May 1 , 2008

Ekong isi-maagha urim (A total annihilation is seldom the result of warfare).

It is possible to see today’s saying in the context of the crude implements of war that was a part of the Annang past and to conclude that modern sophisticated weaponry has rendered this aphorism obsolete. What our forebears were interested in communicating, however, is that as dangerous and violent as warfare is, it is possible to survive and live to tell the story of a battle. We may live in a world of danger and uncertainty, but others had gone through similar situations and had survived. No human situation and experience are too severe to affect the survival of the human spirit. The capacity to adapt in the face of extreme condition is a great human survival technique that has served many for generations. Yet the anxiety that we often express about the future makes very little use of this knowledge. Warfare, tragedy, hardships and related stories are to be managed and understood and not feared. For life and living to continue during hard times, require a tactfulness that takes current knowledge into consideration. It involves making a determination that one must continue not because of, but in spite of.
A few years ago, I served as a pastor of a mid size Methodist congregation in the northwest part of the United States. On a home visit one day to a middle age woman she told me of a diagnosis given to her by a doctor some fourteen years earlier. She told me that the doctor only gave her six months to live but that when she left the doctor’s office she thought about her children and became determined that she must live to see her daughter graduate from college. With such determination she gave her life focus and a purpose. That purpose, she said, was what kept her alive and gave her the energy to get up every morning. She said she lived not for her illness but for her daughter. For this reason, the writer of the second part of the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament reminded his readers that those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagle. There is nothing that provides strength more than having a purpose to live for.

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