Tag: truth

The Heroine Kokofe

By Ife J. Ibitayo

My short story “The Heroine Kokofe” has been published and narrated in the 833 episode of Escape Pod! This is my first professional publication, and I especially enjoyed writing this story because it sits at the intersection of my two passions–faith and fiction:

Escape Pod 833: The Heroine Kokofe

Story Excerpt

Muhamolu clapped his hands together and said, “We have gathered here today for the Agba of Kokofe Lalarun. If she defeats her demon, she will be a full adult in our community when she returns. If she does not, she will be an outcast forever. It only remains for God’s Ori to provide her target. God’s will be done.

“Ori,” Muhamolu boomed, his voice echoing across the village square, “tell us your will!”

A faint, humanoid emanation appeared in front of the Kwanza’s head. It was the buggy remnants of the spacecraft’s AI, to Kokofe at least. But the villagers bowed as reverently to it as God Himself. Kokofe also sank to her knees. Of all days, today she’d need as many allies as she could get.

“For whom?” Ori said, in a deep, resonant voice. As it flickered in and out, it locked eyes on Muhamolu. The chief fixed his gaze on the dirt in somber respect.

Baba gently pushed Kokofe forward and whispered, “Say your name.”

Kokofe cleared her voice and said with as much confidence as she could muster, “Moyororokokofe Lalarun!”

“Processing,” Ori said, and it vanished for a minute. Kokofe had always wondered what it did when it disappeared. The strange cross-referencing associations it made between the colonists’ names and the colony’s animals was still very much beyond her. It returned and said, “Akata.” A hologram of a humongous hairless canine with savage fangs and the Devil’s eyes glared down at them.

An old woman shrieked, and someone muttered in their native tongue of Yoruhili, “The accursed have no luck.”

“God’s Ori has spoken!” Muhamolu boomed, but there was a quaver in his voice. “His will be done.”

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Yrq3w1BkSmmaGZ9geXfk5?si=9aa812a50d5b4ee6

Hitler, Will Smith, and Cancel Culture

By Ife J. Ibitayo

I’ve always rooted against Germany’s soccer team. As a matter of course, I favor Latin American teams over European teams, and I admit to being a Brazilian bandwagoner. But for some reason, I despised Germany in particular.

On a completely unrelated note, I voraciously devoured Holocaust novels as a child. Night by Elie Wiesel, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, and many other lesser-known novels gripped my imagination as an elementary student. My brain just couldn’t piece together how so great a nation could commit so great an atrocity.

It wasn’t until I read a book called Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas that I finally connected the two: “At the beginning of the war, it was possible to separate the Nazis from the Germans and recognize that not all Germans were Nazis. As the clash between [Germany and Britain] wore on, and as more and more English fathers and sons and brothers died, distinguishing the difference became more difficult. Eventually the difference vanished altogether…As [Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s parents] took in the hard news that the good man who was their son was now dead, so too, many English took in the hard news that the dead man who was a German was good.”

The Truth Behind Cancel Culture

My subtle subconscious prejudice may sound rather incredible, especially as a young black man growing up in the racially charged streets of America. But I believe a wider social practice of this is rampant today. It is called “cancel culture.” Dictionary.com defines cancel culture as “publicly rejecting, boycotting, or ending support for particular people or groups because of their socially or morally unacceptable views or actions.”

Interestingly enough, after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars’ his biggest fear was “being cancelled.” Now cancel culture isn’t inherently evil. We’ve entered a day and age where individuals have been empowered to force powerful public figures and organizations to reckon with their actions. However, it is telling that cancel culture has no timeline associated with it. Once someone is cancelled, they will always be.

At the root of permanent cancel culture is a heart of unforgiveness. Cancel culture says, “No matter how deep your contrition, no matter how great your atonement, you are dead to me.” But Jesus Christ said, “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them” (Luke 17:3). Forgiveness is sensitive, it welcomes the penitent. But unforgiveness is ossified, it will always be too late, and it will never be enough.

Now a word must be said about consequences. True repentance demands restitution. For instance, after World War II, Germany paid reparations for nearly ten years, and it’s standard of living was set back by a decade as well.    

However, when Germany calls out Russia on its war crimes in Ukraine, the rest of us don’t roll our eyes. We listen intently because Germany has been forgiven and restored just as we hope Russia can one day be.

Conclusion

I needed a fresh reminder that Germany has given us some of the world’s greatest treasures: the Protestant Reformation, the printing press, and the BMW. Germany is more than Hitler; Russia is more than Putin; and Will Smith is more than a slap. If we accept this truth, we might be able to foster a culture of reconciliation rather than cancellation.   

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
(Ephesians 4:32)

The Most Dangerous Weapon in the World

By Ife J. Ibitayo

Highs and lows have filled my holiday season. I relaxed with my parents while we watched a blockbuster movie. Then I rushed to the toilet as my dinner found a new home. I played video games with my little brother on my laptop. Then I cursed that same machine for suddenly bricking out on me. Turbulence was my only constant during this past Thanksgiving holiday.

And the same is true for our nation. Within the space of one short week, we celebrated justice as three guilty men were condemned and decried injustice as one guilty man walked free. Or was it three innocent men who were condemned and one innocent man exonerated as many assert? Have I gone too far? Should I just stop talking politics and stick to the Bible?

Dangerous Speech

Speaking of the Bible, John the Baptist was murdered for denouncing injustice. He was incarcerated and eventually beheaded because he called out King Herod for marrying his brother’s former wife. I sat in church one Sunday and heard a message that heaped the blame onto John the Baptist for “veering out of his lane.” His calling was to be Jesus’ forerunner, to prepare the way for the Messiah. But once he’d finished his job, he ran out of topics to cover. So he started speaking on things he had no business talking about. And that was why he was killed (Mark 6:17-18). But since when did the living Word become divorced from the lives we live?

Dangerous Silence

Some say that the Bible is silent on many issues that stir the hearts of Americans today. And they argue, “Where the Bible is silent, we are silent.” But that logic doesn’t hold water. Consider if a mother commands her son not to punch his brother. Then the child starts slapping his sister. When his mother sits in him timeout, does it really make sense for her son to argue, “But you never send anything about punching my sister?”

The same principle applies to the Bible. Some say that the Bible says nothing about abortion. Yet the Bible says, “‘Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image’” (Genesis 9:6). Just because this verse does not explicitly refer to “man” as “helpless baby” doesn’t mean that the Bible says nothing about abortion. Likewise, even though the Bible does not explicitly say “you shall not target other people on the basis of their class, gender, or ethnicity,” it does say, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself. For love does no wrong to one’s neighbor” (Romans 13:9-10).

Conclusion

When Christianity is constrained to Sunday services and church buildings, it becomes dangerously close to a prescription drug we take on a weekly basis. ” But it was crafted to be a “sword that pierces our very souls” (Hebrews 4:12). If we let the Bible dictate the way we view all aspects of our lives–from the way we treat our families, to the way we work our jobs, and even, dare I say, the way we view politics–then it becomes the most dangerous weapon in the world.

“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”

(James 1:22)

The Freedom of the Terrifying Truth

By Ife J. Ibitayo

I recently read an article about a number of anti-vaccine radio hosts who died of COVID. This got me thinking, “What happens when your beliefs are rooted in something other than reality?”

We all hold fundamental beliefs that we think are self-evident like “We should all have a right to choose” and “Love is love.” We hold to such statements because, just like gravity, they ground us. They provide a comforting framework through which we can make sense of our dizzyingly complex world. But comfort is not a sufficient reason to hold on to any belief.

The Terrifying

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I still believe that freedom is the bonus you receive for telling the truth. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” This truth resonated strongly in March 1965, when the suffering of the black community viscerally confronted white America.

The United States government passed the Civil Rights Act the year before. They were attempting to legislate desegregation from the top down. But it could be argued that the dismantlement of “separate but equal” institutions did not begin in earnest until Bloody Sunday. On that fateful afternoon, racist local law enforcement brutally beat down Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of others. It could not have been comfortable for any “upstanding, moral” American to come to terms with the vile ugliness of complacency lying in their souls. But only when our nation was awoken from its slumber could it continue the hard work of reconciliation.

This behavior is not anomalous. It’s a worsening trend. 2 Timothy 4:20 says, “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.” Now is that time. In the internet age, we can find voices that preach whatever message we want to hear. We live in a generation when many are entrenching themselves in their worldviews, attempting to block out the terror of reality.

The Truth

But Martin Luther King Jr.’s statement still rings true today, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Grounding, orientation, only comes when we submit our preferences to the one who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Someone once said that no one holds the market on truth, and there is some validity to this statement. No politician, no preacher, no blogger has got it all right. That’s why we must be willing to question and challenge them. But we ourselves don’t know it all either. That’s why we must be willing to humbly retract and correct ourselves. Yet truth does exist. And if it can’t be found with humanity, maybe it can be found with the one who made us all.

“‘You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’”

(John 18:38)

Peace in the Midst of Trouble (In the Midst of Pt. 1)

By Ife J. Ibitayo

It’d be an understatement to say that my life has been troubled as of late. I’ve been choking down a toxic soup of emotional anguish and looming deadlines day by day. Less than a year ago, I was struggling with symptoms that resembled Generalized Anxiety Disorder. So great was the weight of my daily anxiety that my blood pressure skyrocketed (see my article “Big Problems, Bigger God”). As worries hovered about my mind like looming thunderclouds, the story of Jesus sailing across the Sea of Galilee with His disciples came to my mind.

Losing Peace

Jesus gathered His ragtag group of friends and told them, “Let’s cross to the other side of this lake” (Mark 4:35). But soon after they got underway, a great storm arose, sending massive breakers into their puny boat. In fear, the disciples rushed to the stern of the boat and roused their sleeping master. They cried to the bleary-eyed Jesus, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:38)

The disciples were fearful because they based their internal peace on external circumstances. While the sea was calm, they were at peace. When the sea grew tumultuous, so did their souls.

We too are tempted to anchor our peace on what our eyes can see: dollar signs in our bank account, 5’s on our performance reviews, or A’s on our children’s report cards. But just like the water in the great deep, forces beyond our control can transform any one of these wellsprings of peace into a source of anxiety.

Giving Peace

Jesus responded to the mighty windstorm with a mighty rebuke. He yelled to the wind and waves, “Peace! Be still” The wind stopped howling, and a great calm fell upon the sea (Mark 4:39).

Now, this peace didn’t spring up from nowhere. It was already present in Jesus’ soul. This peace is why He was able to rest through this great unrest. And this peace was so powerful that—by the power of the Holy Spirit—He was able to transform His external reality to match His internal truth.

I marvel at Jesus’ peace through the most trying of circumstances. He maintained His peace in the face of intense persecution, abandonment by His loved ones, and even His death on the cross. His otherworldly serenity tempts me to despair because I know I can’t muster up peace like His.

 But that’s why Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you (John 14:27).” Because He knows that we can’t produce peace on our own, He graciously decided to give it to us.

Receiving Peace

At the end of His story about shushing the wind and waves, Jesus asked His disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith” (Mark 4:40)? He mentions faith because faith is the conduit of grace. We must transfer the faith we place in money, people, and our own capabilities onto the person of Jesus Christ in order to receive His peace.

Conclusion

We place our faith in Jesus Christ because He has the power to keep His promises. Jesus promised His disciples that they’d reach the other side in Mark 4:35, and this is the same promise He offers to each of us. No matter how large the sea, no matter how mighty the waves, Jesus promises that we’ll reach the other side of our sea of trouble.

“‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’”

(John 16:33)

I Lost My Voice to Find My Worship

By Ife J. Ibitayo

Two years ago, I lost my singing voice. I remember the exact moment it happened. I was at a praise and worship service on a Wednesday night. My throat had already felt scratchy, but I had a job to do. I had to belt out the latest praise song louder than the on stage worship leaders. If I couldn’t hear me, clearly God couldn’t either. So I strained my voice a notch higher and something split in the back of my throat. For two years, I haven’t been able to sing for any extended amount of time without experiencing pain.

The Father is looking for worshipers who’ll worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23). Once I lost my voice, I became intent on finding out what God was really looking for.

In Truth

I’ve always loved praise and worship, ever since I was little. It doesn’t matter if it’s acoustic guitar and keyboard or clapping hands and talking drum; you’ll find me with my eyes closed, my mouth open, and my arms raised. But somewhere along the way, I found myself listening to my own voice a little too closely: Am I singing too softly or too loudly? Should I shift an octave higher or remain where I am? Is this note meant to be held or let go? I even started asking my family how they thought my singing was, as if I was the focus of praise and worship not God.

When we focus on what other people think of us, we can lose sight of our most important audience: God. I certainly did. And it wasn’t until I lost my voice that I realized I’d already lost the connection worship was supposed to be establishing in the first place.

In Spirit

Secondly, we’re supposed to worship God in Spirit. The word says “it is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all” (John 6:63). That truth applies to all of life, especially worship. When we physically worship God at our best–with clear voices, fresh chords, and perfect rhythm–that doesn’t impress Him.

It can be easy to forget that heaven is already filled with the greatest singers that’ll ever live: the angels themselves and perfected saints. Far higher quality worship continually rings out in heaven than can ever be achieved here on this earth. What serenades Him are worshipers who tap into His Spirit to give Him praise deeper than a thousand songs (Romans 8:26).

Conclusion

In losing my voice, I found a hidden blessing. My voice is the same rough, scratchy keening it’s always been. But my perspective on worship has been refreshed, and my hope is yours has been as well.

“Oh, sing to the LORD a new song! Sing to the LORD, all the earth.”

(Psalm 96:1 NKJV)