I was heading home after a long day at work. The evening traffic was flowing well. The sun was kissing the evening sky goodbye, bathing the horizon with beautiful orange and yellow hues. Soothing music played from the car stereo, sending me shaking my head in appreciation of the lovely lyrics. The day was over, and I was looking forward to my evening workout. It always did it for me: the one thing that had a way of taking away the exhaustion and usher me into a restful evening.

The Swahili have a saying that ‘Dawa ya Moto ni moto’, which when translated literally means that the cure for heat is heat. So yes, a heavy workout was my way of relaxing and that too was ok. As I got to a bend on the road, I saw two women lying by the side of the road, on the pavement just off the road. They were not moving and there was no crowd around them so they must have been okay. On getting closer, I noticed that each woman had a young child by her side, about 9 months to 1 year and they were all deeply asleep! There, by the road and both mums and babies were flat out. 

I was aghast! I slowed down and looked through the window and indeed they were fast asleep. The honking of the car behind me catapulted me back to reality and got me moving but I kept glancing back, almost expecting something to happen to them, but nothing did, and we all moved on. Going about our lives as usual. 

I turned down the radio to allow my mind some quiet space to process what I had just seen. 

I wondered why they had chosen that spot to take their afternoon nap. It was shaded, but so were other parts of the road. They were alsoand they were further away from the oncoming cars and surely not at a bend! It then hit me that I could not even stand around there for a minute. I feared all these things that may possibly happen. What if a car lost control and rammed into them? What if the baby accidentally woke up and crawled onto the road? I shuddered to think of all the things that could go wrong. Not to mention the fumes and noise from the passing vehicles.

I wondered how they could be so peaceful amidst all that. It dawned on me that it was either they didn’t care whatever happened or they were so sure that nothing could go wrong. Now the latter is what we call mountain-moving faith! Hebrews 11:1-Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When we believe in something with our whole hearts and hold it true that is is real in our lives. They believed they would be ok: nothing would happen to them and with that conviction they slept soundly. They no longer tried to control the outcome.

We often struggle with faith, but it is usually our egos that get in the way. Our human tendency to want to control the outcome. That is where we lose faith. All we need to do is see the desired end in the eyes of our heart i.e., have in our hearts evidence of things not seen then live a life of gratitude for it and of complete surrender to what we have believed.  Literally letting go of the end because it already ‘is’.

What have we been praying for? Do we believe our prayers have been answered? Do we have the conviction and assurance in our hearts that we have what we prayed for? Are our actions aligned to that conviction? Do we pray for money and go around complaining how money is the cause of all evil? Or pray for a job and go around whining how working nowadays is boring? It is critical to ensure that our actions and words align with the convictions in our heart. In any case, from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Aa misalignment means we need to do a little more to address the void and lack of faith in the heart.

May we step out in faith and do all those things we believed and prayed to achieve. Let us arise with courage knowing that victory is imminent and with a firm assurance that all will be well because as God promised: All things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose-Romans 8:28, and that God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has he spoken, and will He not make it good? -Numbers 23:19.