Unfolding Short Stories: "...the more emotive I am, the more God surprises me.” - Nigel Masenda

The Unfolding

Northwestern Media

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 809 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“I’ve often felt I can be too much, but the more emotive I am, the more God surprises me.”
Nigel Masenda learned early on that revealing his heart—tears, frustrations, and all—could open the door to unexpected moments of divine kindness. Growing up in a family and culture where men were often reserved, he felt out of place for expressing his emotions so freely. But when his mother traveled abroad for a funeral and couldn’t return for two long years, loneliness and unanswered prayers pushed him deeper into raw, honest faith. Through caring neighbors, silent prayers, and a tenacious hope, Nigel discovered that embracing vulnerability before God not only shapes our perspective—it can transform our very lives.

Transcript

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0:00.0	God's story, your life.
0:06.1	Unfolding short stories.
0:09.9	All throughout Scripture, we see the deep connection between our emotions and our prayers to God.
0:17.1	King David's lament and praise filled the Psalms.
0:26.6	Hannah, a barren woman, sobbed in prayer, and God heard her cries. Jesus wept.
0:28.6	Today's short story follows Nigel, a young man from a Zimbabwean family, who wrestled with deep
0:35.6	emotions as a boy during the most difficult and depressing
0:38.9	season of his life. He says that as he became more open and honest with God about his feelings,
0:45.1	God met him there, transforming his pain into a deep unshakable faith. I'm Nigel Lysenda,
0:53.4	a disciple, a lover of God. The Lord is so incredibly kind. He's just
0:58.7	revealed himself in my life. So oftentimes, I've just believed that I can be too much, that my
1:05.3	emotions are too big, that I'm too emotive. But what I've found is the more emotive I am, the more authentic and organic I am, the more
1:16.4	God surprises me, and the more God reveals themselves to me.
1:20.4	And in turn, the more I learn and know about myself.
1:23.1	And I think for me, this really started out whenever I was eight years old.
1:27.4	So for some context,
1:29.0	I'm Zimbabwean and grew up in the traditional Zimbabwean home. And what that means is most of the
1:35.7	women are quite emotive and they're just very demonstrative of their love. But the men tend to
1:41.3	be more stoic and reserved so they're not really emotive or providing love in that way.
1:46.8	But for me, I just loved, I was very emotive.
1:49.8	Like, I very much desired that and needed that.
1:52.9	And so my mom always provided that for me.
	...

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