The theory of relativity as explained by Albert Einstein presupposes the elasticity of time. The bible also acmes on this, by stating that one day, is like a thousand years unto the Lord. This brings a connotation of different realities. The reality you live in, is entirely different from the reality someone else lives in. This explains the power of friendship; when two realities come into fusion, it is not just two souls that come together but two worlds make an acquaintance. All this is made possible by the virtue that the times and tides are relative. When one is in a bliss, the other is in sorrow.  But what exactly has this construct namely time effected on reality?

During creation, a series of “it was evening and it was day” followed each other. And after six of these, God rested. Just my opinion, I seem to think that God really took time to create time itself. Every day of creation, there was “evening and day”; ever day time was created. Why would one item take all that time to be created? Well, the answer is that it wasn’t one item, they were many items. It wasn’t time alone that was being created, but times. No wonder the preacher comes along and says that there is time for everything. It is a multifaceted construct.

However, it is not the many faces of time and its elasticity that is of interest in this read. The effects of its properties are immense. Time is finite. Everything that has a beginning, has an end. This simple property of time has sent qualms throughout the strong men of the world and weak alike. Why so? Because it is a limited resource. Once you are born, the next big thing is death’s sting! Do we then wish not to be born? Not at all, there has to be a beginning just as there has to be an end.

The most denominative school of thought that gears men is the puerile motive to do their worst before time ceases. Acquire a lot of wealth, attain the highest level of education or be most famous before time catches up. There has been one thought that has always kept me awake. It is the question of the tense of eternity. How is someone supposed to live right, as though time never existed? If my tabs ended today, would I proceed into eternal life, where time does not exist or the opposite way?

One evening, a few years ago, I got sick. I had malaria but was dispensed for drugs to which I was allergic to. Few hours after consuming the drug, I was rushed to hospital, and the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with me. I was however very ill. Just at some moment in time, there was a sensation that part of me was separating from the other. Just then, I noticed what was happening. I was dying. Time was giving up on me. What hit me was the transition from this world to the next reality.

When time ceases to exist, worry goes away. Even the five senses work better. You relish every moment oblivious and not caring about what the next moment holds. In fact there isn’t a next moment. There is no tomorrow, there is no yesterday; there is only present. Colors are more beautiful with more shades than what you have ever seen. There is peace that surpasses your knowledge. Well, this I know isn’t the case for those who didn’t use time well. My experience did not last long as well. I woke up in a wheelchair, in a hospital’s hallway.
I look back to that moment with deep nostalgia. But then recently I learnt I can recreate it. I choose to live in time without thinking about time. I choose to live everyday as though it is the only day left. It is hard though, especially with work deadlines, gestation periods, termed contracts and all these anniversaries. But then the bible says we are in this world but not of this world. I am a temporary prisoner of time, but a citizen of eternity.

I know of someone who promises to be with us until the end of time. Jesus. The question is, are you with him now? Do you wake up every morning and hold His hand? He was there in the old times with Joshua, when He froze time by stopping the sun. He defied biological mini-constraints of time by granting a very old couple a son. Why then would I worry about time yet the creator of time has His own stopwatch? There is no “will be”, there is no “was”; there is just eternity. We dwell on the tense of eternity. No need for fear, no need for insecurity, no desire for sin but just the power to give your all to the owner of eternity.

 
There is something more gratifying than laying down a heavy luggage that you have carried under the scorching sun for miles. There is something that is more edifying that drinking cold water after thirsting all day in a labor field. There is something more fulfilling than laying down for a nap in the midst of a pile of work to steal a nap. 

This thing in called rest. It is not in any of the above relaxations. It can never be bought using a vacation to Dubai or Hawaii. It can never be sought from taking daily therapy nor having meditations. Rest is not a location as could be the in the aforementioned scenic places. Rest is not even a day as so upheld by the our religion as the Sabbath day. Rest is not death.

If you ask me, someone coming from a vacation could be as any more tired like any other worker who did not have a vacation. It is told of people who wake up feeling more tired than they went to bed. Those who while still in their sinful for sure do not find rest in death, for their destiny is nothing short of weeping and gnashing of teeth; that is not rest. But be that as it may; what is rest?

I know of a man who proclaimed himself as to not have come to do away with the law of Moses but to fulfill it. This man summoned us all to him. He said; come all ye who are weary and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. This man, Jesus, is rest. He is the true Sabbath.

Finding him is finding yourself. An encounter with Jesus leaves you better than you ever were. Meeting him sharpens you for the reason why you were created. The peace you have knowing that Jesus is in you and with you can never be quantified. Does it not make you wonder how He would sleep through a storm? He is rest. He is peace. He is the calm we all need.

Truth is that the storms around us may never calm down any sooner. But with Jesus in your boat, with Jesus in your heart; as you pass through the valley of the shadow of death; the peace you will find shall surpass even your own understanding.

It is quite hilarious how we struggle to find solutions to our worries yet it is not up to us to do so. We have not even the least of whims to do anything about our state. However, absurd as it may sound, all we might ever have needed to do was to go on our knees.

Why do we always have this sense of self sufficiency yet we are barely mortals. What really convinces us that materiality can impact the way the immaterial works? How fooled are we to ever think, that our money, status, power or networks could ever alter what we feel on the inside? 

Rest comes by opening up your heart to God's heart. Do not harden your heart. Let him in. Commune with him daily. Shut down all the noises around you. The noise could be a worry about work or school. The noise could be ungodly relationships  and unnecessary friends. The noise could stale habits as spending so much time on social media or watching too much movies. The noise could be your own pride giving an ugly disguised smile.

Shut it all down. Kneel. Pray. Meditate. Study the word. Form a relationship, a genuine relationship with Jesus. Learn to hear his voice. Feed yourself the right material. Put all your effort in that. The rest you so much seek shall come.

The tipping point of life's course are based on simple decisions. Who we are now are but culminations of what we previously decided to say, do or imply. The virtue of self control is not as easy as it sounds. When faced with a dilemma, the weight imposed by the ease of sliding into temptation and saying no is just an unfair tag of war.


As such I applaud all who put down both their feet and were assertive enough to say no to whatever temptation came their way. To fellow men out there, cheers to all of you who stared at nudity right in its bare form and said a no or walked away. Even the most whimsical of you who took to his heels when faced by temptation: congratulations.

I speak out of great horror for any of my readers, who in their short sightedness perceive the short-lived pleasure over the consequentially long term implications of their actions. It is not their fault that their budding and weak will is conflicted over giving in to their hormones as opposed to making sober and informed decisions.


I'll be of humble grammar today just to make it easier for you to understand. Sin no alien to anyone nor is it a respecter of status or anyone. We all know it, some of it intrinsically. It can be likened to a sneeze, we all know when it is coming and it never misses. It is all upon you to suppress it, control it or let it out with such a gusto that it leaves your face with such a mess.


Theft, laze, murder, lies and slander are but petty misconduct or too extreme for most of you that I am writing to. One common denominator that ensnares us all, that daily seeks to entangle us even after we may have fallen a prey to it earlier is sexual immorality. It is an act is frowned upon by both the society and also at the religious spheres. Even in ancient history, gruesome penalties were discharged to sex offenders.


But then even after knowing the consequences of what irresponsible and untimely (outside marriage) sex can bring why do we still indulge in the same? Why is it too hard to overcome the addiction? Can one ever just date a friend and give them a first kiss at the altar? And if that fails to work must it always end up between the sheets?


Well, some questions are better asked early enough before matters get out of hand. I will start with the good boys. For you whose innocence is still intact, don't bother getting curious. Don't struggle knowing what the other side of the river holds, it may be a nice farm of ripe fruits ready for harvesting or raw fruits that could all together poison you up. Know your limits, stand by your principals and make sure you look stupid doing so. Your female counterpart may never understand why you don't want to hold her hands, hug her, kiss her or stay in a room alone with her; but it is all for your good.


This is an analogy I like to use while talking to myself and others who have had the trouble interacting with me: a passenger traveling long distance is pressed for a short call of nature. And it is during the night, so the driver cannot dare stop anywhere for him to alight and relieve himself. This passenger, if in his normal senses and perfect of health will resort to hold it all in until it is safe to relieve themselves in a nice and comfortable place without a shade of embarrassment; and of course he will take his time with no hurries. If he goes for the most unfortunate option, then he would pee on himself and risk the embarrassment of the mess he caused as well as ridicule from fellow passengers.


The same applies to the journey of chastity. It were better to hold it in all together and the end you might even forget that you were once pressed for the call of nature; so called sex; as it too is a natural call for all humans. When the right time comes for you to relieve yourself; you will do so safely, within your matrimonial bed, with all blessings, with no hurry, with all permission and without fear embarrassment.


Now to those of you who may have fallen before, and the taste of it all still lingers in our senses and keeps haunting our cravings, there are two keys: guard  your heart and watch your steps. There is a part in the Lord's prayer that says "Lead us not into temptation...". This in a way implies that when one does not follow a path that does lead them into temptation, then there is the greatest chance that they wont fall. In a divine way, daily God in His mercies makes us go the right path.


However in our folly, rebellion and stupid tendency to curiously seek fun, we end treading the paths that lead to temptation village. We follow a brother to the club, we visit a sister in a weird hour of the day, we hookup with a girl for sexual escapades and at the end withdraw to cry in regret. We all have a ssecond chance, not any of us is irrepairable unless you get super sturbbon to receiving change.


Now, the next is a bit tricky. Once you have succeeded in watching your steps, a greater temptation is always thrown at you. Someone that portrays themselves as having concern for your heart matters come along. Being vulnerable it is most obvious that you would give in to them, fall in love again and open up your wounded heart to them, spend time with them, and some of it when just the two of you alone. Then history repeat itself.


For such I say guard your heart. Until the day you are sure you are ready enter into a lasting, commitment or relationship, then open the door for them. Otherwise assume all of them as avenues to more traps. This sounds radical but we may know sin, but fail to recognize what it has morphed into. We may have experienced sin before, but we may fail to know its smell the next time it visits.


Stay sharp.

Ignorance is bliss, until the point where folly starts to make failure fonder to your life’s door. At that point in time, growth is necessary, and the helm of principles, beliefs and routine, that once clothed you have to be tailored into much larger garments, with an optimism that you would one day fit into them; maturity.


When that time comes, dear toddlers, an abstract gift shall be handed unto you. Be it from your parent, guardian, mentor or teacher; that would be immaterial. Most importantly, it shall be entrusted unto you in its entirety. It shall not be your first encounter with it, since as from your infancy it was handed to you, but in wieldy doses.


Compelled to say, I’d remind you of the first time your loving mum, kicked you out of her matrimonial bed into your own crib, then later on into your own bedroom. The other time it was your father refusing to hold your hand while you paced along the streets and sooner you were left to use the tissue on your own, whether for crayon painting or the liberal act of self-cleansing, only you can tell. Then you could do your laundry, respond to stimulus as hunger and treat your tummy to satisfaction. Those were just small doses of what is conventionally referred to as Freedom.


Yes, it was handed over to you in bits and at the most trivial of level, such as personal hygiene where it was all up to you whether you picked your nose or resorted to be a lady or gentleman and use your handkerchief. Now, the time will come, and maybe it has; when the full dose of Freedom will be left all to you. You will be the judge, jury and execution of thineself. Your word will be final unto yourself, and yet you could prosecute it at your own convenience.


Your principles would become your principalities and when need be out of laze, lax and discomfort, you could bend the rules as you please; just for self-amusement. At that time, dear kid, watch out because the hedge that once protected you known as ignorance or innocence shall be long gone. This Freedom that shall be given unto you, could be a spring board to a well formulated facet of life known as adulthood or a twisted ordeal or misoccurences that spirals you into cycles of stagnation, defeat and frustration.


Let it be known to you that in as much as you are your own guardian, you do not belong to yourself. And if in your stupor you embrace Freedom, in her wholesomeness, including her nix, she will destroy you. Do not despise her, you need her to grow and make informed mature choices. However, make an acquaintance with her, then feel free to serve her with a long wooden spoon. Do not let her interfere with the morals you were taught when still young. As a matter of fact, only use her if you need to.


Make her an asset not a dependency. Create a rapport with her but don’t let it get into familiarity. When she visits, let her in through the front door, don’t let her get to your kitchen, I am so suspicious of her, she may poison your food. She may smile at you with a variety of many options, some of which you may escape the consequences, but I warn thee dear toddler, she does not care about your well-being. Freedom is not your mother.