State of the nation(als)

Musing...

The wellbeing of our nation is our communal responsibility, as its citizens.

While it is easy to criticise the leaders who usually have greater influence over a majority of the prerequisite decisions, we must evaluate how well we use our own influence in whatever sphere we exert it, whether as the heads or members of a family, organization, community or even of ourselves.

* Do we do the right thing uncompromisingly, at every opportunity?

* Are we good managers of our time and other resources?

* Do we put the interests of others first? Are we fair and just in our dealings with people?

* Do we obey and uphold the laws of our nation, even in the absence of law enforcement agents?

These are pertinent points of evaluation in which we fail. Sadly, a seat of influence like the presidency or any other leadership role is too high profile a position for such lapses to go unnoticed. However, it doesn't make the average citizen any less culpable in whatever capacity, for the ills of our society.

If we make the practice of righteousness as popular and even more so, than corruption, our nation can begin the much needed recovery to full health

Lessons from a shoemaker

My brother makes footwear - shoes, sandals and so on.

One day, one of his clients, a mutual friend of ours, stopped by the house on a visit. She was wearing one of his creations - a multi-strap leather sandal. While we talked, his eyes fell on the sandals and he observed that the sole of one of the legs had opened up at a point. He remarked about it and picked up the faulty sandal to inspect closely. Without much ado, he said he was going to fix it. The words had barely left his mouth, than he was already brutally (it seemed to me) stripping the sole off the sandal, and ripping it apart without a care (to my eyes) for its delicate construction.

I was briefly struck with trepidation at the damage he was inflicting but he was unperturbed. Our friend who was also observing, probably had the same thoughts on her mind, from the expression on her face. But as we exchanged glances, she recovered quicker and remarked, 'well, he's the maker...'

That struck a reassuring chord in my mind. For it was the truth!
Here was the one who had made this product, apparently destroying it again, in a bid to make it better. He had no doubt or question in his mind that he could restore it to an even better state than it had been originally.

I didn't have that confidence because I didn't have his skill or experience, but he was most definite about what he was doing. As he seemingly tore up what had been a work of art even if temporarily damaged, he remarked about his level of workmanship at the time he had initially put the sandal together. It was obvious that he was more enlightened now and had spotted areas upon which he could improve. Since he first made that sandal, he had learnt a few new tricks of the trade which he was going to apply in repairing this faulty one.

I was still concerned about whether he would be able to fix it in time for our friend to wear it home. But he was undaunted. In fact, having torn up the work, he put it aside and gave his attention to another task. I was bewildered, but he was not in the least fazed. Such was his confidence that it was absolutely nothing to put it back together, better than new....

And he did, not long after.

As I noted all this, I also quietly remarked to myself about the similarity of this analogy, to my relationship with the Almighty, Infinite, Omnipotent Creator. How often in my life and those of others around me, had I doubted His discretion when things were not moving smoothly or according to my plans; how even when I could encourage myself with the conviction that I was just passing through a phase (moulding/repairing/remaking process), it would still be a struggle to remain calm as I observed the unfamiliar, monumental and often irreparable changes my life was being subjected to.

How often had I despaired that I was loosing time in the race of life in comparison with my contemporaries for whom 'things' were happening, because I chose instead to trust God's will;

How many times had I despaired that I seemed to be alone on an unpopular route through life on which no one else appeared to be traveling, with no defined destination and no end in view....

But how much ease it would impart to a man's heart to just put simple faith in God and trust His discretion about the decisons He makes with one's life...Afterall, He created us!

(c)UprightMedia2014

Disclaimer: God is not a service provider!

I heard someone say over a public address system the other day, 'when you give your life to Jesus, your problems become His problems...'

As usual, it got me thinking. And I believe that this statement is very false beneath the veneer of truth it purports. It is also very evident in it, that the priority of experiences that occasion the miracle of being born again, is misplaced.

'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light', Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30.

Jesus' yoke and burdens become ours when we surrender to Him. Afterall, if we have acknowledged Him as Lord and Master, we must become concerned and troubled ONLY by what concerns and troubles Him. It is expected of us that when we come unto Jesus, we must lay down the burdens we have carried so far, and take up His burden. The good news He tells us, is that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

It is only rational that as the Good Master that He is, He looks out for the needs of His people. These needs should not be a source of worry for us if we indeed understand and have fully acknowledged the goodness and faithfulness of God, except we really don't trust God.

We need to stop professing and teaching this faulty doctrine of God as the Almighty service provider and ourselves as the retailers of this divine problem-solving service - both in our exhortations in the assembly of the brethren, as well as the impression we give to the unbelieveing world. This is not to deny the omnipotence of God but to stop the misconstruing of it.

The church must clearly delineate in practise and teaching, that we are servants of God and that it is wrong to insinuate that God exists to serve our needs, that He is a means to the ends we desire, and that He's only as good to us as He can do for us.

Whose problem?
The natural man is obsessed with the problems of self preservation and survival - food, clothing and shelter, comfort and/or other more secondary concerns as economic problems, natural disasters, 'tomorrow' and so on.
Jesus was fully aware of this when He admonished, 'wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
BUT seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Matthew 6:30-34.

How can a man profess faith in Jesus and yet remain unrepentantly and unashamedly obsessed with what a gentile is obsessed with? Where then is the evidence of the faith he professes in Jesus?

God's problem with mankind on the other hand, is SIN - the age-long rebellion against God and the daily transgression of His laws. The fundamental nature of sin is the obsession with self - self preservation, self esteem, self confidence, self worth and all other virulent or benign manifestations of SELFishness. Self indulgence serves to promote an illusion of independence from God, encouraging a false hope that we can exist, survive, prosper, succeed, be fulfilled in life, in our own way and on our own terms, in exclusion of God. Of course, this is a lie, of the same essence as that which the serpent told to Eve in the garden of Eden, at the beginning of Time.
(Infact, I am slightly spooked now by anything that has the prefix 'self' attached to it).

I believe that God rather wants to deliver us from the obsession with 'our problems' first and foremost, before any deliverance from these 'problems' is possible.

So God does not care?
The meeting of the needs of a believer is a natural consequence of God's goodness. It is God's prerogative and at His discretion. It shouldn't be a source of worry for the believer. It is not also a bargaining article with which we may jostle men into believing in Jesus. Placing such a condition before a prospective believer amounts to planting the seed of such person's nascent faith on a shifty ground.

People need to come to God as a result of a realization that He is the Source and essence of Life, the reason we live and for which we must live. The testimony of our lives in the midst of the despair and darkness that abounds all around, should give an answer for the hope we have. Let us inspire people to seek the God who strengthens us to uphold the banner of righteousness against the often seeming overwhelming tide of ungodliness. Our victory over the world system should speak of the power that works within us. Our purposeful march through each day should point to the Light that lives in us.

We must stop perceiving and portraying God as a lottery ticket for our selfish desires. God cannot be used or manipulated! He is the Master of the universe, the earth and the men who inhabit it, and we are at His service.

Shouldn't it be cause for concern and repentance, if we still find ourselves entangled with selfish obsessions despite our profession of faith in Jesus?

'Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?' 2 Corinthians 13:5

My folks used to have a vinyl record back in the days of turntables, by Wanda Jackson that had this line in the chorus, 'how do you treat God, like a G-O-D or a D-O-G?' I think it is a fitting question to ponder on.