~ by kaka Lucas, 21 June 2022

Life has taught me to create heaven where I am. Society has taught me to grow where I am planted. I have taught myself to grow where I am planted even when it’s dry, for dryness is that
period before the rainy season comes.

Meal times is the time to catch up. It is our culture in our house to give updates during meals on what happened the previous day, the things we weren’t able to update each other on, things we had forgotten, or things that may have transpired during the few hours between meals and also calls and incidents that may have occurred while we weren’t together. So you can just imagine, one cannot focus on the plate or use our phones while at the table. Our mouths, ears, eyes and nose are all busy multitasking at that time. Interestingly, no one ever stops eating, and no one ever misses loading food in their mouth while talking. It may not seem mannerly, but we carry on in a disciplined way.

Today, breakfast was interesting as we looked at the definition of “church”. I was left puzzled and I went to my friend Google to see if he understood better than I did. This is what I found out:

Church Definition & Meaning – Dictionary.com (https://www.dictionary.com › browse › church). A group of Christians (see also Christian); church is a biblical word for “assembly.”

But is that really what ‘Church’ stands for?

The definition of church according to my good friend is this …… “A young man grew up in a community. He did well, then he migrated overseas. He did so well in his studies that he got a good job in his profession. Allow me to call him ‘Josh’. Josh had a girlfriend in the community he lived in. A high school sweetheart, rear to find. While living and working overseas, Josh sent money to his girlfriend for her to buy a property and fix up things before he moved back home, for the plan was that they would eventually settle together as husband and wife. It was during the analog world where there were no video calls and e-mail. So they would contact each other through letters. After a long stay overseas, Josh came back to the community to find that his girlfriend got married, used the money he sent to buy a house and she was living happily with her husband and they were expecting their firstborn child. What do you think happened? ….. Josh was so affected that he became mentally ill. I would have done the same too.

Anyway …. Life went on and Josh couldn’t travel abroad due to his condition so he settled down in the community while he went on with his treatment. During this time Josh met another lady and they were on the verge of getting married. The lady called off the wedding a week before the wedding day. This caused Josh to relapse. Josh was so affected that he was ready to throw in the towel of life. It was during this time that two brothers from the church that Josh attended came in and took him to get proper medical care. He took it positively, he improved rapidly and he was out of the mental facility in short order. The two brothers got him a place to stay and they started business for him. They went on to enculturate him into the church community that was fearful and wanted to segregate him because of his poor mental health. The pastor chipped in and journeyed with Josh to his new Christian life. The pastor baptized Josh and he became a full member of the church. One thing the pastor commented on was this: “Josh didn’t understand the doctrines of the Church, but Josh loves Jesus and that was enough”. Josh attends church weekly and participates in many church activities. He’s always present. He doesn’t speak much but his presence is felt in a million ways.

This is is the Church! The Church takes those in need and makes them needless, that is Church and if you want to extend it, this is what makes one a Christian.

One politician once said to her opposing party, “… Christianity is about the values we practice, not about carrying two bibles to church and quoting all manner of verses. Let’s not pretend to be Deputy Jesus Christ ……”

Pope Francis too had his definition of church, and this is what he has to say, “The Church is a ‘caravan of brothers’ on a journey.”

What is your definition of a Church? Please write a comment or send me an email @ kakajaboni @ kakajaboni@mail.com or call my number and let’s talk about it.