Silence of the gods: ba Zambia, well are suffering because of lack of knowledge
By Michael B Munyimba
Have we ever wondered why we keep praying, but nothing happens?
I have seen dedicated Christians who have prayed for ages for them to have a child in their marriage, but God has been silent. And in the end they turn to cults, to sangomas, yes, witch doctors for answers in desperation, and in the end find themselves in greater trouble with the forces of nature and God.
I am not one to question why God does not answer prayers in time, or at all in some cases or circumstances. Some say it is lack of faith on our side as His creation, or lack of understanding of how He operates. But I remember in one of my Sunday School lessons, the Bible states that God’s ways and thoughts are not mine who is human (Isaiah 58: 8-9) I know of a friend I lived with in South Africa who had seven daughters. The guy was a staunch Christian and so was his wife. He was determined to have a male child, but each time the wife got ballooned, it was a baby girl that popped out. You see, our friends in some of these countries believe in having a male child as a symbol of strength to take over the mantle when they passed on, which is of course foolish mentality in my view (please that’s my personal view, respect it). So, they keep pressing, impregnating their wives, hoping to fulfill what they feel is the right course. And that is what this friend of mine did, he kept on pushing the odds, but only girls popped out of his wife’s belly. And so this couple, that was so Godly, decided to seek a witch doctor’s intervention, they abandoned God’s teachings and sought the teachings of men (Mark 7:7-9). And you know what, that witch doctor did his rituals, and they had a son, their eighth child! They were so happy, but you know what happened, suddenly, their businesses started dwindling. All construction contracts they had with government started being cancelled one by one. They had initially been blessed with wealth, but suddenly, everything started going wrong, all their wealth vanished! Their children who initially went to exclusive, expensive private schools, now suddenly could not even afford to go to government schools. The guy got so broke, he lost his mansion to the bank he owed, together with his fleet of luxury cars. He eventually committed suicide and the wife and kids went back to Nigeria where they had come from.
All I’m saying is that we have all witnessed situations where we think God is not answering our prayers. And we find ourselves in instances where we are coerced to seek other means of sustaining ourselves, but as Jesus said, without Him, we are nothing and can do nothing (John 15:5). Our pastor at Deeper Life once told of a story of a man who was a senior congregant for 30 years, very dedicated man of God, he got sick and got bedridden for three years. They tried everything, prayers took him to pastor after pastor, but his condition kept getting worse. It got so bad that the family decided to take him to a witch doctor, at the disapproval of the church. But even himself, the seek guy, maybe due to the pain he felt, appended the assertion that since prayers had failed (meaning that since God had failed), they should take him to a sangoma, a witch doctor (meaning to the devil), of which the church let go of him. And two days later, he died in the sangoma’s hut! Now, my pastor asked the church that which was better, to die in the light, or in darkness – in the hands of God, or the devi? Yes, he never got healed through those prayers and people knew he would die, but which was better, to die in a sangoma’s hut, or in the church, in the light of God?
Now getting back to today’s theme, it’s not God’s silence I want to talk about in this article, it’s our silence as humans. God, we understand, is not human like you and me (Numbers 23:19). So His ways are not like ours, we admire Him for that. But we are a bad species. We keep quiet even when we see wrong. You are wondering what I’m talking about? Don’t worry, I will tell you. This country is on oxygen economically, politically and otherwise because of the wrongs of our forefathers that we refuse to talk about and address.
One famous American photo journalist went to Rwanda during that genocide of 1994. As they passed through some desolate plane area with a helicopter, he saw a girl, about one year old, abandoned there by her parents who were probably killed in the genocide. She sat there alone, crying weakly without clothes on her. Behind her was a vulture moving slowly towards her, ready to devour her. The photographer started taking pictures. The helicopter left that baby, knowing too well she would die and be eaten by birds. When that photo journalist reached America and printed those photos, he won an award for best photographer. But when the story came out in the papers and online, one person commented and asked, “…But where is the child?” That’s when the world got to start thinking about it, that it was giving awards to a photo journalist who was more interested in taking the best photos than saving that poor dying child who was about to be savagely ravaged by vultures alone there, defenseless, when he had the means to save her. Those who gave that journalist the award came back to their senses and revoked it and suddenly, newspapers across the world named that photo journalist, “THE SECOND KILLER”, in their headlines. And a week later, he committed suicide. Praise the Lord.
Let me end the article with this wise saying, that the problem is not that there are evil men out there committing atrocities to mankind, to others, to the frail, to the old, the meak, to the defenseless, to children and women. The problem is that there are too many good men out there doing nothing about it! We seek glory in bad things and hate good things. Yes, we adore badness, and abhor goodness. Zambia is on oxygen, but we want to take Panadol when we have cancer and shun chemotherapy because it’s painful. But Panadol cannot cure cancer, it’s a temporal remedy. Alebwelelapo is Panadol, let this country undergo chemotherapy. It may take time, the way God takes time to answer sometimes, the way He took time to answer that friend of mine who had seven girl children. And when he pushed God by seeking answers elsewhere, he got crushed. Even that staunch Christian who abandoned God and went to a sangoma when he got sick, he died in darkness. Zambia has cancer, it’s on oxygen, it needs chemotherapy which is painful, not Panadol.
It is the only way for its healing process to begin and be complete.
Pick it up studio one, till next Wednesday, this is Michael Brandon signing off!
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