Monday, September 14, 2009

The significance of choice

Every December holiday, when I was a kid, my folks would bundle us into the car and make the trip upcountry as it was customary back then. I recall every evening when grandma would have us sit round her three legged stool and narrate to us different stories. The one that hangs to memory the most is one of how the monkey is a staple diet in the asian, far east regions of our globe. To trap it, the villagers would create a sizable hole in a coconut fruit and stuff rice inside. The hole is made just small and wide to accommodate the monkey’s paw. Now, the trick is, that once the monkey has reached inside the fruit and grabbed a handful of rice, it cannot lose the coconut unless it lets go of the rice inside. To the folly of the animal, it makes endless gongs as it tries to make up a tree with its paw still inside the fruit and these sounds are the cue for the villagers. Believe it or not, the villagers will grab it, as casually as a walk in the park, since the monkey will make empty noises, fidgeting around the tree while it has a choice of letting go and fleeing the imminent danger. Grandma would let us run out of our laughter and gaze intently into our watery eyes and tell us the lesson within; always know you have a choice. And the matter of choice has stuck, if not haunted me since. Choice, as free will, is at the disposal of the every human being. It is something God gives us freely.

God will motivate us, encourage us, move the heavens and the mountains for us, rebuke us, send messages through diligent messengers just to get us to make only and just only one thing; make a choice. A choice to choose life, a choice to be happy, a choice to begin to love, to be faithful, to think positively, to live healthy, to change attitudes, to be different; to change for the better. He constantly calls us to make more than a choice but a daily choice. The interesting thing about all this is that it is never that easy. It breaks a sweat but the fruits are guaranteed. Pain is always part of the process. You see, It costs us something to get something. Mediocrity has never been bestowed with recognition and as the Swahili saying advises “ mtaka cha mvunguni sharti ainame”.

The conscious and deliberate effort depends on our ability to make a choice. The choice that we make is influenced by a variety of factors which may include our genetic predisposition, the family influence which I call the social conditioning, the famous peer pressure among others. All these shape our way of thinking trickling down to our ingrained habits which forms our actions and ultimately our character. The good thing I have learnt is that nothing is ever etched on stone that we shall always be and remain as we are. Like the light to the day, life is guaranteed to change. For the mighty and for the lowly. For all. When this happens, our response to it will impact us either positively or negatively depending on the choices we make. Every day, every hour, every minute. Constantly.

In the book, Conversations with God, author Neale Donald Walsch, seems to be at odds as to why he has never gotten it right every time he wishes to come to terms on how to get his life moving without much stagnation. As the dialogue goes ”God”, interestingly, keeps it simple with the truth:”Life is an ongoing process of creation. You are creating your reality every single minute. Remember that every decision you make should be the choice you choose to make tomorrow and that is the secret of all masters. They keep choosing the same thing over and over again until their will is made manifest in their reality”. I like that. That if I choose to be physically fit, I should stick to the fitness plan every time and the constancy of it should see me reach my desired goal. This school of thought gives me the responsibility to be in charge of my own life choices and decisions and to cease blaming others or circumstances for the woe in my life. Every situation becomes what I decide it to be. The idea that I am what I think of myself as is thought provoking.






It is Our Lord Jesus Christ who said that “As a man thinketh so is He” and now I see. I choose what I will think about, what to say, whom to relate to, what to read, what to watch, etc as all this constitute to who I am. I now understand that I am inherently equipped with everything I need to make that choice that will make me be me. A choice to believe in a God to whom nothing is impossible. A choice to trust in Him and in my ability. A choice to make the first step in faith and see what happens. A choice to see myself in a new light; that I am a special person with boundless limits to explore. A being wonderfully and fearfully made. All in all, it all begins with a choice. What’s yours?

HOPE

One of my favourite quotes is by Vaclav Havel who quipped “Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turn out” and that brings me to the subject that evokes much fascination and adoration if nothing less than being idolised by what it represents; HOPE. Personally, I love to think of hope as a reverent thing. An attribute that the Deity blesses his loving creation with. Even to the most lackadaisical pessimist and cynic, deep inside themselves lies a ray of hope. You see, Hope has stood the test of time and evidently it is something that always gives and never takes away. Hope has held the testimony that it never fails in its promise and whenever summoned, it works up with zeal and most importantly, its suffice to say we can look forward to it with desire and reasonable confidence.

I am amazed by the audacity of hope. It doesn’t segregate and always beckons at everyone’s heart when all around seem dark. Its soft, soothing voice infuses into our soul everytime we’re engulfed with the hurt and trials of life. In my young life, I have come to appreciate and encourage the idea of Hope as a resonant melody of my frail heart. I have discovered that the myopic nature of my human reasoning and interpretations of my life huddles cannot be easily overcome without hope for a better tomorrow, a better world and, indeed, a better me. I have looked far and beyond and saw that the greatest and the wisest of people to have walked on this earth had hope as a constant chaperone on their fickle, treacherous journey to redemption.

Among my idolised heroes of the modern day and also a living legend, Nelson Mandela, while facing a grim future of life behind bars for his noble cause of a better South Africa and was quoted in his famous speech before being sentenced to life imprisonment that “..During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I HOPE to live for and to achieve”. We all know how that story turned up to be. The fight for a liberated Kenya was hinged on hope. Tales of the Holocaust are told of how the Jewish captives, while being led to the gas chambers by the Nazis, sang songs of Hope as they resigned to the fact that though mortal men could kill their physical bodies, their souls had a hope to rest in the realm of the Heavenlies with the Creator. It is hope that the Lord’s apostles persevered and faithfully spread the gospel. For in hope, we retire at night after a long day to rest and look forward to a brighter day tomorrow. That we read, sing, relate and work. We do it for Hope.

Hope is not just a word, but it can mean many things. it is an emotion at best, at worst ...it is lost. Caleb Colton, an English cleric, painter and writer, while going through a tumultuous period in his life, wrote that “ Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest Ore is produced from the hottest furnace and brightest thunderbolt is the one elicited from the darkest room” And I would add a room full of Hope. For though hope wears different hats to different people, its inherent virtue is always the same. It makes up the substance of things that Faith is built upon. For the Bible puts it that ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not yet seen” Hebrews 11: 1. Hope, therefore, is a key ingredient of the heavenly currency ; Faith. But I won’t digress with my endless superlatives about Faith. Maybe another time. In short as I conclude, I offer it to you that among the triumvirate of God’s gifts for our daily sustenance is hope. 1 Corinthians 13: 13 “And now these three remain; Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is Love” .As such, I will totally fall short of the point if I do not say that Hope by itself, though sufficient, is diligently espoused to Faith and Love. Hope therefore and do not give up.