The Chronicles of Load-Shedding . Harold Mawela

THE LAW OF THE NEW GATE Scripture: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:18-19) I. The Braai of Yesterday's Ashes The jacaranda trees outside my Akasia window are shedding their purple confetti again, a flamboyant farewell to another season. From my veranda in Pretoria North, I watch the city hum—buses rattling down Paul Kruger Street, hawkers calling at Wonderpark Mall, students spilling from TUT's gates with backpacks full of tomorrow's dreams. And I think about gates. Specifically, about the one I've been standing in front of for far too long. We South Africans, we're masters of the braai, aren't we? We know the satisfaction of perfectly grilled boerewors, the aroma of the coals whispering promises, the camaraderie around the fire. But sometimes, the braai gets neglected. The ashes pile ...

Topic: New Beginnings The New Thing: Why Your Fresh Start Depends on Dying to Your Old Story Scripture: "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert." (Isaiah 43:18-19, KJV) I. The Akasia Dawn: A Personal Witness to New Beginnings The Pretoria morning cracks open like an egg over my Akasia veranda—golden yolk of sunlight spilling across the zinc roofs, chasing the last shadows of load-shedding darkness from my study. I sit here, laptop open, watching the Magaliesberg轮廓 sharpen against the sky, and I remember. I remember the year the river dried up. Not the Apies River, mind you—that stuttering stream still trickles through the city, muddy and determined. I mean my river. My "Cherished Creek," as I called it in my book Knots of Problems . The contract work in Centurion that had flowed steady for ...

 The Algebra of Adversity: Solving for X in the Equation of Your Breaking Scripture: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) I. The Divine Sum From my veranda here in Akasia, where the Pretoria winter has scorched my lawn to a crisp brown, I watch a small boy attempting to solve a mathematics problem on the pavement. He scratches his head, chews his pencil, and erases furiously. He does not yet understand that the frustration is part of the finding. You cannot arrive at the answer without wrestling with the equation. Life is not a series of random events. It is a classroom. And the problems you face—the financial collapse, the marital fracture, the sudden sickness—are not God's punishment. They are His curriculum. The Scripture declares unequivocally: "All things"—not some things, not the pleasant things, but all things—are conscripted into service for your good. ...

 Topic: Favor Over Fluency Scripture: "But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison." (Genesis 39:21) Favor Over Fluency: Why God’s Fingerprints Outperform Your Diplomas The Night My Vocabulary Failed Me The winter air hung heavy over Akasia, carrying that peculiar Pretoria North chill that seeps through the cracks of even our best-built homes. I sat in my study, the weight of an important meeting pressing against my chest like a boulder. Tomorrow, I would address a gathering of influential community leaders—people with degrees plastered on walls, people whose English flowed like the Vaal River after good rains, people who pronounced every syllable with the precision of a news anchor. And me? I am Harold Mawela, a boy from the dusty streets, whose tongue sometimes stumbles over consonants, whose grammar occasionally bends in ways the linguists never intended. I spent that night rehearsing, polishing, perfect...

Title: The Alchemy of Affliction Text: Philippians 3:10 By Harold Mawela Akasia, Pretoria I was sitting in my study late one night, the kind of Pretoria quiet where you can hear the geyser ticking and the occasional bark of a nervous dog. Load shedding had hit again—Stage Four, because of course—and the only light in the room came from a single candle and the pale blue glow of my cellphone. I watched the flame dance, and a thought settled on me like a winter blanket: Fire does not only destroy. It also purifies. We are, all of us, living in a furnace right now. Look at the headlines. We read about another child found in a drain in Tshwane. We see the statistics on gender-based violence that make your stomach turn. We watch the politicking and the looting and the decay of what we thought was a promised land. The economy groans. Friendships fracture. Marriages grow cold. And in the quiet of our own hearts, we nurse wounds that no one else can see. The question is not whether you will pas...

 Title: The Mirror of Your Mandate Scripture: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." — Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV) The Man in the Glass I saw my face in the darkened screen of my laptop this morning. Load-shedding had stolen the light again—Stage 4, they called it, as if we are counting plagues now instead of power failures. The reflection stared back at me: a man in Akasia, surrounded by the familiar hum of neighbourhood generators, sitting in the half-darkness of a city that cannot keep its promises. And in that dim reflection, the Holy Spirit asked me a question I could not escape: Who are you trying to impress? Let us define our terms clearly, for confusion here is fatal. A mandate is not merely a job. It is not a job title, a salary bracket, or the size of your YouTube following. Your mandate is the specific assignment the living God downloaded into your spirit before the foundation of th...