Don’t type Amen. Just roll your sleeves and get to work.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Although some people refer to South Africa as the rainbow nation, it is in Nigeria that one can find the best example yet of a coat of many colors. Here, I am not talking about our cultural diversity. I am not referring to the multitude of ethnic nationalities, the plethora of autonomous communities, and the plurality of linguistic groups that form a breath-taking mosaic in the space that we occupy south of the Sahara. 

No.

I am referring to our socio-religious mix. Our mix of a core of ancient superstitions coated with a veneer of Christian religiosity which has - unfortunately - produced in many of us an unstable psychological amalgam wherein we are content to hands-off, sit back, and “wait on the Lord” like He is some kind of magician who rewards laziness with miracles.

This is why I was thrilled when this morning, I saw a post on Facebook (pictured) by a friend from high school days. This post is quite inspirational, as inspirational as the life of the writer Kainene himself – this Kainene is no biological relation to Chimamanda Adichie’s Kainene in Half Of A Yellow Sun, but the similarities exist in other departments.

Beyond the inspiration that the meat of his piece provides, it closes with an admonition summarized in two sentences that I find quite instructive for all Nigerians today:

Don’t type Amen. Just roll your sleeves and get to work.

And the Holy Book agrees in James 2:17, where it says:

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

In other news, Thank God it’s Friday. Now looking at the clock and waiting till it’s 17:59.