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“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavour”.
- Henry David Thorem
Golden sun break of dawn, silver moon passes on. Another day has come and gone. As another new year progresses, we again reflect on the past year and try to find solutions to the lingering penury, incessant anomy, unnecessary violence and contagious corruption plaguing us. In the process we point fingers, looking for whom to blame for the deteriorating state of this once great nation. Have we ever stopped to think that the greatest change the citizens of this country can make is a continual effort of self change? For if we can just be a little more patient, a little more honest, a little more understanding and apply a little kindness irrespective of culture, tribe and religion we would unconsciously start to rid ourselves of most of the problems we are faced with.
We should remember that when dealing with people, we are dealing with creatures of emotions, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity. Instead of condemning people, let us try to understand them. Let us try to figure out why they do what they do. That’s a lot more profitable and intriguing than criticism and it breeds empathy and tolerance in us devoid of hate and resentment. This will be the beginning of the road to success in our nascent democracy.
We should realize that majority of our problems are due to our sincere ignorance, conscientious stupidity and selfishness. A wise man once said, ‘We have enough religion to die for, to fight for, to kill for but not enough to love for‘. It is truly ironic because we claim to be one of the most religious countries in the world. Are we deeply religious or just church-ly and mosque-ly? Do we really practice what is written in the Bible or Koran? We fail to understand that we don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are. So naturally people read these sacred books to their own understanding.
As the days move into weeks and years, we should always say to ourselves every morning” I want to leave this world a little nicer than I found it”. Each time we are hurt or wronged we should first ask ourselves whether the hurt was an attack or not and what we would do if we were in the person’s shoes. This is acting and responding with the benefit of intellect. Off course it is a difficult task but nothing good in life comes easy. It takes a lot of diligence and conscious effort. To think that the great Leonardo da Vinci worked on the portrait, “the Last Supper” for ten years, George Stevenson spent 15 years to perfect the locomotive, Mr. Watts worked for 30 years on the condensing engine and Goodyear spent 10 years of study, poverty and public ridicule to discover hard rubber. Yet we expect democracy to transform overnight, 10 years or more of destruction, hardship and abuse, mental and physical torture into Heaven. Certainly God laughs at us sometimes despite the fact that He has brought us to this point in our lives. So why don’t we start from today to live by words of Dwight Moody; “Do all the good you can to all the people you can, in all the ways you can, and for as long as you can”.
Let us pray.
God Almighty as we pray to you individually, please answer our prayers and bless us as a nation in all our endeavours. Please give us hope and courage in the face of adversity, love in place of hatred, forgiveness in place of vindication, care in place of neglect and most of all give us the grace to love ourselves the way you love us. AMEN
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