25 September 2011

UNDER THE WATERFALL: Patrick Butler

This morning I was thinking, “If Corrie ten Boom came back from the grave to speak for a day, how many people would go hear her? If people were unable to come to the meeting, would there be a sense of loss knowing someone with her insights into avoiding bitterness and living the spiritual life to the fullest had been “this close” and they'd missed it? Or would life just be “business as usual?”

 

This is how I feel about the arrival of the Rev. Emmanuel Nnyanzi coming to Tyler, Texas, in November. When some speakers show up, one just drops everything unessential and makes the effort to move their inert mass somewhere to hear them. Like the Martha and Mary story, the “good part” won't be taken away.

Emmanuel Nnyanzi is a man one stops to hear. He is special beyond words for his earthy sense of practicality and spiritual sense of the ever-present presence of God, which he continually seems to have. So here's an attempt at description anyway, why one should see him.

When it gets right down to it, Emmy knows Jesus. God is with him. The favor of God is with him. The presence of God permeates the sound of his speech. He has been with his heavenly father this morning. He has avoided bitterness, competition, greed, covetousness, a poor self-image, and the desire for fame, titles, positions and powers men like to yearn after.

He's “just Emmy” with the perseverance, persistence and prayers to put himself in the presence of God on a moment-by-moment basis. He's the same “Emmy” standing on a platform preaching to a thousand people, gently prodding them to trust Jesus, or riding on a dirt road 16 miles south of “nowhere” in Uganda headed to see a pastor and his new goat, rejoicing that the goat's milk will help keep the family alive to spread the Gospel. I heard Emmy preach in America and was also in the hills of Uganda with him, goat and all. Same guy.

Emmy's life is a billboard for tens of thousands — perhaps hundreds of thousands — of “normal” everyday Christians who wonder if God is really listening, really loves them, is really close by, will really fill and bless them with himself no matter what their circumstances and really won't ever fail or forsake them.

Emmy's life convincingly and simply says “Yes! Um, any other questions?” Oh, and with a big smile. Always with that smile. Emmy smiles through life. His voice is so soft, it feels like a silky cloth running over your arm. What more does he need than a single syllable answer and a smile when the God of the universe is flowing in and out of the answers?

How does he do it? How did he do it, given he's been used, abused, almost murdered as a teenager by his mother, and nearly worked to death as a domestic child slave?

Emmy's life is Joseph in prison, Peter in prison, Paul in prison — anybody in prison. He's been let go, set free, released, renewed, restored, rejuvenated and revived by a living God who loves his children with maximum fervor, no matter what.

He doesn't blame, accuse, resent or revile God for what's happened to him in life. He said, "If God is a loving father, than there is a purpose for my trials; it was his love that let me pass through all I've experienced.”

Emmy does not complain. Yes, he's been educated in a foreign land, New Zealand. Yes, he understands the intellectual side of injustice as well as the visceral. He knows all the justifications why we should be bitter, discontent, discouraged, disappointed and dead-set against the “systems” that are holding us back, holding us down, holding us up or holding something against us. But it's behind him now. Way behind him. Far, far away behind him.

Now Emmy smiles, mostly.

Because of all this, Emmy's words come from a well unpolluted by impure thinking, like a fresh clear heart stream not muddied by manipulative motivations. His presence is refreshing, encouraging, inspiring, instructive and healing. God's love flows freely through this man because Emmy lets it happen. He does not allow anything to distract him from God's love and purpose.

It's not that he's never been snared by anger, bitterness, greed or covetousness. He just got over it. That's all. Simple. Not easy. But simple. We could learn from a man like this.

After years of writing about religion, it's leaders, focus, foundation, foibles and aspirations I can say this man, Emmy Nnyanzi, is one of the deepest, best vessels for Jesus I've come across — and there are some pretty deep vessels out there.

I've noticed over the years we sometimes just get a big “push” from God in the right direction. Because He loves us so much, he just wants us to get understanding from places where we normally can't get it. We can't all go to Africa and learn what they've discovered over there. Be not dismayed. Emmy is coming. In November. To us. He'll be here a week.

Please don't let miss him.

There is a blog, website you can keep up with Emmy's second visit to America at www.pcmonline.org.

 

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