adminAs for me I transitioned into 2012 in a deep reflective mood as I ironed a basketful of clothes that had not been cleared for a week. It gave me time to evaluate my year, map the way forward and seek divine favour.
Well, whichever way we received the year one thing for certain is the year has a package that contains different things for different people. There are positive and negative things, happy and sad moments, victories and failures as well as successes and setbacks.
The year comes with new challenges and opportunities. There are things to be done and commitments to be fulfilled. This is why you find believers dedicating part of or the whole month of January to prayer and fasting to get strength to handle the package well.
This package for the year is unwrapped gradually as minutes, weeks and months go by. As one local musician said “zuva ne zuva rinezvaro” (each day has its own things). All these things mentioned above are sure to come.
What is important is our response to these things. Do we allow failures or setbacks to break us and discourage us from moving on or do hurdles make us more determined to succeed?
Do we celebrate success in ways that take us backwards? Celebrating success is good because it spurs us on but we should know when and where to draw the line.
Dear reader, let me throw a word of caution and say, it is very important to know when to stop be it eating, drinking, partying and many more. As our elders said “kangoma kakanyanyoririsa kanotsemuka,” which means overdoing something has disastrous results.
I think it is important in life to set standards that define your boundaries in season and out of season. This issue of standards, however, brings me back to the issue of your identity. Knowing who you are and whose you are helps to shape the way you respond to the ‘pressures and pleasures’ of this world.
I believe as one preacher said, pressures come so you can get promotion. The idea therefore is to handle challenges gracefully without complaining. As Joel Osteen says things happen for you and not to you. You should emerge a victor and not a victim. I like the lyrics of one song of yesteryear that says “the higher you build your barriers the taller I become . . . something inside so strong.”
I find the way the Biblical King Hezekiah dealt with the threat from Sannacherib King of Assyria very encouraging that is recorded in the Book of II Chronicles Chapter 32. When Hezekiah realised that Jerusalem was under threat from Sannacherib he was not immobilised by the imminent danger and wallow in self-pity.
He took up the challenge and did something about it. He blocked water from springs and streams outside the city, repaired broken sections of the wall and build towers on it.
He built another outer wall and reinforced the supporting terraces of the City of David. He made a number of weapons and shields and appointed military officers over his people.
He did not end there but he assembled the people and gave them a message of encouragement. Then Hezekiah together with the Prophet Isaiah cried out to God about the danger and the verbal insults they endured at the hands of the Assyrians.
Why am I quoting this whole text you may ask? Well, I am doing this to tell the story of how positive response to situations can make us victors and not victims. Usually adversity puts us under siege and as a result we become isolated. It is therefore a time for self-evaluation to identify weak areas that need reinforcing, building or repairing.
You need to know what to look out for. Know what action to take that makes you better equipped to keep threats at bay. If it is at work, for example, then acquire that new skill, change your attitude or use a different approach from what you have always used.
What you need to do is to identity that which constitutes the outer wall or the supporting terraces to strengthen your defence. Hezekiah did not spend time mourning about his situation and returning the verbal insults from the Assyrians, which tends to come natural to us. The normal reaction when we are being attacked is to hit back.
All this, however, is a waste of time as the Shona adage says “kupedzera matombo mumasawara hanga dziripo.” There are times in a battle when you have to keep your head down away from the firing line.
Difficult times should make us innovative. Some commentaries say that Hezekiah blocked the springs and streams outside the city and channelled the water into the city through an underground pipe.
Dear reader, you may ask how this applies to you. Well, I would like to encourage you to identity those things that give your enemies ground or things to feast on and close them off. You may need to redirect your energies, resources and time to things that bring value to your life. As alluded to earlier on, the year has other good things that are coming your way therefore we need to prepare ourselves to handle these.
The year could bring promotions, broaden horizons and give us windfalls. Thus we need to build capacity to receive these things in ways that enhance our lives and those of others.
If we receive these with pride we are bound to boast and forget the grace from above as well as all those people who have helped to make it possible. We also need the discipline to handle these good things with dignity. There are people who fail to contain excitement such that they end up worse off than they were.
Apart from the tangibles that we are bound to receive in the year we will also be uplifted in our relationships and enhanced in character and wisdom. Therefore in expectancy let us enlarge our territories, stretch our tents and strengthen our cords in all the dimensions of life – physical, spiritual, mental and social.
Above all do not stop crying out to your Maker for he has it all lined up for you.
Online Reporter