Contact without Contamination

Nigeria is 48 and that’s something to be grateful to God for. For a country that has such a diverse ethnicity, its nothing less than a miracle that it has remained a single entity for such a long time (with the kind of leadership we have had and our general lack of vision). Why (you may wonder) am I saying this? Without vision a people will run riot, misbehave and just about do anything they like. Without any sense of direction, a group of people will ultimately run themselves and whatever resources they have aground. But enough said about our present situation, just like someone I met recently said, even a donkey on the streets can analyze the problems of this country so I won’t begin to chronicle the many challenges of Nigeria and how we should be truly the giant of Africa in deed and not in word. What I want to do is to get you to think of a way forward.

It’s been my observation that the church has been too quiet over the years, not recognizing the potential it has in transforming the society it finds itself in. And that’s why I was so impressed when I heard of the various initiatives by some of my brothers, members of the family of God, who organized two events that I believe were geared at making an impact on our national life as a nation. One was a rally that was focused on engendering patriotism and a sense of national unity. The second was a meeting that focused on entrepreneurship as a tool for national economical development. It is with a sigh of relief that I say finally it seems we are beginning to see our role in society.

Finally the body of Christ is seeing that we need to be involved to get any lasting change in this country. We can’t just poke one long pole at the problems and think we can solve them. Salt cannot expect to preserve anything if it does not come in contact with it, or can it? Even God had to experience the things we go through so that He can help us properly (Hebrews ). I mean it is completely impossible to think we can get to extricate ourselves from the society we live in and expect that things would just get better. We must take responsibility for the good of our communities. Or why has God left you on the earth after making you His child? However with this involvement comes one of the greatest challenges we can ever have, contamination.

The fear of the children of God in Nigeria over the years has been that if I mixed and mingled with them, won’t I eventually become like them? We’ve misunderstood God’s word where He tells us to come out from among them and be separate and because of that we refuse to participate in anything and eventually we become “heavenly conscious and earthly irrelevant” (12 o’clock Christians as someone put it).

So how can we be effective change agents without losing our Christ-like flavour? We can take a cue from someone who has some experience. Daniel was a young man who had been forcefully and unexpectedly moved into a new society and was expected to learn new values and lifestyles. Here he was exposed to all kinds of influences that were foreign to him. I believe Daniel’s secret can be found in the fact that he had another influence stronger than the external. If a child of God will really make any impact he must come with something different from what everyone is experiencing. Did you observe that Daniel’s diet was different from that of the others? Is it any wonder that he stood out? Daniel was able to live in that kind of society simply because he was connected to a Source different from what all the others were and if we will stand out in this age, as solution providers and change agents, we need to be connected to another Source.

So what is the solution to avoiding contamination? It’s a vibrant relationship with God. It’s a very clear principle in nature that once there’s space, it’s just a matter of time; it will be filled with something. So if there’s an empty can on the side of the road, in a matter of days, it would be filled with something, if there’s a leadership vacuum and a good leader doesn’t fill it, a bad one will.

So lets get deeply involved in God not just in some daily or weekly religious activities but an active participation in God such that His values rub off on us. Like a Nigerian proverb says, when the leaves have mingled with the soap enough, it eventually becomes soap.