HEART’S DESIRES Elections in Cameroon follow the list system. Thank God that with this list system, cronies of the government and parties can be re-elected and this helps keep the partners in crime in their respective posts of responsibilities. I wonder how elections would look like the day the list system will be abolished!!! I became acquainted with making a list of items right from primary school. In the opening days of the academic year, the teacher always wrote the list of books and items to be bought by each pupil. It was a time we looked up to, for after this we came back to school bragging around with new texts and exercise books, pens, pencil and ruler. I still feel the smells of these. Imagine how these looked after some few weeks with the way we mishandled them! In secondary school, the list came as a prospectus from the secondary school. For those of us who were privileged to go to boarding schools, our parents asked us to make our own lists. Added to what were necessities as bathing and laundry items and so on, we added ‘funkies’ or ‘extras’ which in real terms were garri, sugar, biscuits, cookies, etc.. in short, extra food. In our home, my father never found this list funny because of his financial status. So he would just estimate how much the necessities and transport to school would cost and then give you the money with some bit of extra francs to manage the buying of the items yourself. It was only in Form IV, year 10 in the English educational system, that we were taught principles of making a list in Economics with topics like scarcity and choice, scale of preference, utility and opportunity cost. The readings of today bring us to this fundamental aspect in a life where choices need to be made. Making a choice implies there are lots of options. The problem comes with making a choice that can help us manage all the other options we have in life. Young King Solomon is asked by God to tell him what he wants. Solomon’s answer is not the usual answer normal human beings would: he answers: “Lord my God you have made your servant king in succession to David my father. But I am a very young man, unskilled in leadership. Your servant finds himself in the midst of this people of yours that you have chosen, a people so many its numbers cannot be counted or reckoned. Give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil, for who could govern this people of yours that is so great”. This is the answer of someone who has had time to reflect on the responsibility he faces. He does not model his answer according to the views of others nor on material and financial needs, but on what he really feels is necessary in his life. Like the fisherman selecting the bad fish from the good ones in the gospel reading, he has looked into all his needs and known which is most important in his life. The treasure that is most important in his heart, which makes him to sell or sacrifice all others, is understand his people, to discern evil from good and to have an understanding heart. This is all he asks from God. Knowing who God is and experiencing how God worked in the life of his parents, he does not bring out a long list. He is contented on with the above – living well with his people and governing them as God would want. He knew the people were God’s and not his. He was only a servant to carry out God’s instructions. God becomes so happy with his demand that he tells Solomon: ‘Since you have asked for this and not asked for long life for yourself or riches or the lives of your enemies, but have asked for a discerning judgement for yourself, here and not I do what you ask. I give you a heart wise and shrewd as none before you has had and none will have after you… I will also give you what you have not asked for: all your life you will have wealth and honour, more than that of any other king… (1Kgs 3:5ff). Yes, God is always asking us what we need. But many at times, we answer God without having enough time to know what He has already given us and the most important thing that we lack. Solomon is aware of the fact that without God and people, he would not have been made king. Hence, he needs God and the people all the time. Since people too are made by God and given to us by God, they cannot be understood except God reveals His plan for the people to him, Solomon. We pray each day for people to change, for God to give us better children, better friends, better husbands, better wives and so on. How many times do we ask for the wisdom to understand them? And how can we even understand them when we do not have enough time to understand own selves and personal needs? Secondly, even if God gave us the better people we have asked for, have we go the heart that would make us to discern evil from good and God wants? Do most of our judgements about others not depend on our personal opinions and thinking? How often do we see the word of God as the light for our path and a lamp for our steps in appreciating other people? What is the need praying for good health, long life, wealth and others when we cannot live happily with ourselves and with others? The greatest wealth in life is people and life with God. Without God and people life remains a constant migration from one demand over the other. Today they look exciting, tomorrow boring and thrown away. It is high time that parents start asking God for the discerning heart to understand their kids and stop crying how bad they are and how materially and financially demanding they are. It is high time that before marriage, couples should set aside time to pray for the gift of understanding and discerning the objective good, rather than spending precious time and money to throw parties and pleasing people who would abandon them immediately trouble sets in. It is high time young people start appreciating the efforts their parents are putting in other to help them be what they are, than being embittered and then falling into the hands of predators and end up being more miserable than they would have had they listened to their God-given parents. Solomon stands today as a person we need to imitate in our prayer life, relationship with God and with one another. I pray that you all have that gift of wisdom which will help you to appreciate those who are around you and stop waiting of ‘super-men or women’ who would never exist.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 13:34:45 +0000
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