Loving Pieces!

“Unreserved; unrestrained

Your Love is wild, Your Love is wild for me.

It isn’t shy; it’s unashamed

Your love is proud, to be seen with me.

To be seen with me.

Cause you don’t give your heart in pieces [no no]

You don’t hide yourself to tease us.

Your love’s not fractured; it’s not a troubled mind

It isn’t anxious, it’s not the restless kind.

Your love’s not passive; it’s never disengaged

It’s always present, it hangs on every word you say.

Love keeps its promises

It keeps its word

Honors what’s sacred, cause its vows are good

Your love’s not broken, it’s not insecure

Your love’s not selfish, your love is pure”

-Excerpt from song ‘Pieces’; Bethel music and Steffany Gretzinger.

Ever since I heard these lines for the first time, my heart hasn’t stopped humming along every day because these words mean more than the world to me.

Ever imagined a man who loves a woman (in his mind) but is not sure if he wants everyone to see them together, for reasons best known to him?

Or what about loving a woman so heart broken and battered at heart, a woman who has had her own share of disappointment in the ‘loving thing’?

I don’t know what you think about being in love with a man who isn’t proud to be seen with you, or a woman who only has a broken heart for you to love; for me, I personally do not want any of those ‘loving kind of things’.

One thing is certain for sure, you cannot enjoy love overdose from any these ‘loving people’- I think that I am hearing myself sound like my own Sophie Dawodu right now, LOL! Just go and see that ‘Shedding Skin’ video on the Christapoet YouTube channel (her lines always have a way of getting into my own pieces, LOL!

I don’t know if you have ever had to resist the temptations of constantly checking on the object of your love or even going as far as deleting their numbers for a while from your phone so you’d stop ‘obsessing’ over them; sometimes it could even be more frustrating especially when you find that your fingers can retrieve the numbers from your head when you are trying to do something ‘meaningful’ with your phone. So, one way or the other, the person will get you, get you…..LOL!

Some other times you might have determined in your heart, to intentionally not pick up your phone at least after one call from them gets missed, so that you can get them to ‘want more of you’ aka miss you, and call you more than they already do- after all, that was what your favorite love doctor recommended for you and all your fellow loving-struck people!

You know, a big part of my mind call those ‘loving stunts’, manipulations! They are selfish because they revolve on one’s own self and not even the so called ‘Beloved’.

Ama tell you two stories now, I hope you are not getting bored already. It is Favouromeje writing, okay? And she hardly knows how to write short because her words are just too many, okay? LOL.

Story 1

Jack and Jill have a thing for each other. I think it is a ‘loving thing’, and I also believe that it is a really strong thing too!

Jill loves Jack’s attention, especially the way he stares at her. Jack is kind to everyone and very particularly tender to Jill. Jack is also yet to say a thing to Jill.

One day, Jill wakes up thinking about Jack and she feels that a call would be all she needed to start a great day. So, she picks up her Nokia device and starts scrolling for Jack’s phone number. Seeing his name on her phone screen, her heart begins to pound really fast. Did I tell you that his voice which was very much richly deeper than a baritone, startles her in a pretty nice way and that the very air of his presence was the oxygen that she wanted more? Hmm!

She almost touches the green button of her Nokia mobile phone before she thinks to herself:

‘No, I called him yesterday evening already, I know he likes me a lot but I shouldn’t be calling him yet again’.

‘I just have to make him miss me plenty, so that he’d love me more and more. You know, I don’t have to be too cheap and easy to him’, she says dropping her phone for her writing pad to make her day’s to-do list. She promises herself a new pair of chinos pants, should incase she succeeds in pulling out her ‘loving thing no-calling stunts’ after 4 straight weeks. In fact she wrote her ‘loving thing’ project goal on her writing pad and stamped her decision on her journal.

She decides to intentionally miss calls at least once every other time he calls, so that he’d not feel that she Jill was that into him Jack!

Story 2

‘Bae and Boo like no other’, have a big thing for each other. I think it is a loving thing too, and I also must confess that they are both on a very long fine thing. I have been watching them with my pair of binoculars lately!

Bae loves Boo’s attention, especially the way he gets carried away staring her in the eyes. Bae thinks that the gaze from his very pair of eyes were stronger than laser.

Boo on the other hand, is good to all of them brothers and sisters, but speaking of them sisters, Bae is to Boo, his white rose among thorns. She was just it to him. In fact, I have personally noticed it myself because I am his sister too. ‘Bae and Boo like no other’ are loving strong but Boo is yet to spell it to Bae, and I think Bae is waiting too! Bae doesn’t mind waiting-loving for a thousand years because she likes her ‘loving things ‘slow, steady, non-intense, and building up like a crescendo.

One day, Bae thinks of Boo and decides to give him a call; if not for anything, she loves the startling effect of his better-than-a rich-baritone’s ‘hello’ over the phone.

So, she picks up her phone. I think it is also a Nokia mobile device like Jill’s. She does not have to scroll for his number for too long because ‘shamefully’, it is the very last number she dialed the night before. Bae knows that Boo would always be her favorite person in the whole world, and she in fact admits to herself that he is her most basic obsession, at least lately. In fact, I can personally tell you that Bae could run her airtime shamelessly for more than 30 minutes calling ‘MAN’ and this man is Boo!

Bae almost touches her Nokia green button but she refrains and says to herself:

‘I am a basic and a major distraction to this man and I don’t think that this is very good for him. I need to do him a favor and let him to just be, so that he can at least have enough time to be useful to himself’

‘Besides, I know that I am who he needs but this can never be good for him, at least not for his ‘male-getting-happiness from-a good hunting’ mind’. This she says out loud, dropping her phone for her writing pad. She needs to make her to-do list which she couldn’t

write the night before as she ritually did.

You might want to count and compare the number of ‘I’ and ‘Me’ or ‘he’ and ‘him’ in Jill’s and Bae’s musings. You might find out who was ‘loving selfish’ and who actually was loving. Love can never revolve around the subject but the object and that is just Jesus loves.

I think that Bae is a little more like my Abba Daddy than Jill.

Abba Daddy is too love secure to manipulate me by teasing me with his presence. He doesn’t have to manipulate me with punishments or fear of hell in order to get me on His side. He loves so wild, so unreserved, so unrestrained and I know that He loves me pieces without any heart in pieces. He is not using His death on the cross to play any mind games on me like many people might want to think that he does. His ‘Loving thing’ is whole and complete, actively loving me and engaged daily with His commitment to me, His commitment to come back for me.

It is the knowledge of my ‘Crazy in love-with me- Father’ that gives me the boldness to pour my love on anybody I want to, even if he has to be ‘MAN’ because I know that my Abba Daddy’s love has made me too invincible to be insecure and broken!

By Favouromeje, February, 2017.

the Ultimate Love Language 1!

Each Word a Gift!

‘In a fast paced world’…, Etisalat advert would say.

With my fast paced mouth I’d rather say, I could have a pretty hard time keeping up with my ‘Word Processing Center’!

Sometime last October, I learned more than a handful from one of my precious moments of solitude, I’d tell you about it.

I have this major favorite guy, it’s supposed to be a secret but please don’t get this twisted. Alright? Thanks!

One day before I hibernated in myself, aka solitude, I gave him this cool compliment over the phone, I am so not telling no one what I said to him. And you mustn’t get this twisted too. It could be an everyday compliment, okay? Needless to say, the compliment was a lil bit flirtatious, I must confess! That wasn’t the plan I swear, but the compliment leaked anyways!

Nevertheless, he didn’t let a drop of the compliment to sink into his heart; he is one of those rare species- trust me!

So, how did I know that he didn’t accept the compliment then?

Well, Favouromeje has a knack for picking up every kind of vibes, even the ones sent wordlessly and wirelessly through a phone- trust me!

This guy’s cold shoulder treatment towards my ‘innocent flirty’ compliment gave me some cuds to chew, and I learned a bundle of truth by the time I was done ruminating!

Ephesians 4: 29:

“Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth; say only what helps, each word a gift” (MSG)

“Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God’s favor) to those who hear it” (AMP).

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (NIV)

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (ESV).

“You must not let such a word that depletes the spiritual state, and gives the mind more renewal assignment to do, to come out your mouth, but only that which is a needful and wholesome diet, nourishing to the soul; no junks added, and is able to improve, renew, better the mind, bring about Spirit ascendancy over human mind, and of course is able to impact God’s unmerited favor on any one who is fortunate to hear you speak to them” (Favouromeje).

So while my mouth is blabbing, I must be sure that it is blabbing at the right time, giving good spiritual nourishment, no mind corrupting junks, no soul barricading cholesterol, making people better, and having basically the Grace and Gospel of God as an underlying major theme.

I wonder how I can prepare such a Word Diet in this fast paced world, with my really fast paced mouth!

Well, I am doing that now (winks)!

BY Favouromeje, 2016.

Hate the dark?

Love Life; hate Darkness!

Love is light; hate is darkness.

Walking in love is light; walking in hate is darkness.

Walking in love is walking in light; walking in hate is walking in darkness.

Loving gives light; hating gives darkness.

Love makes you see; hate makes you blind

Love gives you enough light to see the best in your brother; hate gives you enough darkness not to see the good in your brother.

When you see, you do not stumble; when you are blind you stumble.

The Mutant sees because he has light; the world do not see because they have darkness.

Mutants are lights because they see and give sight; the world is dark because they do not see, and do give blindness.

Love is Life; hate is death

The Mutant is alive; the world is dead.

Love to live; hate to die

The Mutant loves because they are alive; the world hates because they are dead.

To love is to live; to hate is to die

Lovers are living men; haters are dead men

Love is the Great Enlightenment; hate is the Great Darkness.

The Mutant lives in the Age of Enlightenment; the world lives in the Dark Age.

Love the Light; hate the dark.

To love is to know; to hate, is to not know.

To love is to know God; to hate is to not know God.

Knowledge is the Love maturity, this is the Christian maturity, and this is also the very core of God, the Bible and who He is.

For me, enlightenment is when you know enough to put your life in the line for another without them even knowing it, let alone reciprocating the gesture- this is not rocket science, is it?. On the other hand, when the best you know is how best to have your way and feel important without anyone (including yourself) ever knowing it, let alone reciprocating the “kind” gesture, then you are in the Dark Age- sorry!

1 John 2,3&4.

Tough love, Safe Haven!

Since I was little, I had this strong phobia for both heights and depths. Jesus knows that unlike the woman at the well, He is not likely to find me at the well, because I would make every excuse that would excuse me from drawing from the well at my street in the Coal City let alone drawing from the well of living- that is well encounters or ‘being at the right place at the right time’ was a criterion for receiving the promised eternal Life.

Jesus knows too that I would never sing to ask Him to take me, and plant my feet on any higher ground- that is ‘ higher ground’ were taken literally because I so cannot trade the comfort of the safe haven I have found on floors for any heights in this world!

Recently, I saw myself running carefree to meet up with a deadline along a Ulysses huge overhead bridge at Abuja, with all the speeding vehicles beneath. So I was taken aback. What had changed in me? I realized that my phobia, (the fears behind my fears) are all gone. I was not afraid of the heights but I was afraid of falling and crashing. I was not afraid of depths but I was simply afraid of falling and getting lost in the deep.

So what or who took away the fears behind my fears? I’d say that only Love did. I found Love and everything about me changed. The comfort and assurance in the love of my Father in Christ Jesus reassures me that I He will leave me by myself, therefore if I must crash or fall into any deep, then He will fall and crash with me, besides, I know that He loves me much more than I love myself. The love of Christ changes us, and it has renewed my mind, and transformed me.

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”- Ephesians 4: 17b-19( NIV).

Because perfect love casts out all fears- including the fears behind the fears.

Cheerful Mercy!

Blessed are the merciful, for they would be shown mercy. –Matthew 5: 7(NIV).

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and do not pay attention to the plank in your own eye? –Matthew 7: 1-3(NIV).

That’s my Jesus. Do you hear Him using the words of a carpenter? He sure was one!

The Sermon on the Mount recorded in the Bible is so huge for me. I told my Jesus that I wanted to understand them and ever since, He has been breaking them down for me bit by bit. He started with the issue of love, mercy.

Every time we expect people to understand us and everything about how we choose to do our things. For instance, when I make a mistake or fail to do what I am supposed to do I just expect to be understood and not misunderstood. Jesus made me to understand that I should show people around me love and kindness by just trying to understand them- their hearts, whether they are right or wrong. This is love and that is mercy. If someone messes ups my kitchen, Jesus wants me to understand and sympathize with the fact that they do not know a better way to do it or that they are not just me who have a special way of keeping my kitchen. I don’t have to be mad at them. God puts up with me and I should do the same for my neighbor.

I don’t have to condemn even if I am condemned. Understanding is mercy, mercy is not judging.

While I was just taking in what my Jesus was saying to me as I went on with my activity, I discovered that there are thing in me that people may not find acceptable. I love home making and I savor every moment of it. As a microbiologist I love my home to be maximally germ free and not just squeaky clean. I was slow when trying to enjoy my home making and yet do it ‘microbiologically’. That day He was teaching me about mercy, I did just little in 8 hours- they were almost perfectly done though. I couldn’t finish and I had an appointment to meet up with so I needed my sister’s help. I asked for it, she complained and my brother felt that I was just being unfair. It was then that he told me bluntly that he didn’t see what I had been doing. I tried explaining but I had to rush out. I felt sad but my Jesus kept my temper in check but He spoke to me later and confirmed to me that He felt too that I was slow. He said that He understood me because I understood my brother. I knew Jesus watched all that happened He was even with me while I did the home but He did not say a word of it because He wanted me to learn practically. He reminded me that time is a talent that He gave us equally and that He expects me to use it well. He is teaching me how anyway. He is my helper.

If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice; you would not have condemned the innocent. –Matthew 12: 7(NIV).