I should be dead right now.
In fact, I should have died at birth. I was born with my umbilical cord wrapped round my neck, not once, but twice people. The doctor told my mum afterwards that he had never in all the years he had been delivering babies, seen a case where both mother and child survived; either one would die and the other live or else both would die. And that's why they named me Chiratidzo. It means miracle, or as my Dad gave it to me, "the manifestation of the glory of God."
At the age of 7 or 8, like many a small person has done, I was trying to impress my Dad with how fast I could run. I dashed from the car, ran to collect my forgotten blazer in the school yard, and raced back as fast as my little legs could carry me. There was a road in front of the school, down which all manner of vehicles used to pass all day long. That day it was a bus. A big speeding bus that was driving towards the school gate, and my Dad was parked on one side of the road. The wrong side. All I remember is seeing his horrified face sitting in the car, powerless to save me, powerless to stop me. I never even heard the bus; didn't even see it. I just remember racing to the very edge - and I stopped. I could have kissed the side of that bus - it was that close. But the Hand of the Lord stayed my feet that day. I should be dead right now. But I'm not.
Whenever I feel depressed or purposeless, and believe me, I have my days, I remind myself, "You woke up today. Somebody else somewhere else didn't. But you woke up Chi. God loves you and He has a plan for you." And I hold fast to the confession of my faith. I must hold fast. I can't quit believing because the alternative just doesn't work for me.
And what is the alternative? Choosing to believe, like so many others, that there is no sense to life, no greater meaning than to live and to die? Accepting, like so many people, the lie that I have no purpose, that my faith is just a...temporary salve, an - imaginative, elaborately constructed mode of self-deception, that I have created to protect myself from the ugliness of the world; that God is no more than a "force", an "energy" - not the loving Father and Friend that I have come to know and love - who moves on my behalf?
No.
I choose Hope. I choose Faith. I choose Promise. I choose to Believe.
I KNOW the plans that God has for me. His plans are to prosper me and not to harm me, to give me a Hope and a Future. I call upon Him and He ANSWERS me. His eyes are ever on me and His ears are attentive to my cry. The arm of the Lord is not too short to save nor His ear too dull to hear. If you've never read the Bible before, you just did. All of that is scripture.
I have found love and I have found peace. I am alive today, hallelujah! and I believe in me!
This is My Faith Declaration.
I live to give God the glory
through my life, He's my story
To live is Christ and to die is gain
of the gospel of Christ I will never be ashamed
Whether to woman or man
I speak because I can
and because I know who's Lord
I choose to always stand on His Word
Not by power nor by might shall it be,
But by His Spirit and joy that strengthen me.
"Jesus is King - Glory to God!" I'll shout in the enemy's face:
For never will a rock cry out in my place!
I said, NEVER WILL A ROCK CRY OUT IN MY PLACE!
So listen here, and listen clear:
You don't define me - my Vindicator is near.
I am called by His word
sharper than any two-edged sword!
I'll not turn back, back down or give in!
I'm an overcomer from birth - greater is He who is within
Me, than he who is in the world.
For History shall record, one truth and one truth alone:
I'm created in His image, I'm not a devil-clone.
By Chiratidzo Chiweshe
