I was wondering last night. Have we been selfish and naive as believers in Zimbabwe?
That we would see our economy flounder and fall, becoming the laughing stock of the region as we traded at one time in trillion-dollar denominations, but still have the audacity to pray in numbers, “Lord bless me-give me a great job and career, and even as a 1000 fall by my side, it will not come near me?”
It sounds like faith- like brave faith, but in a nation where 80%+ of the population are believers, will it still be? I mean-the numbers of formal employment are low, and more people still graduate by the day with new qualifications.
Yet, time after time a prayer is called for people to believe in an open door for a good job in the same country where unemployment was once quoted as greater than 90% by some sources. Where are we expecting the jobs and careers to come from? And at whose expense?
Is it still faith, to ask for space on an elevator that you see is already full and beyond its reasonable capacity? Or have we been blind to what we really need to focus our prayers on-the economic revival of our country’s fortunes; a revival that like a wave will carry most of the jobless and underemployed with it into their formal places of employment?
Have we become so self-absorbed, that all that matters is my fate-and everyone around me can suffer because it is not my problem because “I have God?” Is this even the true spirit of Christianity? Because when I look at it this way, it sounds vain, prideful, and self-serving.
These are questions that I think as believers, we need to ask ourselves. Yes, God blesses and takes care of the individual. He sent ravens to give one of His prophets food in a drought-and He is not a respecter of persons.
But if in your economy, there are jobs for 20% of your population; and 80% of you are believers expecting a job and do not want to leave the country the reality is some of us will get very disappointed-at least for a significant amount of time.
More than ever, what our economy needs; and what we, as the salt of the earth, need to be praying and striving for is the restoration and growth of the economy. For investment and innovation to create industries that will be doors of meaningful, dignified livelihoods.
And more than anything, I believe our prayer focus needs to shift there-and away from the ‘me, myself and I type of prayer’.
Selah.