of his own time. He was untamed and unfettered; in the face of difficulty in the history of the African American people, he stood for something. That is a forgotten element of society today. Looking at his story as an African Christian from Nairobi, Kenya, I realize now that he embodied the meaning of being the difference that he sought to see in the world.

Declaring from the beginning, his pride in his identity as a black man at a time when many struggled with their African American identity, he paved the way for change that was never before witnessed. We now see the need for the world to have more like him. His stance is the pedestal of the world’s greatest; a title that he proudly took on for himself. Let’s take a glimpse at history, more specifically revolutionary figures who’ve fought for justice on issues regarding discrimination and injustice; Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, and now Muhammad Ali…just to name a few.

These individuals showed the world that the way to defeat oppression is by first being free, standing above their circumstances. In the way they lived, they realized that the way to solving the issues of society was by first identifying the underlying problem: injustice. It’s odd how injustice is an issue in nearly all religions. In my own, Christianity, justice/injustice is said to be the “foundation of Yahweh God’s throne”. It is because of God’s zealous desire to see justice done through offering up Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice in order to allow mankind to enjoy freedom, as it is written, “in him we live and breathe and have our being (i.e. no longer slaves)”.

Now, in my identity as a black man from Africa, more specifically Kenya–a land that is well conversant with oppression and slavery, I understand what it means to be a fourth generation youth who is now battling to find his voice in a society that is still being plagued by the issues of the past. Not only is injustice an issue, social unrest and corruption still plague Kenya like a three-headed Hydra. Each time a head is cut off, as the saying goes, two others take up their place. These issues are not issues that I blame the leadership for; they are issues that I blame the darkness that has invaded and penetrated every sphere of life in my society.

The lesson? Kenya needs individuals who need to stand proudly as one nation in diversity. For whereas we have as a people conquered one battle on paper, we are yet to conquer one battle crucial battle, the battle of our national psyche. May we realize that standing proudly as Kenyans will lead us to stand united as a people.

“We are the only people that I know of that have a prayer as a national anthem”

-Unknown