In the February and March 2017 newsletters, we presented an overview of the life and calling of Pastor Habel. It is a remarkable testimony by any measure. As a young man, he was recruited in the ranks of a radical political underground, resulting in his forced exile from Kenya. Miraculously spared death or long term imprisonment, he morphed into a Rastafarian gang and community leader. He was a menacing presence in the slum he ruled. His physical enormity was surpassed only by his reputation as a no-nonsense enforcer.
It was God who got a hold of this gangrenous Goliath and transformed him into a sanctified Samson. But the scars remained.
When Habel was accepted into the DSM Bible School, it was against all advices from those around me. Except his Pastor...and the Holy Spirit. His 4 foot dreadlocks were not a fashion statement. They were a known badge of honor from the underworld. Such people are given very wide berth in Kenya. They are feared...and avoided at all cost. Even at the Bible School. Habel was watched carefully by the Pastors and Ministry Leaders. As many times as they came to me privately and recommended his removal, I equally insisted he was staying. After all, he was an Assistant Pastor and I knew his Senior Pastor and Bishop very well. Both were graduates of DSM. That meant little to the students. They were not happy with his presence. And I was not pleased with their superficial nonsense. He wore dreadlocks...while many of them wore sin like a necktie.
Habel persevered through that initial battle within the Bible School. In fact, his spiritual maturity far exceeded that of the more seasoned saints. By the second semester, Habel cut his hair. It was no small thing. It was a huge thing. Even his wife protested the very thought. Habel recalled...
“I knew I had heard from God. My dreadlocks had once beena great tool of evangelism. But the season had changed. It was now drawing attention to myself that should have gone to God. Once I heard His counsel, I never looked back.”
All of us have scars from our life before meeting Jesus. Some of those scars will never go away. And it is ours to carry those scars along the Calvary road until the day we see Him face to face. Then there are scars that God wants to remove. And sometimes we won’t release our vice-grip on the past. We hold our scars as badges of honor...but they are merely idols. Mementoes of past hurts, sins or proclivities wrapped in thinly veiled pride. Testimonies of past sin become bragging points of depravity. As if the most gruesome past indicates a greater story of salvation. When it’s time to put away the trophies of overcoming our sinful past, render them dead. God will tell you when. And when He does, never pick them up again. Move forward...and never look back. If you do, they’ll catch you again. The devil will be sure of that. Paul the Apostle understood the vital call to “leave and cleave” in sync with His Commander’s counsel...
“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him...that I may know Him... ...I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me....one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Pastor Habel left behind more than his dreadlocks. He left a reputation, an aura and a legend of invincibility spun by his comrades and idolized by his community. He had to leave lifelong friends. Co-conspirators. Comrades in arms. Age mates, tribal elders, friends and common foes.
Cleaving to Christ only goes so far, and no further, until the last romantic vestiges of our sinful past are cast asunder once and for all. Our accolades from Christ will be for what we have done “in Him”...not for what He brought us out of.
At our last graduation, Habel requested time to speak to the students. I gave him “five British minutes!” He took twenty...and who was going to stop him? Surely not someone my size! And how thankful I am that he continued well past his allotted time.
I am most pleased that he did not emphasize where he had come from...but rather where he was headed...
“I’m still not an educated man by the measures of this world. But I know Christ, I love Christ, and I live for Christ. I have battles today, I will have battles tomorrow. But I am not looking back. I came to Christ as a Soldier. And I am a Soldier still. But in the Lord’s Army. And His Soldiers never look back.”
The room erupted in applause. Not for Habel, but for the Lord’s work in Habel. And for the Truths that Habel had just enunciated so simply yet profoundly. I’m sure everyone in the room was applying his words to their own situation and life. I know I did. I needed that message. I still need that message:
to forget the Past Battles and Victories. To Soldier on in Christ. To Press on in Today’s Battle. To not just be a Soldier, but to be His Soldier.
After the graduation ceremony, and during the food and festivities, I had a chance to speak with Pastor Habel. He filled in the blanks. His 21-year-old daughter had left the family. They have no idea where she is, but they certainly know none of it is good. She is full of rebellion... and rejection of all they stood for. His 25-year-old son is working as a bouncer in nightclubs. A very dangerous occupation...practically and spiritually. The situation at home is not good. His wife is standing with him...but at a distance. Not like a tender next to the locomotive engine. More like a reluctant caboose being dragged along. His mother had recently died. All the responsibilities of a firstborn son had crushed him...financially, physically and emotionally. His diabetes was out of control. Months of changes in medications and regiments had brought no relief. Doctors were running out of options. Life was pressing in. And so was the devil.
I'll never forget Habel’s last words to me that day. It revealed the focus of His heart and mind amid the turmoil. He didn’t ask for money. He didn’t complain. He didn’t bask in his accomplishments that were honored that day. He simply asked,
“Even though I’ve graduated, can I still come back to study? I want to go through the whole Bible here.”
Onward. His mindset is to press forward. His heart is to persevere. His ambition is to please His Commander Jesus. His past accomplishments are merely stepping stones to launch ahead in Christ. Not memorial markers of a prior victory. He reminds me of Paul the Apostle in every righteous way. But even more so of Jesus.
For that I thank the Lord. And the Ministry to which he has called me. A Ministry amongst the Pastors of the Least. Tomorrow’s Heroes...exercising Today’s Faith.
It gives me cause to pause, and ask myself one thing:
“What have I done for the Lord...Today?”
