Stay Connected

If your mother is anything like mine, then my story will resonate well with you. But even if she’s not, stay with me, I promise I’m going somewhere with this: My mother is an amazing woman of faith and the older I get the more I glean from her strength and wisdom. Growing up, I would hear my mother pray early in the morning before sunrise. Every day without fail, she woke up to talk to God. I heard her pray because her prayers were not whispered, they were loud! ;-) When my mom prayed she mentioned just about everyone I know by name, asking for God to bless them…and then of course when it boiled down to us, her children, she'd pray for blessings but also about whatever issues we were dealing with. We only had to be awake to know what was going on in one another's lives! Mama talked to God about it, never mind that other people might hear. Bless her heart! I realized that the ‘mango’ doesn’t fall too far from the tree when I went to live with my grandmother for a few weeks, and the routine was the same- actually hers was worse...I learned about the history of Makueni through her prayers! Ehh…!! 

The other day I had to have a medical procedure that required me to be on bed-rest, and I ended up staying at my mom’s. I realized that very few things have changed about her, and this one thing has remained constant: my mom still wakes up early in the morning to talk to God…about my issues and many other wonderful things! Lol

Photography by Emmanuel Jambo

It was then than I started thinking to myself that my mother must have discovered the secret to making it through life. It dawned on me that the reason why she’s rock-solid, the reason why she’s as strong as a palm tree is because of her relationship with God. Palm trees have roots that not only spread out a great distance, but also go down deep. A palm tree can bend in a storm, but it will not break. I have watched my mom weather some very big storms, seen her deeply hurt, observed as she’s gone through the vicissitudes of life, but still she rises. 

And then I started to think about myself and saw the patterns clearly…the seasons that I have chosen to walk alone have been the toughest by far. Sometimes I have found myself walking away from God because I felt hurt, sometimes out of stubbornness, and other times out of flat out pride. In those moments I speak a litany of lies to myself as the world crumbles around me, and then end up hurt, broken, and having nowhere to turn, but to God.

On the flip-side there are other seasons where I have trusted God no matter the outcome. These have been pretty tough, but there seems to have been a softer landing when I've allowed God to go through them with me. 

Beloved, we always know the right road to follow, and yet we follow only the road that we have become accustomed to, the path of least resistance. We seem to live above the struggle, beneath the radar… somewhat gliding through life, but this path is also one that leads to desolation and deep despair, because you see I have found nothing worse than being outside the grace of God. It’s the grace of God that carries us when life overwhelms us. It’s His grace that keeps and sustains us. It’s only the grace of God that takes our shortcomings and mistakes and turns them into gain, instead of shame. It’s the grace of God that makes all the difference.

I have often heard it said that the will of God will never take you where His grace cannot protect you. Ain’t that the truth! When you walk under the shadow of God, he protects you and makes provision for all that you need. Away from it you become vulnerable, and prey for the enemy. 

I am making a choice to dig deeper…to discover the secret of staying connected to God, just like my mother did. I hope you do too!

From my heart to yours,

Kambua M.