Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the Human freedoms; to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way, FREE WILL is a gift that only death can take away a Human being. There is an African proverb that reads “When there is no enemy within, the enemy without can do us no harm”, this translates as when you refuse to allow any doubts, fears in your mind to dictate the steps of your life, then none of these states from others will ever cloud our judgement;
THE GREATEST CHALLENGE AND THE GREATEST OBSTACLE ANY HUMAN WILL EVER FACE IS THEMSELVES.
Growing up as kids, we envied the fantasies of a Utopian life written by talented writers of cartoons like Barbie, the happily ever afters of Beauty and the beast, the unashamedly, jingoistic in its nationalism, superhero movie Captain America, that attempts to build its story off the notion that our boys are wholly stalwart defenders of all that’s decent in the world, X-Men, Iron Man etc. we were willing to accept the fantastical notion of SAVING THE WORD.
Behaviour of a nation is a reflection of the identity that its citizens possess. The type of nation we live in is an indicator of what the majority of the citizens believe-either consciously or unconsciously; we all act in alignment with our beliefs thus the biggest change at any level is the inherent change of the individual.
UNLESS YOU SAVE YOURSELF, YOU CANNOT SAVE THE WORLD OR NATION. UNLESS YOU CONQUER YOUR “SELF” YOU CAN NOT CONQUER THE UNIVERSE; this is a translation to one of the golden rules given by Jesus Christ in the New Testament, that in order to love others, you must first Love yourself. The prerequisite of any change of environment springs from such a change occurring amongst the inhibitors of the named environment.
The above stirs the rhetorical question: You say your country is corrupt, you say your leaders are inconsiderate, you say your nation masks its evil with the “Christian Nation’ tag, is it the Nation that has a problem or You?
In the words of Marcus Aurelius “Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?” it is this sort of questioning that will make the world a better place. All the Beirut bombings, the racial constraints of the United States of America, the unrest in Zimbabwe and the corruption in Zambia are a product of the people we’ve chosen to be the centre of decision making.
Many of our failures as nation are largely attributed to the lack of self-awareness
We are not saying your childhood dreams of being a superhero should be buried, rather that whenever you want to save the Nation, make sure your house is in order. In the wise words of Jordan B Peterson “Have some humility, if you cannot bring peace to your own household, how dare you try to rule a city”
JOHN C MAXWELL, in his book DEVELOPING THE LEADER IN YOU writes “I was a revolutionary when I was young and my prayer to God was; Lord, give me the energy to change the world. As I approached middle age and realised that my life was half gone without me changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to: Lord, give me the Grace to change all those who come into contact with me, just my family and I shall be satisfied. Now that I am an old man and my days are numbered I have begun to see how foolish I have been. My one prayer now is; Lord give me the grace to change myself.” If I had prayed for this right from the start I would not have wasted my life.
Extractions from a beautiful mind 