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Today I Woke Up In The Kingdom Of Thailand!

Following a gruesome 24-hour flight via Addis Ababa, by far my favourite city, I found myself immersed in intense thoughts about myself and humanity.

This hadn’t been my plan, however. I had intended to indulge in my rare escapade from my ever-sobering thoughts by watching movies aboard the flight. It wasn’t to be though as the earphones provided by Ethiopian Airlines were so bad that I couldn’t finish even one movie from their meagre and almost archaic movie collection. Ethiopian Airlines, are you listening?

Pardon me, I digress.

However, I love my own, albeit often sobering company. I also had not brought myself a book to read, as the one I am currently reading is so scholarly, I have to have a notebook to read it with.

So, I poured myself into thoughts about myself… and my role in humanity. Incidentally, the following morning, I would have a brunch conversation with our newly minted Dean at GIBS, Prof Mthombeni. He shared a profound insight with me that he focuses his energy on character and lets reputation be an outcome.

Eisssh, I digress again.

So, by the time I walked into my hotel room yesterday afternoon, I was exhausted!

Thailand is five hours ahead of my country’s timeline. I knew that if I slept, I would spend the rest of the night awake…so I resisted the temptation.

What complicated the situation however was that due to COVID quarantine protocols, I couldn’t leave my room until I was declared COVID free, based on the test I took on arrival.

So, there I was, contained in my hotel room, my window being the only way I could engage with the Thai Kingdom.

As I sat on my hotel room couch, looking out my window as the iconic Thai klong boats serenading the greenish-brown waters of the famous Chao Phraya River, I found myself immersed in how kingdoms such as the Thai have provided a sense of identity for billions of people to this present age.

What’s so enamouring about humankind kingdoms? In my mind, I don’t see why humankind should seek to subject themselves unto others, especially purely based on arbitrary bloodlines!

Notwithstanding, the 21st Century constitutional democracies, Thailand being no exception, hail their monarchical heads as the ultimate authority of their identity.

My thoughts progressed to an even greater puzzle: why so many Christians morph God’s Kingdom concept with the inherently faulty earthly kingdom portraits. Jesus is the King, the narrative goes, so we must idolise Him and shower Him with praises to get what we want!

Jesus, in fact, turned the concept of royalty inside out. To be sure, he ushered a new kind of a kingdom, but that was diametrically opposed to humankind’s historical kingdom portraits.

Jesus introduced a kingdom that has no subjects. A kingdom where every member is of the Royal Family, not arbitrarily selected bloodlines.

The prophets said that every member of this Kingdom was to be of Royal Priesthood, a role in earthly kingdoms that is exclusive to the elite of the elite.

The influential Apostle Paul of Tarsus would later write that those that accepted an invitation to this new kingdom would be co-heirs with Christ and rule with him in the “heavenlies”, a term that requires its own blog.

How Christians chose to pollute this majestically transcendent scriptural concept with an inherently inferior and faulty earthly kingdoms portraits remains the bane of my pain?

Anyway, greetings from the Thai Kingdom!

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