Mankind has proven that he can do many things.
He can erect structures high up into the clouds, or dig miles beneath the earth’s surface to extract whatever it is he wants to extract down there.
He can make metal float on water, or fly in the air. He can damage and destroy the earth’s physical, economic resources, and, most importantly, its human resources, or he can, conversely, preserve and enhance those resources and humanity.
He can cure diseases and extend life, or he can cause diseases and end life.
He can forecast the weather. And he can walk on the Moon, and observe objects and activities light years away in the universe.
He can wield influence over men and nations, and accumulate great wealth and power for himself. He can debase and subjugate people, or he can elevate and dignify them. He can be respectful and humane, or he can be disrespectful and cruel.
He can seek and serve justice, or, if he so chooses, he can perpetrate injustice. He can be pompous and dishonest, or he can be humble and, even in his sinfulness, try to be sincere and true. He can be God-fearing or he can be an atheist. He can even believe that he is God.
And he can do a lot of other things.
But what he cannot do is to stop time, or turn it back.
And being myself at a point in my life when I’m closer to the tomb than I am to the womb, and when I have a more humbling and realistic appreciation of human frailty and mortality, so too do I have a greater appreciation of time, of man’s absolute inability to stop it, and of the need to make positive and productive use of it.
And as an older person, I regret not having had this better appreciation of time when I was younger. But I can’t do anything about that. All I can, and I believe, should, do is to try to ensure that I have a healthy, happy, loving, decent, honest, respectful, humble, humane, Christian approach to life for the time remaining to me by God’s grace.
George Bernard Shaw, the British playwright and social activist is quoted as saying that youth is wasted on the young. By that, he meant that while we’re young, we’re full of energy but somewhat short in the judgment department, and that it’s only when we get older, and have less energy, that we are able, generally, to develop better judgment.
Of course, Shaw only came to that observation when he was no longer a young man, as happens in most cases. But does it need to be that way?
While youthful exuberance is natural and healthy, and while it’s always great to have a youthful, exuberant outlook on life, wouldn’t it be wonderful if, at an early age, and as a matter of the highest priority, we’re able to acquire a better understanding and appreciation of life, in all of its stages, in health and in sickness, in lifestyle practices, in relationships with other persons and with our God, in its finiteness of life, and in all of its other aspects?
Wouldn’t all of that give us a completeness and fulfillment which we so sadly lack?
So why don’t we begin taking steps to ensure that from an early stage, Kittitians and Nevisians are set on the right path to acquire a proper appreciation of the values, the responsibilities, the moral and ethical principles, the joy and beauty, the sanctity, and the dignity and meaning of life?
I call on our churches, our teachers, our parents and guardians, our leaders in all spheres of human activity, and all of us, to reflect and to act upon these things.
Look at how we’re living. We’re selfish and intolerant, yet we want others to give of themselves and to put up with us; we’re hostile and hateful, but we insist on others being agreeable and pliable; we’re extremely materialistic and in the moment, yet we accuse others of being greedy; we’re disrespectful, yet we insist on being respected; we’re divisiveness and disunited, yet we call for regional unity; we know so little, yet we know it all; and so on.
Our spiritual, ethical and moral fibre has become tattered and shredded, with the result that we’re easily walked over and abused. Look at us!
We’ve mistaken man for God, and man has now begun to act like God. And we transfer the fear that we ought to have for God to the man who is now our God.
So what are we living for? Who are we living for? What kind of lives are we living? What legacy do we leave for our descendants and future generations after we’ve gone? And how will we account to the real God when the time comes for us to do so?
What will we want our children and grandchildren to think and say? And how will we want God to judge us?
His sent His Son to this earth to be crucified so that we might be saved. And what are we doing to save ourselves spiritually and otherwise, and to save our land and our patrimony?
Which brings me back to the crux of the matter: time. It’s running out for me and for you. What are you going to do? Remember, you can’t do anything after time has run out for you.
And don’t tell me that you’re going to wait on God , because He wants you to live and to be active and proactive, not for you to just sit back and make excuses about you waiting for Him to do what He has to do.
It’s not He who has to do it, it’s we! He shows us the way to righteousness, both here and hereafter. We have to do the rest!
And it is time for a real revolution in this land. A revolution of the spirit, of dignity, of pride, of honor, of patriotism, of true brotherly and sisterly love and kindness, and of respect. A revolution of life and living. A revolution of action over resigned inertia, submissiveness and capitulation to the forces of wrong, both earthly or spiritual.
And if in carrying out the revolution, some tears are shed, then to God be the glory.
It’s time.
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