Reformation Report

Changing Culture

Changing our individual or family culture is one of the most difficult challenges we face as human beings. But it’s even harder to reform a national culture. We are witnessing this first hand in Zimbabwe, where a survival mentality has crept its way into our economic culture. In survival mode it seems as if anything goes and morality becomes relative.

 

Corruption amongst Zimbabweans has become so common that it is almost considered acceptable. When a parallel underground money market emerged where people illegally traded foreign currency, precious metals, stones and minerals, food or anything anyone could get their hands on, the rot affected nearly everyone as most trading took place outside of the so called legal sphere. The proper system had decayed to such an extent that food was being sold from the trunks of cars and in traders backyards while the stores were virtually empty. Everyone seemed to accept the new way of doing business. People hoarded whatever they could find, even if they had no need for it at that particular time.

 

This began to fuel hyper-inflation, leading people to live from hand to mouth, as planning for the future became a futile process. Prices changed daily or hourly and most people were surviving by dealing in currency or trading.  Like the proverbial frog who boiled to death in the ever warming water, a whole nation got used to the idea of surviving by any means. Zimbabwe’s currency lost its value and was eventually printing one hundred trillion dollar notes that weren’t even worth the paper they were printed on. The note shown below ($100 billion dollars) couldn’t even purchase a bus ride when the currency had fallen to its lowest levels. 

                                

It was common to queue at a bank for several hours of each and every day for money which could not even buy a loaf of bread. This had been unheard of in Zimbabwe but people soon became accustomed to it, it became our culture; it became normal.

Recently there has been a national policy review, the nation has adopted the US dollar as its currency and people are trying to return to a normal economy. Businesses now have to operate with budgets, that reflect real incomes and expenditures, families have to budget their finances according to what they actually earn and resources have to be managed at a personal and national level. Adjusting to this ‘new way’ of living is hard for people, because it means having to change their attitude towards money.  To trust the system, trust banks to keep our money, and to believe in the value of money is not easy. Businesses are forced to account for their activities using conventional means, which is foreign to most. Overcoming the fear of ‘not having enough’ and believing that there will be food in the shops tomorrow is challenging. It’s not easy to get rid of a “lack” and “corruption” culture. In some areas of our society the corruption is so deeply rooted that it may take generations for it to be eradicated.

 

If the people of Zimbabwe have learned anything, they understand; it’s easier to start a culture than to stop one. Corruption came to Zimbabwe almost effortlessly, but today, stopping the culture of corruption that has sprung up will require great effort on the part of everyone, because to some extent it has become part of life for all Zimbabweans. Once corruption and fear take root in society, it will take a fearless and brave generation to reverse the misfortunes of a culture of corruption.

 

 

 

Justice

 

In Zimbabwe there is a unity government between two parties that have a history of horrific political crimes perpetrated against each other. Some innocent citizens lost their lives, some their property and others are now disabled for life. As we move towards rebuilding our nation the question arises. Does forgiveness and redemption replace justice? What do you think?

Harvest Fields beyond your gates

Government’s at times fall into what political scientists call ‘the founding father syndrome.’ In many African nations, decades after independence, often the founding fathers are still talking of fighting a revolution, and in fact are still fighting a battle that they won decades earlier. In the case of  Zimbabwe the country I have chosen to serve in it has been twenty-nine years. They had a vision to see their country liberated and they poured all their energy into their struggle. They locked on to it so much that they could not see anything else. They held on to it and refused to let go of their belief and vision, even when the enemy they were fighting had long since surrendered. If there was no enemy, they invented one to suit the purposes of their vision. That is at a national level, but it is also applicable at an individual level, where we can be so totally locked on to our jobs or our children, that we cannot see beyond that initial life ‘vision’ we held.

We may become like Elisha’s servant in 2 Kings 6 verse 15, who could only see the Syrian army that was encamped around them, and did not see God’s chariots of fire, until Elisha prayed to God to open his eyes. When we find that we as individuals or a nation are locked onto this narrow pattern of thought, we need to renew our minds or in the case of the nation, renew our collective mind. This process always starts one person at a time.  As we ask God to ‘open our eyes’ we will learn to think outside the box which is outside our current reality.  This enables us to catch and develop the multitude of possibilities flowing toward us at any given point in time. With new ideas comes new life. As we learn to paint new vivid pictures of the reality that we want, we replace the negative picture of the limiting past or those of the current reality we find ourselves in.

 

The circumstances we face can sometimes overwhelm us, conditioning us into a ‘silo mentality’ where we are blinded from seeing further than the walls surrounding us. When we find ourselves inundated by the demands of life, we need to open our eyes to see the harvest fields God has set for us beyond the gates of our house, our business, our city or our nation. Constant awareness of the opportunities that are before us require us to constantly be setting and resetting our vision. If the vision that we pursued has been attained we need to find a new vision. We need to go from glory to glory, and from strength to strength. If we keep doing the same things and expecting different results, we are deceived and we will keep fighting the same war over and over again.

 

What is your current vision? Does it energize you, is it bigger than you think is possible, are you visualizing and verbalizing it, declaring it as established, before it even is? If you are, then you will be powerfully positioned to see, seize and make use of every important opportunity and opening that lies within your vision.