My Month Of Re-Engineering My Home

I cannot but think of Jesus re-engineering principles and skills when I think in terms of global religion. While all of them profess love and peace, it is obvious they are teaching and philosophizing what they did not practice. This is obvious by what their followers are practicing today.Jesus re-engineered religion by teaching the principles of love and peace, but more importantly and practically by giving his life, he improved humanity by dying for them .He did not commit sin yet he died for sinners. He by his life style taught us how to build our homes - die for the other person, not kill the other person so that we can live. He in simple terms, is saying if you want a better marriage, a better society, it is not by complaining, passing the buck or playing the blame game, it is about ‘dying’ for the person. It is about loving the unlovable, practicing the agape, unconditional love. He even suggested, sorry, instructed that we should pray for our enemies. Jesus is saying even if you classified your spouse as your enemy, your (mother) in-law as your enemy, the best way of dealing with that person is not to kill him/her with your guns, hate speech , prayers or attitude, but to pray for him/her to live.

See the wickedness in our society today. See the level of senseless killings. Thousands being blown away to premature death. From Syria to Sudan, Afghanistan to Somali, even Democratic Republic of Congo to Nigeria. Millions being maimed by road side bombs. Citizens of the same nation shooting one another even when there is no war. Properties are being destroyed in billions if not trillions of dollars. Sanctity of life is being treated and ignored as if grains of wheat! It is inconceivable that under a religion people will abduct 300 girls and subject them to inhuman treatment, abusing them, threatening them and using them as cheap black mail to demand for hardened criminals. Even with the international outrage and appeal, it is unbelievable that some will still harden their hearts.

It is time to re-engineer our minds and consequently our homes. It is time to bear in mind that these girls are not tubers of yam; they were conceived in someone’s womb, someone travailed to bring them to this world; those children have a destiny that is being put on hold.

Let me be direct, terrorists are human beings. Boko Haram members are human beings Al-Qaeda members are human beings. They are products of some homes. They sleep and wake up. They eat food. They wear cloth, they even make videos albeit hate videos. Re-engineering is about rethinking the way we have done things and looking for ways to make it better. Let us practice love as advocated by Jesus. There are five categories of people to love; God, brethren, enemies, neighbors and strangers. Re-engineering is about strategizing on how I can love these people, if your religion is not helping you to do that you need to surrender your life to Christ. It reminds me of the story of a man who was always coughing. And he was invited to give a speech; he took his cough mixture along. He could hardly read a sentence without pausing to take sip of the mixture, and he apologized to the audience once saying ‘sorry, I have to take my medication my family doctor gave me eight years ago.’ Then someone from the crowd shouted, ‘if I were in your shoes I would change that family doctor and my medication!’ What is it that you are doing that is not working, in your home or in the office, in your marriage or career, in your church; in the school or in the factory- change it. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. Phil 4:8-9.We surely can make our world better. Let us think about the future of our nation, our children. Re-engineer yourself today for a better future for all.

Pastor Amos Dada is a trained engineer with the call of a preacher. Lives in Toronto.416-616-2425