Commentary

Ghana needs to seek divine intervention on governance

By Raymond Tuvi

A popular line by King Claudius in William Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Hamlet, says, “When sorrows come, they come not as single spies, but in battalions.” Since the outbreak of the earth-shaking COVID-19 a couple of years ago, it has become evident that problems and sorrows of global dimensions have come to see our world as a happy playground for regular visitation. Yet, just as it was emerging sluggishly from the debilitating health and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the entire world has once again been pinned into global food and supply chain challenges caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine some two months ago.

As never before in decades, individuals and families are lamenting uncommon economic challenges. This is indicated by high rates of unemployment, hyper-inflation in food,fuel, transport and other costs, while wages and salaries stagnate and are now on the verge of depreciation. But now, global tensions sparked by the world’s latest war have been hiked to the possibility of nuclear confrontation with consequential conflagration. This follows the recent Russian diplomatic note warning the U.S. and her allies that their arming of Ukraine with sophisticated weapons could bring “unpredictable consequences”.

But this is where an indication by Prof. Bill Puplampu, Vice-Chancellor of the Central University at a recent event in Accra about a powerful and yet not well appreciated factor in resolving such seemingly insurmountable problems is worth noting. He said he is “a Psychologist and also a minister of the Gospel; but it seems when it comes to such challenges, we are missing something in our approach,which is in reference to God’s injunction to call on Him in times of trouble. Desiderata, the famous prose poem penned in 1927 by American Lawyer and writer Max Ehrmann, opens with the injunction, “Go placidly amid the noise and the haste”; its closing lines also admonish the reader to “Be at peace with God” no matter the situation. The continued popularity of Desiderata across faiths, cultures and generations since its first publication conveys a message that God remains Sovereign and Ruler in the affairs of men. In other words, God never leaves nor forsakes the works of His Creation entirely to their own devices.

Christians have recently celebrated Easter, which commemorates the death, burial and Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the most seminal historical event of the Faith. The Faith has thrived and been handed down through the ages, in spite of persecutions of varying intensity since the earliest times. The sacrifices of believers have been accompanied by miracles, signs and wonders that have contributed to the spread of “the Gospel of Christ [which] is the power of God unto Salvation to everyone who believes.” This witness of the Faith, its propagation and relentless spread over geography and history is a material manifestation of “the great cloud of witnesses” that surrounds believers in the spiritual and heavenly realms. Thus, God continues the work of Salvation through these witnesses cheering believers on to run with perseverance and finish the race of faith God has set before each of us. Some, however, point to a decline in individual or group religious activity in many countries of the Northern Hemisphere as a failure of Faith.

It is a position that is sadly not helped by a host of factors including church buildings being decommissioned and converted into shops, bars and even night clubs. Down in the Southern Hemisphere – in Africa, especially – the reverse is pronounced, where the church is seeing greater expansion, the attack on faith is being fueled by the jaw-dropping activities of some charlatans, sorcerers and comic acts clothed in clerical costumes. But a denial or denigration of a fact does not negate its existence. Those who may want to discount the Power of God’s Word on account of religious hypocrisy of others would remember that false prophets existed in biblical times and are predicted to become even more prolific in the “Last Days”. A relevant symbolism here is that a knife in the hands of a criminal may cause harm; while in the hands of a surgeon, brings health and healing.

This analogy applies to the Word of God also. Its essence and substance are undiminished by who uses or abuses it and how. That Word charges those who seek God and the manifestation of His unfailing promises in their lives “to walk by faith and not by sight”, having established from time immemorial that, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” But the crucial question in these times of global trial and turmoil – as posed in Luke 18:8b – when God’s Grace and Mercy, best drawn by faith, are most needed, is, “…However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” Let us do well to exercise our faith in God to be all He’s called us to be for ourselves, our nation and the world to His Greater Glory.