I was born into a Nigerian family, to Christian parents. My “Nigerian-ness” influences most of my experiences in life. My whole immediate and most of my extended family were Christian.

To set the scene for today’s piece I would like to provide a snapshot (huge generalisation) of my parent’s experiences of growing up in Christian households. My parents’ generation was quite an interesting one, in their Christian journey. My parents’ generation of Christians were often evangelical, charismatic, and quite radical. They believed in speaking in tongues and the movement of the Holy Spirit. They believed that their faith should overtly influence how they live their lives. Consequently, believed that their parents (my grandparents’ generation) were more ritualistic Christians and did not have the true faith but were more bogged down by doctrine such as the catechism, organised religion etc. as opposed to the spirit.

In turn, my grandparent’s generation of Christians viewed my parents’ generation as fanatics, radicals. They often scorned them and ridiculed their faith and their eagerness to pray and evangelise and enjoy those things. I heard stories of them being locked out or banned from attending prayer meetings.

My parents’ generation had to really fight for their faith even though they were born into Christian families. They had to fight for the right to practise their faith the way they believed to be right. Because they were persecuted by their parents, they had to own their faith.

Fast forward to my lifetime, from an early age, I was raised to be Christian, attended church and had Christian practises such as reading the bible and praying were instilled in me. I remember my dad telling me I gave my life to Christ when I was about 3 years old. I have no recollection of that. I have no recollection of most things that happened when I was young to be fair. It makes me wonder whether I understood what I was saying at the time or whether I was just caught up in the “excitement” of what was going on. To my parent’s credit, my dad believed that once you’re of age, everyone should confirm what they believe. As such my siblings and I were all baptised as teenagers and became confirmed in the Anglican church. [Usually, the Anglican church practises infant baptism with godparents to guide your spiritual development and when you’re of age, you, the now more mature individual goes through a process to help you to confirm your faith in Christ.]

In my opinion, while it is great being born into a Christian home of my parents’ generation because it affords the opportunity to know Jesus from an early age, to learn about him and see him at work in your parent’s lives, it is not (always) smooth sailing. It is easy to believe that because you are in that environment, you’re also a Christian. As a Christian child, you learn the right things to say to “please” your parents. Christianese rolls off your lips like a dialect. You attend Sunday school, church, house fellowship and learn about the bible and God. You’re gathering information for your memory bank but it could be just that – acquiring knowledge that can be easily regurgitated to convince your parents that you’re on the straight and narrow, when internally, your heart’s not changed. You might be finding your way but not quite there. It’s not really your faith, it’s your parent’s faith and you’re just “doing it” to either keep the peace, because it’s nice or because it’s just what you do, your family tradition and not a heartfelt conviction.

Speaking for myself, over the years, at several times I have become a Christian and rededicated my life to God because it was just quite easy for me to coast and just passively absorb tons of information. I’ve had my ups and downs, no doubt, like everyone else. Sometimes it was difficult when you are struggling with your faith because there is an expectation (verbalised or not) that when you’re a Christian kid, you should be at a certain “level”. You’ve been given everything, so what do you need? “You didn’t have to suffer like we did so what’s the issue?”

At the crux of all of this is the fact that every person would come to a point in their life or several points where they have to decide for themselves what they believe, whether they were born in a Christian home or not. You simply cannot inherit your parent’s faith nor can your parent’s faith save you. You have to decide for yourself.

So, I encourage you, if you’ve lost your way, you feel a bit far from God or you’ve never really made that decision, there is no time like the present. It doesn’t have to be complicated, simple is best. There is no shame, God can handle everything, warts and all. He already knows anyway so you might as well own up to it. He loves you and wants the best for you. He wants your heart.

I don’t have it all figured out, I’m not perfect at all but I am on this journey, and I am so glad at the end of the day, I hope he’ll say well done.

Be blessed!