Failure Isn't Final. Harold Mawela

The Orchard of Relationships: A Theological Reckoning with the Souls in Your Garden Scripture: "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17) Part One: The Parable of the Uninvited Fig Tree Let me tell you about my neighbour in Akasia, a man named Thabo. Two years ago, a fig tree sprouted unbidden along the wall separating our properties. Thabo, being a practical man, wanted to uproot it immediately. "It's not mine," he said. "I didn't plant it. Why should I water it?" I convinced him to wait. Today, that fig tree stands three metres high. Its branches bend heavy with fruit every December. Children from four neighbouring yards gather under its shade. And Thabo that same Thabo who wanted to destroy it now defends it with a vigour that borders on the absurd. Last month, he nearly fought a contractor who suggested trimming its roots. What changed? Nothing changed about the tree. What changed was Thabo's relationship to t...

 I greet you powerfully in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. My name is Harold Mawela. I am writing to you from my study in Akasia, just north of Pretoria, where the Jacarandas are still recovering from the harsh Highveld winter and where the relentless hum of our nation’s struggle for light and life is a constant background melody. In this year of our Lord, 2026, the air in South Africa is thick. It is a decade of deep division and discontent. We read the headlines the tragic mass shootings in Johannesburg, the bitter xenophobic attacks tearing our communities apart, the crushing weight of youth unemployment now exceeding 54%. As I look out my window, I see the long shadows of load-shedding that have finally retreated, but the darkness they revealed lingers in the soul of our nation. We are a people staring at a mountain peak called "Better Days," yet our legs are weak from the climb. That is why, today, I want to talk to you about the Scaffold of Possibility. T...

Title: The Dialect of Deliverance: Why Your Love is Getting Voicemail Scripture: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” (Proverbs 25:11) Harold Mawela | Akasia, Pretoria Beloved, let me take you to a taxi rank in Pretoria CBD last Tuesday. A young woman stood at the curb, shouting in flawless English, “Excuse me! Does this taxi go to Soshanguve?” The driver, a seasoned veteran of the Moloto Road, looked at her like she had grown a second head. He spoke only Sepedi and the rough, beautiful dialect of taxi hand-signals. She shouted louder. He waved her off. She missed the taxi. The truth? She was speaking the right language English is official, after all but on the wrong frequency. Is it not true that we all feel this sting? You pour your heart out to your spouse, and they scroll past you on their phone. You rebuke your child with fire and brimstone, and they build a thicker wall. You witness to your colleague about the blood of Jesus, and they smile politely...

The Graduate’s Mirror Scripture: “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” Philippians 1:6 Part One: The Man in the Reflection The winter chill clings to the windowpane of my study here in Akasia as I sit, staring at the face staring back at me. It is a face I have seen before, but today it looks different. More lines. More grey at the temples. But something else something deeper behind the eyes. Call it knowing. Call it war-wisdom. Let me tell you about a Tuesday last December. Not the festive, braai-sizzling kind of Tuesday the malls want you to believe in. No, this was the kind of Tuesday when the Apies River winds smelled of sewage from the informal settlements upstream, when the sun over Pretoria felt like a furnace left on by a forgetful God. I sat outside a small café near the Wonder Park Mall, sipping lukewarm rooibos, watching a group of young men unemployed, restless, brilliant—arguing about the Springboks’ lineup while ig...

THE MIRROR OF FEEDBACK A Harold Mawela Devotional Scripture: "The wounds of a friend are trustworthy, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." (Proverbs 27:6, NIV) A TALE OF TWO MIRRORS I remember the taxi rank in Pretoria CBD like it was yesterday. There I stood, a younger man with a freshly pressed shirt and an ego the size of the Union Buildings. A fellow commuter—a gogo with eyes that had seen more winters than I had seen summers—looked at me and said, "Young man, your tie is crooked, but your heart is crooked too. You push past people like they are rocks in a river." Her words hit me like a minibus taxi at full speed. My first instinct? To tell her about my schedule, my importance, my urgent meeting. But something stopped me. Perhaps it was the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it was the way she held her worn Bible close to her chest like a soldier holds a rifle. What she said was true. I was pushing. I was treating people as obstacles. But her tone? Her tone had more gr...

The River of Resilience Scripture: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds." (James 1:2) Part One: The Stone That Learned to Dance Let me tell you about a stone I once saw in the Crocodile River, just outside Pretoria, near the R511. I was standing there last December, watching the water rush over ancient rocks. Most stones downstream were smooth polished by decades of persistent flow. But one stone caught my eye. It was jagged, fierce, unyielding. The water crashed against it with foam and fury, but the stone refused to change. That stone, my friends, is the picture of a man or woman who resists the shaping hand of God. You see, resilience is not the stubborn refusal to be changed. No. That is not strength that is rigor mortis of the soul. True resilience is the holy art of bending without breaking, knowing that the Master Potter holds the clay. The Scripture declares unequivocally: "Consider it pure joy... whenever you fac...