Today Is an Interesting Day Because……

….behind the scenes I have about 4 or 5 articles I am working on that are on their way to being done but need elements out of my control to come into place before they can be complete. I have a podcast that I am yet to edit and I have sent out quite a few invitations to interview people over the past week.

The End Result

The end result is that I have a wonderful back log of articles and podcasts and things in process, too much for me to want to move forward but little enough that it shouldn’t take me too long to clear up.While this vacuum exists I thought I would give you all some more thoughts as I have continued along my spiritual journey.

Why I’ll Never Leave the Church

One thing that I can predict with a fair level of confidence and certainty is that I will probably never grow disillusioned with the church and/or with Christianity as I did in my teenage years and I will never leave the church. There are a couple of reasons for that:

1) I never got taught, or rather never had sink in, the consumer mentality to Christianity: Growing up, I was taught about the immutable, unstoppable, never changing power of self-determination and that all through my life, I should always use that power to create my destiny. I guess I am one of those people who preachers would label, “That arrogant young man who thinks he can do everything himself.”

I don’t know if I can but I certainly know that I am going to take responsibility for the results I achieve in my life.

2) Christian people are hands down, the most loving and silmultaneously nicest people I have ever met: A lot of people who become disillusioned with the church do so because they feel condemned, judged, unloved and unwanted by Christian people. I have never ever felt that. Until I was an adult, all my real-world (as opposed to celebrity or fantasy heroes) were Christian African women.

If you look through my heroes list, you’ll notice that one of them is Erwin Mcmanus (if anyone knows how I can get an interview with him….do share) and I just love to consume and reflect and act on his podcasts and his ideas.

To put the full stop on this point, I don’t know if I have told this story before but what the heck, I will tell it again

She Listened, Really Listened

It’s amazing how one moment can mean so many different things to different people. I don’t think my aunty knows just how special that day was for me, and whenever I tell my mother the story, she always remarks:

That’s nothing special

Or something similar, but that truly was, one of the greatest days of my life.

Disposable Teen

So there I was, 16 years old, scared and angry. I remember walking into my aunty’s home for a visit. My aunty did something that no human being had never done before. She didn’t try to advise me. She didn’t try to give me solutions to my problems. She didn’t engage in discussion or debate. She just listened.

She listened as I talked about my crazy plans about buying a fleet of matatus (a fleet of mini buses) and using the revenue generated from this venture to fund a school where the poor and marginalized youth of Africa would learn not only about the political process but would be equipped to answer the question:

How can I use the current global and political system to the benefit of my community and myself?

I don’t remember if that was the exact thought I told my aunty so many years ago, but whatever it is I said, she listened. I remember she fed me delicious sandwiches and tea and for a couple of days just let me talk. It’s amazing how the Angel Gabriel’s love for Mary can be felt just by his merely sitting next to her………..

Don’t worry if you read this and don’t see what’s so special either, just know it was truly one of the best days during one of the best periods of my life, and she was there.

She was in that moment, the salt and light of my world.

Where this Spiritual Journey is Going?

I know I am not alone on this one, but I often fantasize about being interviewed. My favourite platforms are either a town hall meeting, a speech I am making to thousands of people or an appearance on Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, and many a time, I have fantasized about being asked that very question in the sub-healdine.Here now is my smooth-as-Taye-Diggs-eloquent-as-MLK answer:

The way I see my life headed, I will probably end up the born again founder my own church dedicated to two things:

a) The upliftment and dignity of young African  boys and men

b) Taking action: Every sermon will end with everyone either doing something to improve their lives or the lives of the members of the community or it will become compulsory with attendance that you must take action after every service and are accountable to other members of the congregation.

I would weed out all the passive watchers and remain with just passionate people committed to taking action and being angels among men.

Hey, I have been asked to lead my bible study group this Thursday so that might be the begining of all of this…….watch this gap in the time space continuum.

My oddly tired brain is telling me those are enough ideas for now.

Have a fantastic week,

Mwangi

Hey,

I just listened to this phenomenal podcast and I just thought I would share it with you. I am sitting on the fence at the moment as to whether I should try to organize an interview with Rick, about this issue because we spend majority of our time alive and awake at work, and it’s very important.

But the ultimate decision is up to you guys: Should I interview him, shouldn’t I?

That aside, regardless of your religion, and in spite of how you make a living, listen to this podcast because it has some great ideas.

Final Thought: Definition of a Genius

I have always searched for a context to share this, but since the context did not present itself, I thought I would present it anyway. One of the definitions of a genius is:

Someone who focuses and takes action deliberately and consistently within a certain area of the human experience.

You don’t even have to produce Einstenein results in order for you to be labelled as a genius. Just reflect on and do things in a particular field, day after day after day.

This will make sense within the context of the podcast and is definitely something worth thinking about when you buy into the misconception that all genius is born and can never be manufactured, created or worked toward.

Tomorrow, my interview with the one, the only Kirk Nugent (check out some of his tracks on his Myspace page here )

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi

Part 6 of the 10 things I wish I knew before I left Africa

Today, I challenge you to examine why you think the way you think. Who is it that gave you your ideas, your thoughts and your feelings about the world you live in? Who are the teachers, not necessarily academic, who impacted you the most? I think when we know where our thoughts and ideas came from, that is power. We begin to see what draws us to our teachers and what draws us to ideas and certain feelings. With such knowledge, we gain better control of ourselves and ultimately better control of our environment. This of course gives us greater power to make a better world.

Today, I thought I would share with you the first seven people who have had huge impact on my thought life and tell you why they did that. Without further ado:

1) Erwin Mcmanus

The head of Mosaic in Los Angeles, America. I first saw him speak in 2005. He was meant to speak on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at a conference that our church was hosting. I was only supposed to attend on Friday and Saturday. Instead, I not only attended all three services but I also seriously contemplated leaving Melbourne behind and following him back to LA as his personal servant (ala Jesus and his twelve helpers). However, of course I began to think about accommodation, air fare etc etc and chickened out.

A Bit of Erwin Mcmanus Life Story

For a brief biography on Erwin Mcmanus please check out this article on Wikipedia

Listen to the story of how he got his name and tell me this man doesn’t move you!

How Erwin Mcmanus Got His Name (Part one)

How-Erwin-Mcmanus-Got-His-name(Part two)

How Erwin Mcmanus Got His Name (Part three)

What I love about Erwin is:

1) He is a rebel: He is always challenging the status quo, be it with the subject matter of his sermons, the way he runs Mosaic or even the books he writes. I have always been a huge admirer of the rebel WITH a cause.

2) He speaks from the heart: I remember watching this guy pray and thinking to myself, “Wow! This guy is really dredging his words from the core of his soul. He is truly treating the moment and the words with respect.” He speaks without notes or visual aides of any sort, a bible in one hand and his heart on both his sleeves.

3) He is a servant of humanity: Prior to starting Mosaic, he lived a less-than-modest-actually-he-was-just-above-straight-up-poor life where he served the urban poor in the US. In addition to that, a lot of his talks are challenges for us to put our selfishness to the side, serve one another and love one another.

4) He is one of a kind: I have never heard anyone quite like Erwin in terms of speaking style, biography and even what he does at present – he is a futurist, lecturer, consultant and head pastor of a church that houses itself in an LA night club. People who are willing to step outside of the narrow confines of ‘normal behavior’ especially in pursuit of a higher cause always have my respect and admiration

5) He speaks in a meandering manner but you always come out with a nugget of truth: To be honest, usually midway through listening to Erwin speak, I usually don’t know what the sermon was meant to be about. Usually I don’t care. Erwin’s style is one where he moves from one nugget of truth to another, touching on everything from relationships to your meaning in life. I don’t know any other speaker who I can look at and say, ” I don’t know what the message of the talk was, but I don’t care, it changed my life anyway.”

6) His take on the Parable on the Talents: The revolutionary and unique way he managed to interpret a story I had heard all my life is pretty much what made me a Mcmanus-a-holic. Let me take you back to 2005, when a young turk found one of his heroes:

Erwin Mcmanus – His revolutionary take on the story of the talents (part one)

Erwin Mcmanus – His revolutionary take on the story of the talents (part two)

Initially I thought this would be one long article but now I think I will split this up into a series of seven because this allows me to go into greater depth on each speaker. Anyway I hope the media attached gives you greater insight into this phenomenal human being.

Be blessed and bless others,

Mwangi

NB: If you would like to read some of the work by Erwin Mcmanus then please click on this link for Erwin Mcmanus books