By Odigoma Nkwachukwu
Ndi Abia, as the elections of 2015 are fast approaching, we have to tow the line of thought which says we can achieve transparent and peaceful elections. As we knew, this is the time we as individuals must devise the bud for that transition by putting our cultural, religious and spiritual perspectives that are in tandem with the tenets of the 21st Century humanity, into work.
Chaos and disorder are but human makings. And we can avoid them by seeing them through the mindset that they are but false-impressions. Somebody once said: Tranquility is a choice. So is anxiety. The entire world around us may be in turmoil. But if we want to be peaceful within, WE CAN.
It behooves on all of us to contribute in making our Abia State a divine place instead of hatching ideas that are implicative and not helpful to the growth of our individual selves and the state at large. Another person said: Honest hearts produce honest actions. The more tranquil and humble you become, the greater your success, your influence, and your power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the keys to wisdom and authentic happiness.
There is a great deal that we do not let things slip from our hands and fall apart therefore putting ourselves and the state into a prolonged dungeon and discomfiture, hence we might not achieve a unified aim for the welfare of our state. We need to see purpose and work orderly for ultimate and gracious safety of all and sundry, even though that most times we think that it is not always easy to abide by the dictates of humanism.
The time when people are known for bloody revolution is gone. This is the time for peace and order and love. “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead also.” (James 2:26). The pain after any disorder is immeasurable. It is like the pain a separated couple feels and, like the grief of a family of their loss.
Pain is always real. This is why we must see our state as not something to plunge into troubles, but peace and tranquility. Building our hearts to peace and tranquility are the best experiences on earth. Distracting our hearts from disorder is the best way to find peace and tranquility.
As children of God, we have to see ourselves as very reserved persons in one brotherhood that do not aspire for a breakdown in our collective aspirations. It is absurd that in certain quarters the members see themselves as people who are bigger than our beloved state. They, therefore, bear down the progress and wellbeing of many who look up to the future to expand in growth, size and shape.
As a matter of urgency, we must take time to help our state and eschew distractions, but choose ways of life that would be humanely engaging in more soulful ways. A. W. Tozer warns mankind, saying, peace of heart that is won by refusing to bear the common yoke of human sympathy is a peace unworthy of a Christian. To seek tranquility by stopping our ears to the cries of human pain is to make ourselves not Christian but a kind of degenerate stoic having no relation either to stoicism or Christianity.
If we learnt anything from the above statement, peace, if it is a commodity is one that all people must pursue with great interest. Bickering for 2015 is mindless and less helpful. Although, Sri Guru Granth Sahib has admonished the world in one of his spiritual comments, saying, in intuitive balance, love is balanced and detached. In the state of intuitive balance, peace and tranquility are produced. Without intuitive balance, life is useless.
The essentiality of peace and tranquility were explored by “America and Americans”, in which it was believed thus: We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
For those who may be asking how peace and tranquility can be achieved towards 2015, we must first understand the efficacy of prayers and meditation and put the two into practice by dialoguing with God. Reading the scripture is an integral part of exposing our mental and physical aura towards a greater focus. It is a right way to improve upon our situation and establish a relationship with God and maintain our focus on God and, not brewing troubles. Chaos narrows our problems and multiplies our sorrow. There is need to keep ourselves spiritually accustomed now, not tomorrow.
Father Paul A. Keenan wrote an article in 2003, which suggests: Peace can be ours both when we experience order in our lives and when we do not. We do not, thankfully, have to wait until our lives are all together in order to have peace. We can establish routines of peace in our everyday lives – special prayers, quiet places, favorite books or poems, approachable friends – which give us with peace even in highly stressful times. By creating little pockets of peace for ourselves every day, we assure that peace is never a stranger to us and that we can always find, inside ourselves, a corner of home.
Nkwachukwu is an Aba-based civil engineer