The Counsel of the Dry Riverbed: Why the Lion of Judah Hunts Alone Bulls A Devotional from the Heart of Pretoria From my home here in Akasia, Pretoria, where the Highveld sky stretches wide and the Jacaranda roots run deep, I want to speak to you about a profound and perilous modern myth. It is the cult of the soloist, the worship of the self-made, go-it-alone individual. In our streets pulsing with the fusion of Amapiano and Afrobeats, in our boardrooms buzzing with digital ambition, and even in our churches sometimes whispering with quiet compromise, a dangerous idea has taken root: that seeking counsel is a sign of weakness, and that true strength is a lonely, prideful summit. My friend, this is not wisdom. This is the setup for a fall. The lion does not consult the wind because he is weak; he does it because he is wise. The lone bull, separated from the thundering herd, is not a symbol of power but a target. His solitary silhouette against the savannah is an invitation. In the same...
The Altar of Daily Work: When Your Job Becomes Your Worship From my study window here in Akasia, Pretoria North, I watch the morning sun crest over the Rosslyn industrial belt. The hum of the BMW plant is a morning hymn; the orderly lines of Nissan trucks are a silent procession. My neighbours—a Tswana technician, an Afrikaans engineer, a Congolese entrepreneur—pour out of their homes in Theresapark and Karenpark, not to escape their lives, but to build them. They are the artisans of our new South Africa. And I am convinced that the click of their keyboards, the turn of their wrenches, and the balance of their ledgers are as sacred as any psalm sung in Sunday’s stained-glass light. You see, we have suffered a terrible divorce in our thinking. We have sliced the world into sacred and secular, pulpit and production line, as if God retreats from the factory floor or the classroom after the opening prayer. This is a modern heresy, a spiritual apartheid that confines the presence of the Alm...