God has a Plan for us: To Discover Him
COVID-19 taught us, inter alia, that we should discover God in every breath we take in and out. The struggle for oxygen at the hospitals and the huge amounts paid to receive oxygen proved that, if we can still breathe, let us thank God. There is no life without breath. All the living should praise God for the gift of life and appreciate the sanctity of life.
Paul made a resounding pronouncement in Athens that God is the giver of "life and breath", and proceeded to say, "and everything else". He could have just said, God is the giver of everything. But he singled out "life and breath" to prove the importance thereof. Paul used the word pneuma, which the Stoic Philosophers knew well to mean both breath as in a breath of air (literal sense) or divine breath of inspiration (figurative sense) on one hand, and life, spirit, and vitality, on the other hand. This expression found its basis from Genesis 2:7(NIV), "Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Hence, Paul averred that in the Lord who is the giver of life and breath, "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
The UPCSA mission focuses, inter alia, on "building vital, reforming congregations for worship, ministry, and discipleship". Vitality is God's plan for creation. Every human and non-human being has a right to vitality (life). Every congregation should therefore promote the right-to-life attitude. Every being must discover and encounter the life-giving God, as they worship in a UPCSA congregation. Empowered by the vitality of that worship, they should continue, throughout the week, to make meaningful contribution in their homes, schools, societies, workplaces, as they promote life-affirming processes. As in doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), they should breathe new life into those who have given up, to the oppressed, the impoverished and the marginalised. They should call for the removal of every knee from every person's neck and allow every being to breathe freely and have life.
It was in imvuselelo/tsoseletso, (the revival services) that many of us came to know God. Faith has diminished; spirituality is at its lowest; racial, gender and economic injustices and inequalities continue unabated; corruption is rampant; human trafficking is alarming; and COVID-19 has dampened the spirits of many. Let us go back to imvuselelo zoMoya (spiritual revival services), so that many can rediscover God and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, have respect for umntu (human being), knowing that umntu ngumntu ngabantu.(A person is a person through or because of other people)
| And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. (Acts17:25) |
Lungile Mpetsheni is the General Secretary of the UPCSA. He is married to Thandiswa.
