This month of June 2022 I shall remember! I reconnected with my secondary school best friend Javis M.C. It was 23 years since I last saw him and met face to face. Life had taken us on different paths. When I arrived in Mbale City I called him up for directions to his place. I wanted it to be a surprise. He gave me the directions in hesitation. I hoped onto a boda boda motorcycle and 15 minutes later I was at his door step. The reconnection was emotional. The first sight was followed with a hug and a very large smiles that could, I guess, fill the entire room. Reconnection questions about how life has been all those years and what it had brought in our way were asked and a warm conversation ignited. In my O’ Level days I was a singer in our Scripture Union club.
We formed a group called the Boys because we wanted a more contemporary feel of music sung different from the choir setting. Javis was a pianist and a great music arranger and composer. No wonder he continued in that path and is now a professional music producer. All I know about music I learned from Javis. After my O’ level school I later wrote songs and had them produced and was an active music minister in Church. The songs we did later won a number of gospel music awards and recognitions at a national level with the group I sung with. Everyone you meet in life becomes a memory. When we met and reconnected, I recollected the memories in school. I always looked forward to singing at the school assembly every Monday morning. I can say being part of scripture union kept me out of trouble.
In our reconnection conversation I observed some key lessons. Leadership vis a vis Loader-ship. Being a leader does not necessarily have to mean that you have people following you or being one with a title. Most times we tend to confuse Loader-ship for Leadership. We want to be served, admired and wish that others follow everything we say or do. This makes us Loaders and pilers of burdens on others. This qualifies a new word which am calling Loader-ship. True leadership is about impacting others. Influencing them for good. However small that Impact may be as long as it changes lives and casts seeds of goodness in them then by all standards of measure you are a LEADER. I confirmed that even without asking too much about it. Javis MC is a leader. Why? His lessons and friendship Impacted my life even up to today.
Israel expected a King with titles to emerge. He was prophesied in scripture as the messiah. They believed Christ coming would be a political leader with an army and military power like King David had. To their surprise Jesus Christ came with a different but undisputedly impactful Leadership style they did not see coming. He was the ultimate opposite. No title. For starters born in a manger and not a palace, born to a carpenter and not a King. He was raised in a regular way not raised as a prince. He led and never loaded on others as a matter of fact he offloaded others. A great servant he was. Washed his disciple’s feet and did not demand his feet to be washed by them. In Jesus Christs style. I learn 5 things and all can be qualified as the 5 W’s.
1: The Word
Jesus Christ was very particular. He carefully chose his words but more so he was so grounded in God’s Word. He gave countless references to affirm that he was here on earth as a servant and sent by his father in heaven- John 4:34. No wonder his words were so authentic because he himself was the word. John 1:1-10. He validated God’s word for us. Even in his encounter and confrontation with the devil during the time of temptation- Mathew 4:1-11. Jesus resisted and overcame the devil’s temptations by referencing God’s word. God’s word is timeless. It was relevant when it was delivered as still is today as valid and true as then. A true and the finest leader of all time Jesus Christ is. His leadership so impacting for eternity.
2:The Will
In the Lord’s prayer that Jesus Christ taught the disciples, therein lies adoration of God’s will. I quote” Thy your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven” -Mathew 6:9-13. Its hard business to put God’s will first always. The reason is most times God’s will appears illogical and irrational. It is beyond common sense. When we are asked to take a particular direction, we tend to question it using conventional wisdom. What does that do. It obscures God’s counsel and brings doubt and fear with it and ultimately disobedience. 1 kings 13:5-26. This scripture teaches us about What Gods will is and what he desires for us to do.
3:The Works
This generation and many more before us always validated things and truths with factual and with tangible evidence. Something they can experience with human senses. See, touch, feel, smell, taste and scientifically quantity to qualify it. Jesus Christ knew this. The day 5000 men were listening to his sermons they became hungry. A boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish in the camp provided a platform for a miracle. It was a work that provided evidence to the crowd. All they heard Jesus teach and preach was a sermon. Them believing his word a work of divine proportions had to be executed. The 5,000 were fully fed to a level that even to satiety 12 more baskets had been left over as evidence that they were full and had surplus. Mathew 14:13-21.
4:The Worship
David was a great seasoned worshiper. He worshiped in a poetic dissonance but the clarity of his worship was heart pouring. He did not with hold a thing. He spoke his heart out to God. No wonder he was a man after God’s own heart-1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22. One of my favorite psalms penned and sung by David is Psalms 42:1-11 “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior………”. Wow, wow, wow. What am amazing worship Psalm.
Worship moves God. The Lord’s prayer in itself is a worship prayer. Jesus Christ was called the son of David. The blind Bartimaeus knew how to stop Jesus Christ walking in a multitude. At the top of his voice, he shouted words of nobility that got him a private audience with Jesus Christ. Son of David he shouted and guess what Jesus stopped for him even after he had been silenced. Worship. Luke 18:38-42. Jesus asked him what can I do for you? A question of a servant leader. A blind man. How did he know the language of divine nobility? Son of David. That line got his eyesight restored.
5: The Wants
God’s wants not yours. Putting his wants is an act of submission. No servant is greater than his master. God’s wants align to his will. God is a planner. Meaning he has certain things he wants for his children according to his plan. Jeremiah 29:11; “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Leadership demands submission. You can never lead if you do not understand the measure of the follower. You must follow first so that you can lead. You cannot influence and impact or impart others with seeds of goodness without submission to God. Even when the Pharisees knew God’s word in and out and were teachers of the law, they missed the Messiah. When they say Jesus Christ, they could hardly recognize him save for a few like Nicodemus- John 3:1-12 and Joseph of Arimathea- Mark 15:43. When they saw him all they saw was a threat to their status quo. They missed the grand mission of salvation. As a matter of fact, they plotted to kill him not knowing they were instruments to lead to our salvation. For without death there was not going to be a resurrection and without a resurrection no salvation. The Pharisees practices Loader-ship and not Leadership. They wanted public recognition, respect and glory.
A true Christian Leader has to find his place in the 5W’s for our savior led by example. No Loader-ship but Leadership with uniqueness he delivered with epic proportions then, now and forever he shall be. Leadership never Loader-ship. For Loader-ship is burdensome and Leadership crystalized in outlays of Purposeful living. Whose Purpose. God’s purpose. Till next time. Memorize the 5W’s.
First of all I bless the Lord God maker of Heaven and Earth for keeping me alive to see this wonderful and blessed article.
This writeup blesses me, first of all because it clearly defines me in the introduction and also guides me to become better in the body of the article. I cannot thank you enough my brother for such a great direction of life that you have given me (and without a price!); by these 5Ws.
It had been surely many years of not meeting, as stated by Richard Mwebesa, Not even text messaging. Everything had gone so silent between us due to the purification furnace that God had put us each in. I don’t regret telling God I surrender all, but this is a commitment to be carefully made to Him.
If I should find someone with whom I dipped hands in the same sauce bowl, I will find Richard Mwebesa. Our homes were far apart (I in Entebbe Central, and him in Senior aquarters-Bugonga), But we met over three times in each other’s home. Our life in school was Scripture Union and music. I didn’t like leadership due to personal reasons. Being a member of the Boys choir, Richard and Nelson Matsiko never stopped to remind to lead the team in daily practice under a mango tree. It is from these scenarios that I learnt that I needed to lead. I can boldly state that even at tis point in life, Richard Mwebesa Helped me emerge OUT OF THE CROWD. Somehow he perceived what was in me clearer than I could then. And he helped me pick up courage.
Later on decisions had to be made in according to God’s plan for our lives. I continued with my High school at the same, Entebbe Secondary School, but sadly, Richard left for another school. And to be honest, without him, I didn’t enjoy the social aspects of that level of my education. I was lonely. And this was the beginning of our journey of two decades of silence.
Nevertheless, these years of silence between us were years of emerging OUT OF THE CROWD. Earlier on, I never ever thought Richard Mwebesa would be what he is today; a man to direct and inspire us to become what we are created to be. Truly God is amazing.
After these years, by the grace of God, we reconnected via social media. But if you are true friends, you will ascertain that social media is as virtual as it is, with no real fulfillment. Note:God in his true love needed a real meeting point to save us, and that was in the person of JESUS CHRIST.
“What are you trying to do to me?”, I asked him, when he called to tell me he is within my vicinity(Mbale). I thought I was in April’s fools day, but then remembered we are Christians who don’t celebrate that…. Anyhow I waited in anticipation and great expectation.
And here comes a man I had been searching for for over two decades. Nothing much had changed really. I thought I had grown bigger, but yes he had grown bigger. But interestingly as Richard looked into my eyes, he thought I was wondering that he had changed so much. He asked “Have I changed, am I different?” “No!” I answered with a smile. However, This question brought an understanding to me that true friendship lies in eternity and not time. I was seated face to face with my best brother OB, family friend and confidant. Nothing had changed in the way I and Richard discussed. He was as humble and light hearted as I had known decades back.
However,there was something that had changed about this man, that not the five senses could ascertain: Richard had gotten deeper in God. As opposed to the music, education and social discussions we had over two decades back, this time God was the center of our conversation and to me that means that our friendship is now even deeper and more solid than ever before. I feel so blessed.