God soooooo loved!

so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.
He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

as I read this and I am compelled to sing.

What love. What kindness.

What good news. O What a Kind generous God!

He so loved. sooooo loved - He soooo loved the world that He did it!

He gave His only begotten Son that anyone who believes - anyone!

I'm most certainly anyone this is good news so I can BE SAVED IF I WILL BELIEVE!

OOOO shall i sing or shall I dance!

He did not do this to condemn but specifically to save.

what hope. what life. what a mighty God!

At 90 still we say: “VIVA Mandela!”

I heard some phenominal things this morning.

you know this whole talk about Obama – how South Africans keep saying where is our Obama? it annoys me because we have Mandela and great as Obama is he is not Nelson. maybe because he is old and Obama is the new. i don't care...we still have Madiba.

there is nothing stopping anyone of ourselves from being brilliant, great or gorgeous. "who are we not to be?"

anyway, i was watching Morning Live this morning and i heard the most phenominal things about Mandela. the most powerful thing that seems to strike people is who he is rather than what he is has done. the amazing thing about this for me is that not all of us are exceptionally gifted with all sorts of gifts. our gifts vary and that for me doesn't make the greatest singer or athlete or politician a great person - they are simply doing what they have been gifted with. however character you choose. a gift i don't thing is something to boast about. you don't make yourself a brilliant individual you are born with the gift. God-given. but character is something everyone of us can choose. we can choose to be incredible human beings in how we conduct ourselves and treat others. that to me is the most powerful aspect of humanity and being alive.

anyway Sipho Hot-Stick Mabuza (a South African musician) said of Mandela; "What struck me the most about being in the presence of Mandela was that in his presence suddenly everyone was equal. There were all kinds of celebrities, Will Smith, Ophra, Bill Clinton and all of a sudden you felt like you could just go up to Bill Clinton and talk to him. Everyone was equal."

i think that is the most phenominal thing ever said of any human being. It is almost godlike. in fact it is. we are all equal and that is the truth. all human beings are equal before God. and what is amazing is that - that is what he stood for and was imprisoned for he is what he stood for.

Viva Mandela!

South Africa vs the soccer pitch

by siki dlanga

Our eyes are glued to the television as Euro 2008 commences. We are addicted to watching men (lately women too) kicking the circular bouncy object around a field and get paid lots of money for it. We want to see goals. We scream at our television sets when they do or do not do something we can not even do ourselves. We demand delivery and are intolerant when we are failed.

This year Cristiano Ronaldo was voted the most handsome football player by women in Europe. I personally think the only handsome thing about the man is the way he plays and of course as the old Xhosa proverb says the beauty of a man is in the number of his cattle. In Ronaldo’s case it is his pounds. According to these measurements I agree with those women who voted for him but we know that is not the case. If you fail like Beckham did before the goal posts just a few times suddenly the votes go out the window. His beauty forgotten, betrayed by the very green pitch that had made him great and a favourite of women.

Then we move on to another not so bouncy sphere but faster than any other ball on earth, that old planet called earth. I am certain from a distant it looks like a peaceful tiny ball orbiting the sun like the rest of the other balls in the vast infinite pitch. Not unlike the other planets the earth never misses a turn. I have not lived for millions of years but I have never been more tempted to believe that earthly beings have never been found spinning with the earth to this degree. Of course we must spin with the earth but there is another kind that causes confusion. I am no expert in the matters of science or anything else I am a citizen of this earth for now and I can see my fellow earthlings spinning around like a ball without direction. We seem to be spinning and unable to find the net like Bafana Bafana when it really counts.

We watch the television set looking for someone who will score for us. We want a hero. A superhuman, someone who will make us feel like we have done it. We seem to be unable to live without it because the minute we step outside the screen, we are confronted with ourselves spinning around our pitch without direction. We keep coming back to the screen for some more because at least we think we have this figured out. If you fail us we will find another. But first we will let you know what a dismal failure you have been and how we cannot forgive you. We quickly throw you to the nearest bin and forget about you.

Now Mbeki is not playing the game the way we want him to. He is not saying the things we want to hear. He is not even listening let alone do we see a change in his facial expression when he says something. We forget the beautiful dream he painted and keeps inviting us to by his words. We forget how as women we have been given back our rightful place. We forget the good. We desperately look for another. Others vote for Zuma perhaps he will get us a goal we want. Others think surely this one or that. Change is good but change does not need to be accompanied by negativity.

Others opt to think there is no way out of this mess. We let our minds escape across the sea and find another hero somewhat linked to Africa. He impresses us with his speeches. We say we need our own forgetting we have already had one. As I watch all this happening I can not stop feeling like what we are actually looking for is a saviour. A ruthless thing to ask of any human being. The world is no soccer match even though we still treat it is as thus. When we are unhappy we make signs on the sidelines of the pitch demanding a substitution. We cast our vote. But maybe we are all on the pitch. The position played by the crowned men and woman is as important as our own if we will take it as seriously. Perhaps, we have the same coach but we will not listen instead we pretend to be because we do not know our roles. We are displaced and therefore frustrated. The sphere spins. The wonderful thing about a time of crisis is that it has the ability to reveal the most extraordinary human beings. Please be kind to them when their humanity fails them at some point.

my country

by Siki Dlanga

my heavy heart
my broken heart
my hopeful heart

O my country
what have i to give you.
country of my birth.
land that carried me in my mothers womb.
on her back singing me songs
Thula Sizwe ungabokhala uJehovah wakho uzokunqobela

O my country raided raped left for dead
who will carry your children on her back
Afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted
country of my birth
invaded by darkness
left in pain
who will pray for you
who will stand up for you and believe
sing for you and rock you ‘till you sleep
who will give you medicine
medicine of hope
Thula Sizwe sam
Thula ungabokhala uJehovah wakho uzokunqobela
(hush o nation do not weep your God will overcome for you)
O afflicted one storm-tossed and not comforted
o my country beyond the our borders
what have I to say but Your God reigns
a conqueror who will fight for you
scatter and confound your enemy

once upon a time
a nation was delivered by a child
from an enemy too great

who will hope
who will dare pray
who will dare to believe for you
stand against your demons!

who is brave enough to speak to this mountain
and cast it to the sea
who believes in miracles

once i heard you held the world captive
peace was your lot and not war
astound the world again
let them see a greater miracle
out of the nations of the southern most of this continent
you're a miracle nation remember
my country

No funeral for roses

No funeral for roses
By Siki Dlanga

After the forbidden fruit.
If life is a matter of days lived.
Time of existence is limited
No hideous thing or beauty is spared
The rose is remembered while its petals are red lush.
Exquisiteness, colour, fragrance
It sheds and gets nothing back.
Decay is sure.
But there is no funeral for roses.

In funerals I’ve seen
Many roses thrown on the grave
Perhaps it is the softness of the petals
or the certainty of death
though we live and are beautiful
our death is as inevitable.
Life is brief.
Death is elusive and definite.
Mocking humouring the young

The end is not the worst
It is the first invitation
Holding you like a baby
Breast-feeding you the pleasures of life
that will have you deceased before you’re done living.
Picking at the rose ‘till it‘s a dry thorn.

Like Ozymandias’ fine empire
A boastful intimidating statue for all to see and tremble.
All the poet saw was a kingdom of rubble.
Ozy tricked by the illusion of immortality that eludes us all.
Cheated to believe we are invincible
So we live as we wish.
We steal, lie and demand our rights
After all we are the centre of the universe.

But there are no monuments for roses
Sweet death shrivelled up and crisp
It does not insist on living more than its due date
To live forever it must die

We are not roses
Our longing for immortality is not wrong
in Eden it was lost
The only hope is death
If we choose it before it chooses us
Plant ourselves in the soil of the original
undefilable immortal
We live forever
We no longer need statues
Our legacy has already begun
Death will not define it
Liberated from its poisonous pleasures
Life holds eternity
Life lives forever
exalted above all powers
forever life will be