Month: September 2026

Sometimes, the hardest thing to thank God for is what you survived.

Someone deceived you.
Something was taken from you.
And for a while, you may grieve not only the loss, but the person you were before it happened.

So when people say, “Just move on,”
you smile, because they make moving on sound so simple.

It isn’t.

But then you look at your life.

And you realise,
they took something, but they did not take everything.

God kept you.

And sometimes, that is enough reason to whisper:

Thank You, Lord.

Take the lesson.
Leave the weight.
Carry the wisdom.

And when your heart is ready,
move on.

Imagine inviting three friends over for dinner. When they arrive you inform them you will be preparing Ghana Jollof for dinner. All three show excitement at your chosen meal. Especially as they have never eaten it but heard a lot about it. So you start off by explaining and showing them the typical Jollof ingredients. However, as soon as you start, one guest starts to argue about how fresh tomatoes should not be added in a rice meal. They ask very politely if it’s possible to omit it from the meal. Though you explain that Jollof needs the tomatoes to be Jollof, they do not appreciate your opinion. And so you give in to their request and omit the tomatoes to please your guest. Later another guest starts a conversation about how garlic and ginger are rather toxic when cooked. They claim research shows garlic and ginger are never meant to be cooked or added in meals but only eaten raw. The other guests agree with them, so you take the ginger and the garlic too out.
Soon, the stew is ready and it’s time to add the rice. You wash the rice and proceed to add it when the third guest screams!
“No, what are you doing??”
You explain you are adding the rice to the stew as typical of Jollof.
They claim rice should never be cooked in that manner.
But then you ask what they thought Jollof was?
They explain they never knew rice was cooked in the stew and they think that it’s disgusting to cook rice that way.
So you listen to them too and set the rice aside and cook it separately.
In the end, what is served, though your guests seem to delight in it, is not Jollof. It is a rice dish for sure, eaten to satisfy hunger, but definitely not Jollof.

I once had a conversation with an acquaintance about Christianity. In their opinion, there were certain aspects of the nature of God and Christian beliefs they could never accept like the concept of hell.
Later as I reflected over that conversation, I thought if Christianity has core principles and you decide to choose and pick what fits your personal feelings and beliefs then in the end, what you practice is not Christianity but a modified version or maybe a different religion. I was reminded that it’s the same as when you set out to prepare a meal according to a recipe. If you take certain key elements of the recipe out or modify it so that the core technique of the meal is not executed then the meal that turns out in the end is not what was defined in the recipe. It is your own version of that meal.