Maximising your ability

Scottish athlete and Olympic champion Eric Liddell is not just remembered for his pace on track but also for this statement, "God made me fast, and when I run I feel his pleasure."

Every person has an inherent gift that when discovered and fanned will benefit society and give God pleasure. But when an individual's inner firepower is not discovered and utilised positively, it becomes a time bomb that will eventually explode and wreck havoc. That explains the madness in the world today, the latest being the violence against foreigners in South Africa. 

Using our talents like these dancers will afford no time for negative pursuits

It emanates from the failure of the world to train the little ones while they are still bendable so that when they are grownups they will not misuse the latent power within. This why the education of the child is so important. Not the formal training at school but the informal learning through interaction with elders.

Things like intergrity, respect and responsibility are not taught but caught. If a father comes home drunk everyday and clobbers his wife, how is his son expected to respect and value others?

In Better Than Good, motivational writer Zig Ziglar passionately discusses the importance of speaking words of affirmation to children to help them have self-belief and grow up with a positive mindset. Some girls bleach their skins because nobody told them they are beautiful just the way God created them. Because they had no strong positive influence to make them beli

eve they are unique, they fell for the lie that they are ugly and have never accepted themselves.

If we become the change we desire in this world, the children to whom the future belongs will do the same. No one who is helped to know and maximise his talent will have time for negative pursuits because they will be busy making manifest the glory of God through their talents just like Eric Liddell pleasured God with his running.

Tribute to Rosemary Nankabirwa

A couple of years ago, Rosemary Nankabirwa and I were invited by one of the city primary schools to speak to its kids. Rosemary, because she was the highflying news anchor at NTV, and I was the author of Banjo's Adventures—the fictional children's series that were being used to foster a reading lifestyle at the school. 

It was the first time I got up-close with Rosemary. Her television persona had given me an idea of a brash and sophisticated lady that I would probably not easily get along with. But I met a humble and affectionate girl who was not afraid to relish the little delights life offered. 

Rosemary giving an inspirational talk to pupils

Children swarmed her like bees in a nectar garden, and I was amazed by her chemistry with them as she signed autographs, told stories, sang and read storybooks. It was not surprising that when she posed the question, what would you like to become in future, most children answered that they wanted to become like her.

Later the pupils entertained us with music and dance. As drums beat and the singing and clapping became electrifying, little girls wiggled their tiny waists to a traditional song. Unable to contain herself, Rosemary joined in the bakisimba dance and jiggled her waist and bottom like a maestro. Staff members stood up clapping and cheering her on atmospherically, marvelling at her agility and dexterity.

Rosemary in a skirt and white top dances bakisimba with pupils

Thus Rosemary was a woman who lived her life to the fullest. Of course we would all have loved her to bloom on to a good old age but what matters is not the many years one lives but how the given years are lived. Rosemary seized a very opportunity to make an impact and enliven others. The amazing response of the public in raising millions of shillings to help her says as much.

We will cherish the precious, inspirational memories Rosemary gave us. May her soul rest in everlasting peace.

Citizen Kane

I recently re-watched Citizen Kane (1941), a true-life film about an American man who rises from rags to riches in the newspaper industry. In his obsessive pursuit of power and wealth, Kane (Orson Welles) alienates his family and friends. He later dies a lonely man, crying out for his boyhood sled which represented the only time he was ever truly happy. His vast riches had not brought him meaning and joy.

It's a film that stirs in one a need to abandon pursuits that do not minister to us and those around us. We are living in times where the quest for money has relegated things that matter most. A friend who works in Nairobi was telling me that he has stayed in the same apartment  for over a year but does not know his neighbours. Every time he reaches out, he is repulsed by their coldness. 

"Individualism and a weak social structure is killing this place," he said.

This is the modern reality of an Africa that used to stand out for its communality. You have an emergency but the person who would help is too busy. Busy acquiring what we don't need [status symbols] instead of spending more time with family and friends, appreciating the lilies of the field and finding satisfaction in simplicity.  

Greek philosopher Epicurus once said that “One must regard wealth beyond what is natural as of no more use than water to a container that is full to overflowing.” He also said that “Of all the things that wisdom provides to help one live one’s entire life in happiness, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship.” May we kill the 'citizen Kane' in us by heeding the philosopher's words.       

A happy outcome

Today being Easter, finds me reflecting on the suffering of Jesus Christ. He was rejected in his own home town, and when the going got really tough in the last moments of his earthly life, even his disciples denied and deserted him. But Jesus did not give up. I believe the reason he endured all that and the pain of nails being driven into his palms and ankles, was because he kept his mind on the resurrection.

Thus Jesus was quintessentially an optimist who told himself that no matter the intensity of his suffering, three days later he would pop out of the grave and triumphantly fly like an eagle to heaven to everlasting glory. I've always drawn untold inspiration and satisfaction from the victory of Jesus. He was the perfect trailblazer who conquered that we too may conquer when we keep our eyes on the ultimate prize.

I remember when I spent three weeks without money. Whatever I tried did not work. I experienced myriad moods from anxiety to anger, frustration, bitterness and self-pity, until I realised that I was behaving like the migraine sufferer who requested his best friend to place his head on a table and drill a small hole in the side hoping that some air would enter in and soothe his pain away!

My dry season was something temporal. Moreover there were people going through far greater tribulations, so I decided to put off worry. This gave me a peace of mind even when I was still hungry. I learned that suffering truly produces endurance and character and a hope that never fails. It's this hope for a happy outcome that gave Jesus the strength to withstand. No matter what ugly things life throws at you, rest in the allurements of optimism and you will triumph in the end as Jesus did.

Happy Easter.

Celebrating Janet K. Museveni

Today I want to celebrate a woman who is mostly misunderstood at home and not  given the credit that is due unto her name. She is an optimist with a compassionate pulse for the disadvantaged. Through her initiatives, so many HIV/Aids victims, widows and orphans have found hope. 

Uganda's First Lady, Janet K. Museveni

She also drums the drum of faithfulness in marriage and runs campaigns urging the youths to pursue spiritual and moral values. It is at one of such campaigns at the university a couple of years ago that I signed the true-love-waits card promising to abstain from sex until I get married. 

This woman taught her four children in the way that they should walk and they have not departed from it despite having everything that often tempts the children of the mighty and privileged to stray. Her three beautiful daughters are stably married, and one of them is a pastor. Her only son serves in a big position in the army and is known by his family as "a man after God's own heart" because of his love for King David of the Bible on whom God bestowed that label. 

 This no. 1 Ugandan woman is actually the solid rock behind her husband. She brings some stability and sanity to the table, without which he would have found the business of running the country overwhelming. He testifies in the Foreword of her biography how his born-again Christian wife wakes up to pray and read her Bible at three o'clock every morning!

That's where she draws her strength and wisdom to juggle her humongous responsibilities as wife, mother, grandmother, First Lady, minister, M.P., not forgetting her duties in the humanitarian organizations she founded. All this success yet she was born an ordinary girl in an ordinary home like most of us. 

Happy Women's Day, Janet Florence Kainembabazi Kataaha Museveni. I pray you also succeed in convincing your husband to hand over power peacefully.