The Search For Immortality)
The power of the statement 'there is strength in diversity' has been
waned into nothing, relegated into the realm of clichés, & we are the
worse off for it. We have been so fixated on the examples of 'more
developed' countries making the most of their 'limited resources' that
we cripple ourselves in the bid to be faithful imitations. The variety
of the world has been lent to them, not given neither is it their
birthright. The wiser nationalities still retain their identities. But
all the variety available in the world can never replace the variety
you have at home.
Nigeria enjoys variety in resources that the rest of the world only
dreams of. Variety in terms of usefulness, tribal & cultural offerings
(in terms of history, rites, music, dance, cuisine, etc), natural
resources both mineral & human(skilled & unskilled), we tend to
ignore. The only time we'll respect them, it seems, is when some
foreign person who's been dulled out of mind sees us in our colour &
declares that we have what the rest of the world must model themselves
after. We see our variety without respecting the abundance that comes
with it.
We have abundance in terms of everything that stands us out as people
within a country. But we don't respect it, we don't respect ourselves,
& we will lose it. I'm talking of a material that can't be weighed in
terms of money, or comparative purchase or speculation.
What are we? A mad blend of ability? A forced amalgam of nations &
smaller nationalities? Or perhaps we are 'trouble' maturing over time?
I believe 'No'!
Who can be a better me than I? The potential of my life is the
combined history of my line & of those who I precede is is too great
to yield to cultural conquest.
That is what we're facing. Long after formal colonialism went out of
fashion, it still pervades in terms of choosing the alien over the
more familiar. Just to make things clearer, it is a human error. Even
the Israelites chose foreign gods over the God who brought them out of
Egypt. Perhaps they, like ourselves, felt they could better employ the
use of these gods better than the people they had failed?
I am a christian, more importantly a believer, so I don't think that
God is a foreign entity. The syncretic nature of the religion points
this out clearer than any sum of arguements ever could. How or why?
Simple. We have strong parallels so as to suggest that we've been
prepared for a time such as this, long before our forefathers even
knew of Christ Jesus.
My plea is to not dismiss our past as a paganistic dabbling into
darker arts. It is our truest identity. If you doubt, ask yourself why
english fails to explain Love as explicitly as greek, or latin, or
Spanish. None of these languages are connected to me culturally, but
they do expose the fact that one language cannot effectively encompass
what we seek to know as God.
When Jesus said,'It is finished.', my belief is that he meant man's
search for a means to be worthy of God's attention & full involvement
in the lives of men. The means has been set, have we used it?
If not, we should. It acts as an indictment on us. In whatever
capacity is made known to you, use it to understand Him, & build your
faith in your very core as a person. The reason is simple...nothing
about you is alien to Him. According to His word is the only guarantee
that we will find Him. On his terms, not the terms of the heads of any
church worldwide or your immediate leaders in the church. This is not
an excuse to ignore them or mock them. Rather, it is so that we will
understand that our leaders are just men, our choices are still ours
to make, but they're best when informed by means of exegesis of
trained men. No pastor is God to me, but no pastor is to be mocked by
us. You cannot criticise another man's servant. Think about it.
--
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