Who are your heroes? Most people might speak of great politicians, resilient activists, record-breaking athletes, religious leaders, or Marvel characters when it comes to naming their heroes. But this isn’t the case for me. 

This man here is one of my heroes. Saleem Masih, Mamu, is a hero of mine. This week on the 26th June would have been his 83rd birthday. We said goodbye to Mamu last August as he went to be with his Lord Jesus Christ. 

Mamu is the Indian name for your mother’s brother. Strictly speaking, Saleem was my father’s Mamu, not my Mamu, but he was affectionately known as Mamu to a lot of us in the family. He was the great uncle of the family and like another grandad. 

He was a loveable character. Loving and generous, opinionated with a funny sense of humour with jokes that weren’t funny but made him crack up. He was the sort of person who always knew a ‘guy’ for every job you could ever need doing, and had a story to tell for every occasion. His opinions could sometimes get him into trouble, but no one could ever question his heart. At his heart, Mamu was a man of faith and a man of prayer. He was always seeking to know more of God through prayer and reading the Bible. He didn’t get everything right, but at his heart was a deep love of God and a desire to love him and seek him with his whole life. 

As a young Christian, Mamu was a hero of faith in my everyday. He would boldly live out his faith each day and encouraged me to do the same. As a teenager, he would regularly give me some new theological or biblical resources that he had come across. He was especially fond of a sizeable all-in-one volume (I think fondly on the theological dictionary he gave me as well as the single-volume edition of Matthew Henry’s biblical commentaries).

Mamu Breakfasts

In my first summer home from University, Mamu instigated a weekly breakfast with him under the pretence of feeding me in exchange for lessons on how to use his iPad. I would come to him at 8am for a freshly cooked breakfast of toast, fried eggs and masala beans. In return, I introduced Mamu to Autotrader and showed him how to search for Mercedes. A fair trade, in my opinion. 

Over breakfast, we would discuss what I’d been learning at seminary, and he would tell me about what he had been reading in his personal devotions. We would talk through these different readings from the Bible and other theological writers, unpacking their greater depths and meanings for our Christian life. In our time together, Mamu would pray for me and encourage me in my calling to serve the Lord in ministry. He would share his wisdom for living as a disciple of Christ. 

One thing he told me that always stuck with me was his instruction for me to always visit the old people. Mamu was aware that it was so easy for the older people in a church or community to find themselves left out as they become less active and visible in the church. Like Jesus, he taught me to see the marginalised in society and to go to them. In visiting and ministering to these older people, I am bringing the love of Christ to them. And vice versa, they remind me that the body of Christ is not contained to just those who I see before me but that God longs for all people, great and small, young and old to be a part of his family the church. I have endeavoured to visit old people every week, just as Mamu said. 

Praying Mamu

As I said earlier, Mamu was a man of prayer. The honour of saying grace at dinner time always fell to Mamu, and it was impossible to attend a whole church service or prayer meeting without hearing him bursting into long and heartfelt prayers. His prayers would most often open with the words: ‘Our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, we give you thanks,’ which he said in Hindi before carrying on a fluid back and forth between Hindi and English. In every prayer he saw God as his Lord and the one who has given him everything, and that is why he was always worthy of thanks. His dedication in prayer, both individually and with others, captured a heart posture that was dependent on God for everything. It is the kind of life that I want to build for myself, a life dependent on God and seeking him for everything in life. I want to pray as Mamu has shown me how to pray. 

God Loves Us Too Much

Mamu had a saying, God loves us too much. It’s a funny phrase in a way to say that God loves too much, it’s almost to say that God got it wrong in how he loves us. But that is not the case. In this simple phrase, these five words, Mamu captured everything about God. 

God loves us. He loves us so much that it’s a love beyond what we could possibly be capable of receiving, but also beyond what we could ever deserve. It’s too much, and still God loves us in this way. It doesn’t make sense for God to love us he does, but he does. It doesn’t make sense that Jesus would give us for us on a cross, but he does. God loves us beyond our imagination. He loves us too much. These were the words that Mamu lived by. His whole life was lived in response to this truth that God loves us too much. Because of God’s love for Mamu, Mamu loved others in return. 

I’ve received so much love from Mamu, from school pick ups, to early morning breakfasts, to deep conversations about faith. He has always been there for me and continually demonstrated the constant love of Christ. I don’t think I would be the person I am today, the pastor and priest that I am without his love and him showing me the love of Christ. There is a strange beauty that Mamu’s last birthday in 2022 was the day that I was priested. He was so important to me getting to this place of being a priest. That is why Mamu is my hero. Mamu taught me that God’s love changes everything, and I want to live me life in response to that knowledge of God’s love. It is when we live in this way that we are living the life to which God is calling us. It is a life captivated by the God who loves us too much. 

Thank you, Mamu, for being my hero in faith and life, and for showing us that God loves us too much. 

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Tiago Forte – Building a Second Brain