Fine, n u?

This will get me in trouble with quite a few people and to a large extent I am fine with this. I really despise the modern texting trait/fashion. I don’t hate communicating, not that I am very good at it but I definitely do not hate it. What I do hate is this idea that texting promotes whereby what should be common language skills as well as the sharing of everyday life is tossed aside in exchange for highlights of life, whether fake or real, and really poor conversation skills in a none relationship pursuit context. It is literally moving backwards. Let me break this down

Yet we insist on continuing with the lie

The generic “Hi/Hey” I can buy, after all it is simply hello. I can even buy the variations of “How are you” but the whole “Fine n u” bit, I’m just not having that. No one is fine all the time and even if you are. How is that of any benefit to the conversation? If something happened in a day that has caused some change in your day or outlook on life that is what to talk about. This whole “Fine n u” business comes from the idea that you need to give highlights of life only. The kinds of stories that will fill the other person with a proper view of you but that’s not life. Life and living is made up of the little bits and pieces that turn us into who we are, those little bits and pieces are what form conversation.

Another thing I can stand is the “and you” response to everything. You know what I mean, everything turns into a reverse question, almost boomerang like. “How are you? Fine, and you? Fine. How was your day? Good, and you?” What kind of a conversation is that? Imagine that conversation face to face with someone? That is a suicide inducing face to face conversation. What kind of a world is this turning into whereby people cannot think further than to fire back the same question. Believe it or not conversation is a two way thing. It is a giving and receiving of information. It is taking a deliberate move to find out what is going on in another person’s life and people share when you share, not when you keep firing back annoying “and you’s”

I also despise the myth of a boring life. This is a very common line these days, “I have nothing to say, my life is boring”. Life is not the number of times you have been atop Mt. Kilimanjaro or the moments you were at the beach or the times you were out with friends, life is that and so much more, It is the moments in between. It is the way you felt when you woke up and the weather was not too promising, it is the joke you enjoyed with your sibling in the morning, it is the nagging of a sister who spends hours in the bathroom. It is the book you have read and why it is fascinating or not so fascinating, it is how you felt about the goings on in the world, IT IS ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING TO YOU AND WITH YOU. Limiting yourself to the highlights is showing other people a lie about yourself, why do that to yourself?

Uhhhh... No it's not. Life is everything all together, the highs and the lows

I have touched a little on this but another thing is the expectance of information when you offer none. This is not a magazine interview and you are not an award winning journalist. Why should one open up to you about anything if you can open up about anything? Do you not see the fault in that logic? You expect answers constantly yet you give none. You can also never get a full picture of someone till you understand the little bits that form the whole.

I think there is a certain self-centred-ness associated with texting that has more to do with what you want than the person on the other end. “I’m asking the questions and you are not giving answers so you are boring”, when in actual fact you have a lot to do with the lack of info coming from the other end. I too have been and occasionally am guilty of such but the conscious decision has to be made to avoid such mannerisms. Such pointless conversation lines that knaw at the very fabric of what is and should be proper conversation must be put to death. Its lazy conversation, because it’s lazy it’s easy and because it is easy it takes serious conscious decision to stop it.

But thats just me.. what do I know

Hi, My Name Is Cain

This morning on the way to Church I begun to mentally do the math as to how much to put in the offering bag. I’m not going to tell you how much I came up with, that would be awkward. A bit of a history behind that is that I tend to divide the amount of money I will put into the offering each month by the number of Sundays then put in the required amount each Sunday, I just feel better that way. So as I did the math it dawned on me that doing that was easy, the idea of me giving my tithes and offerings was easy and this really bothered. This here is me explaining why

I'm not an addict but there is some relevance

So I tend to think of myself as a pretty simple guy. I’m not big on new clothes, new gadgets or even going out much, I make two or three calls a week and I barely text, my sister is not too big a fan of that last one. The main things I spend my money on are two things; school and coca cola. I AM NOT ADDICTED TO COKE! I just like it a lot. This means I occasionally have a little money on the side which I might use every couple months to entertain me. The thing is because I don’t buy much the idea of me putting money into the offering is not sacrifice and that is where I draw my comparison with Cain. But allow me to elaborate more

You see Cain was the first born son of the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve. He was a farmer by trade, one would imagine him toting Tomatoes and onions to his mother at the end of the working day so she could whip up something nice for them. I also Imagine Cain was pretty good at his Job, there is nothing to support that but I just don’t buy into the idea that Cain was this lazy guy who brought poor veggies to God as his offering, No. I also do not think that God was displeased with Cain because he brought veggies instead of a lamb like his brother did. God expects us to give him the best of what we have because he gave us all we have. It’s only right to do so.

Ever the bad guy in the pictures, all because you cant burn veggies right??

I think Cain’s problem lay in his poor priorities. In my minds eye, that is my imagination, I figure Cain saved his best food for his meal and brought his second best produce to God. I also don’t think he gave God the scraps, that has to be mentioned. I think his priorities where wrong, maybe he was even naïve enough to think God would not know or care that he gave him what was of secondary importance to him

Bringing it back to me, I have been content with giving God my money every couple Sundays and thinking that is fine when in actual fact I have been guilty of the sin of Cain. My money is the secondary thing of importance in my life, to some it might be the first but I know for a fact that to me it is the second most important thing. The most important thing to me is my time. I might squander it here and there but that is the one thing that I have held dear to me and kept in an isolated chamber, giving God some but not his due share. I have been going to God and giving him my secondary produce and whether it be knowingly or unknowingly it is still not giving God what he deserves.

Period

I am Cain in that I give God what is of secondary importance to me and not what rightly belongs to him of what is of primary importance. I am Cain because I think what I am giving is fine and do not think of looking any further into it to find out if what I am doing is right or wrong. I am Cain because I am also prone to jealousy when a brother at the next table is growing in faith and I seem stagnant, not caring to look at what he is doing right and I’m doing wrong but just judging and hating. I am Cain because when push comes to shove it is easier to turn my back on God an grumble than fall on my knees and repent

I am Cain but I am not Cain. I am not Cain because I still have the chance to turn this around. I am not Cain because I have seen the error of my ways and though I may fall time and time again I can begin to work on this with God’s grace. And more importantly I am not Cain because there is hope for me yet, alas there is hope for me yet.

Hello my name is Cain but my name is also Mwansa