(Photo unknown source) I have faced many struggles in life - challenges, as I call them. They encompass every aspect of my being. Spiritually, there were moments when I questioned whether God was still with me. Socially, life’s battles made it difficult for me to engage with people, so I focused on working hard, as I did not have much to spare for socializing. Mentally, the weight of my problems either numbed me or left me overwhelmed. While I never entertained suicidal thoughts, there were times - especially during my studies in Master's Degree - when I said hurtful words to myself for not doing well academically, leaving myself in moments of deep despair. Emotionally, I found it hard to accept criticism, especially in my work. Financially, my family was never wealthy; we always had just enough. And in terms of health, perhaps genetically, my sister and I have always been sickly, much like our parents before us. But even as I recount these str...
Photo Credits Leeklin Flickr When I was 20 years old, on this same day March 4, 2002, a tragedy struck our family. Our house was robbed, my mother was killed, and my sister barely survived. The irony of it all was that my father was a policeman in our town - someone sworn to protect others, yet he could not shield his own family from harm because he was on duty serving our town. While me, I was 8 hours drive away from my family then. Just two days after my mother’s burial, I stood in the seminary hall for our graduation, where we were to be vested by the Bishop for full-time ministry after 4 fours years of training. I cannot recall what the Bishop preached that day as my mind was consumed with questions: Had God abandoned our family? Was He still present with us? That season of my life forced me to wrestle with one of the attributes of God - His omnipresence. How near is God, yet how far is God? When tragedy strikes, is He close enough...