Unrelenting! I’ve got to know, WITNG?

My boss reeks of prejudice and bigotry. He eyeballs me, and sees a scape goat. What is the narrow gateway? A devastating divorce is tearing my family apart. I am bleeding shards of pain. What is the narrow gateway? I’m a skilled artist. I could make you shudder to your very core. What is the narrow gateway? My 10 year old kid is begging for tickets to see a famous hip-hop artist performing live. What is the narrow gateway? My son had scarcely gulped in his first few gusts of air at birth before I snuck out of the hospital, with my heart clutched in my hands, never to set eyes on my son again. What is the narrow gateway? My people eek out a living on $2 a day while my government fattens itself with their blood and toil. What is the narrow gateway? Another kid, another mall shooting, my town is ravaged, my kind is mourning. What is the narrow gateway?

Imagine this. Christians. Followers of the Way, triggered to respond to life and its nuances by instinctively exploring WITNG? What is the narrow gateway? The narrow gateway is the road less travelled. The non-conformist road. Mainstream rhetoric says, “this is the way, go this way. This is what is pleasing, this is what feels good. This is what is comfortable, this is what feels just. This is what you deserve, this is what everybody is doing.” And so the teeming crowds flock there, constructing their own truth as they push along. But followers of the narrow gateway stand still. Our feet are stuck in the ground. We don’t do mainstream. Mainstream just does not cut it. We know that truth is not what we create. It is who Jesus is. And we are in relentless pursuit of the God-life. We are walking behind the narrow gate. So all we want to know is:

“What’s the Lord saying?”

“What does His Word say about this thing tearing through my home, my city?”

“What is the Spirit in me breaking out to do?”

“Where are the fruits? Righteousness, patience, kindness, controlled strength, gentleness, love?”

“Will the Lord dance on my reaction? Will He cheer on my ensuing thoughts?”

“Is He all up in this, spurring me on, or is He calling my name, asking me where I am and what in the world I am doing?”

And when we get the answers, the pearls of truth, we turn, we align, we run with it, through the narrow gateway, even if it’s just me, you, and a trickle of other followers making our way through.

Jesus spoke about the narrow gateway in Matthew 7:13-14. This is the way that leads to THE GOD-life, but He said, few find it. Because there is another gateway, a broad way, an easy way, a mainstream way, which we are naturally inclined to take. And if we do not commit intensely and pursue God passionately, we will take the broad way. It’s just the way we are wired. But we want to be of those that track God behind the narrow gateway. Because the truth sanctifies, it sets us apart, it makes us free and sets us on course to boldly living out our God-given purpose here on earth, UNLOCKING SOLUTION SPACES and creating answers to the very quagmires that abound around us.

This is why the Narrow Gateway is BUILDING A PLATFORM OF CREATIVE RESOURCES at www.thenarrowgateway.com and through social media, to trigger us  to fill our spaces with the passionate pursuit of the God-life. No Calm. No Chill. We are loading this platform with materials that are bursting with truth. Books, blogs, vlogs, interviews, videos, audio broadcasts, bible studies, online and F2F trainings and other resources and materials that are easily accessible, so that the truth is always at your fingertips as you PURSUE THE GOD-LIFE UNRELENTINGLY. You name it, if we can pull it off creatively, we will, and God allowing, we will make it available for you. Tune out the static and tune in the truth when you are out jogging, or maybe waiting for an appointment, or driving, or in a taxi, train, airplane, come online and listen, read, engage and be filled with the mind-transforming truth behind the narrow gateway. And when you find the truth, rend your heart to it. Align. Run with it! Do outrageous things! Let the God-love and the God-life in you pour out and create solutions in our aching world.

“When because of your faith, your life too becomes perceptibly different; when your reactions are quite opposite to what the situation seems to call for and your activities can no longer be explained in terms of your personality; that is when your neighbourhood will sit up and take notice. In the eyes of the world, it is not our relationship with Jesus Christ that counts; it is our resemblance to Him.” – Ray Stedman

That, my friends, is THE NARROW GATEWAY.

Thank you for reading and engaging. I’d love to hear from you! Is the narrow gateway a thing for you? Is it believable? Is the God-life worth pursuing unrelentingly? What’s holding you back? What’s pushing you to grab hold of this message? Talk to me. Put your comments in the section below, or you could send me a private message on thenarrowgateway@gmail.com. Don’t forget to like my page on Facebook (@thenarrowgateway) and follow me on Twitter (@thenarrowgate4). Engage, engage, engage. Listen to the interviews, read the blogs, share and re-share, tweet and retweet.

Critically, I end this by saying I am Toyin, quirky writer of this piece, and I am very much convicted by my own words, and under construction. I look forward to getting to know you better.

 

The Narrow Gateway was founded by Toyin Oladiran. She is a writer, blogger, vlogger, speaker, and pursuer of truth-seeking, truth-telling and truth-living. Toyin loves to describe herself as being under-construction and working towards living for the Audience of One. Toyin is married to Fiyin, and she is mother to two adorable toddlers a.k.a her Sunshinebabies. They live in Lagos, Nigeria. Toyin is a commercial lawyer.