THINK AND ACT

It was prof chinua achebe who said that “until the lions begin to narrate their own stories the hunters will always take the glory. Socrates also added that it is the characteristics of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it, furthermore it is important we all know that the true sign of intelligence is the awareness of one’s own ignorance. I have observed over the years the incessant conflict between Christians and the traditional believers or worshippers. The argument of what is good and what is evil, who will go to heaven and who will go to hell, God is real and God is not real, so on and so forth.

I have taken my time to examine the situation in order to understand the stance of their arguments or should I say the basis of their disagreement, and how it has helped to improve the livelihood of the common man in the street ever since it started. The most annoying thing is that even among the so called believers there are still divisions or should I say various denominations, I know that a house that is divided among itself cannot stand, the lords idea was based on the principles of separation of powers ( working separately but collectively), it was not for us to fight and kill ourselves thus he said pray for your enemies to change but you have be vigilant at all times it doesn’t make you a coward, (Nkwucha abughi ujo).

So over the years, I have seen some many people use the name of the lord in vain, fake miracles, rituals, match making, broken families and homes, children abandoning their parents and vice versa all in the name of revelation or prophesy etc. I know that the bible warns that not all who call him father, father, will enter the kingdom and he has advised we look before you reap.
There are so many examples where both the traditional worshippers and Christians have erred but the essence of this writing is to share my thoughts on what I think is important in living as human beings regardless of what you believe or who you worship. When it comes to similarities, every religion condemns evils, but what makes a thing evil depends on the culture, social and morality of the people or area that is why i believe that to worship God effectively you must first understand your people’s ways of life. However everyone condemns killing and agrees with 10 commandments of God, if this is the case why have we chosen to fight for God instead of using the talents he gave us to serve him and humanity.

In my opinion

Jesus teaching was based on principles and is devoid of emotions or sentiments. Humans are emotional as well as spiritual beings I believe, however the problem is that human beings do apply the pleasure principle when serving God. According to Freudian psychoanalysis, pleasure principle is the instinctive seeking of pleasure, avoiding of pain to satisfy biological and psychological needs just like in id, this explains why we pray and hand everything to God, trying to escape our own part, “no skin pain”.
Many preachers understood this, hence the prosperity preaching, positive affirmation preaching, fear have engulfed the whole church or children of God simply because they don’t want to suffer. Man or men of God have made themselves demi-gods, leading people away instead of bringing them to God, enriching themselves while their followers are busy sowing in faith.
Viktor E. Frankl in his book Man’s search for meaning admonishes that it does not matter what we expect from life, but what life expected from us. He went further to say that we all need to stop asking about the meaning of life and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life- daily and hourly, our answer must consist , not in talk and meditations but in right action and right conduct.

I also learnt and believe that death is not the opposite of life, death is the opposite of birth and both happen within life, do not allow yourself to exist and go without making any input in people’s life, irrespective of your belief, listen to your minister but endeavor to establish a relationship with God, you can also talk to him
Fear is the main reason people are fighting each other instead of becoming Christ-like or practicing the principles of their own religion, if all the people in the church, mosque, or shrine depending on your place of worship are all doing the right thing, then where are the evil ones?. Before Christ was crucified he cried and pleaded the cup should be taken away, but the will of God is that faith without work is useless. We shouldn’t pray against challenges of life but the grace to face it and enjoy the glory at last( this does not imply when you die.) you should be able to make plans you can see its benefit reflect on your life and that of others alive.
When you are in Christ you suffer with hope, Emotion which is suffering ,ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it thus says Spinoza. Provided your suffering or pain is justifiable , it ceases to be seen as suffering. No one likes exam but when you have studied for it and have pictured the joy you will have when the result comes out, reading becomes fun.

In summary, I cannot explore the need for us to pause and think for a minute, and ask ourselves questions. who is in charge of my life? look around the world, the way we are living now is it the way human beings are supposed to be living? in Maslow hierarchy of needs pyramid, physiological needs were the basic ( food, clothing, good hospital, shelter, good education etc) the church and Government have stopped providing all these basic amenities while cruising in private jets, mansions, going around with securities and instructing angels to protect you? THINK AND ACT.

So instead of fighting our differences let us all work to strengthen our common values.
Lets respect each other’s believe and seek to be better ourselves. My African brothers lets us make our land like the heaven we all want to go.
Whether heaven is real or not should not be our argument but let the competition of building heaven-like edifice on our various countries, obey the laws here as you would do when you finally go to heaven, build hospitals, schools, help the needy, let our relationship with God not be transactional all the time, do this, do that for me and I will praise you. ,

let the Eagle perch as well as the kite, no one should obstruct each other because path may cross but lane differs.( Egbe belu ,ugo belu ,nke si ibeya ebena nku kwa ya).