Living life: A Matter of Faith

Alas, this is the day that the lord has come! Easter comes with many a good tiding. Many faithful have completed a 40 day period of fasting which in religious speak is the denial of one of your indulgences of life to demonstrate commitment to your faith. For many it is the traditional meat fast and for some it will be beer, cigarettes, club - name it. For many others it is difficult to reconcile with the idea of a higher being. When we were young, church was inseparable from God, and Sunday was the constant reaffirmation that one was part of the flock. It felt heavenly to be part of mass, sing to the heavens along with the angels, and partake in the body and blood of Christ. For a child, that is the best sense, perhaps, to establishment of moral standards that can outlive the waning of faith as the realities of adulthood hit hard. Talking about Faith, men are interesting species. We are curious beings, wanting to know everything from what life is, where God lives and even where we go after death. At least by this generation, I am confident that there is a lot we do not know about life, this world and what exists in the yonder. Whether we like it or not, we have to have some sort of faith as we try to appreciate what our little brains cannot understand. Take the example of my friend, we will call him James, who as a soldier in the 1994 genocide cannot come to terms with what he saw at a bridge near the border of Rwanda as part of the liberators who eventually stopped the horrendous acts. A young man himself, James could not believe the various shapes and figures of human remains that were being washed down the river which prompted him to wonder – is God in charge of the places where this indiscriminate destruction of lives was taking place? For that reason, James finds it hard to go to church and believes that his issues with his God will be settled between himself and God. Another friend who we will call Athanase has his own different story. He eats, drinks, and sleeps prayers. He is always thankful to God even for the slightest of mercies and is not afraid to say it to anybody whether they want to listen to him or not. The other kinds of people just do not believe in a supernatural being in charge of the things humans cannot control. The common factor among those three is that in times of earthly indulgence, they forget to some extent the defining powers of the supreme and in times of inexplicable hardship, they begin to find direction in God or at worst in witchcraft and the like. It just goes to show that as humans whether we like it or not, we cannot explain life or death, thus the need to have some faith in something. This Easter, some will rejoice the resurrection of Christ, others will feast away their holiday, while others will take it like another ordinary day. At the end of it, we all remain human, and mortal humans in that whether we like it or not have to have faith. I wish you a joyous Easter. kelviod@yahoo.com