“That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (Mark 4:35-41) (NIV).
In one of His expositions, the Great Teacher revealed what remains unbelievable to most people, even today. There is nothing peculiar with the miracle of Jesus, as revealed in the above Scripture. This is why He asked His terrified disciples, two simple questions: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The disciples were supposed to have been different from ordinary people. There is no problem that cannot be solved in this world. All answers are found in each individual.
To understand Jesus, we have to believe that He represents an ideal person of God’s image. This universe is sustained by two factors: “Cause and Effect.” What anyone reads, would have been caused by the writer. Without the writer having produced it, no-one would view it. The writer would be the cause, in this instance. The written material would be the effect, which turns out to be the cause to the reader who would be the effect on its content.
One becomes the effect of what is contained in written material, which could be either positive or negative. This is why it is always necessary to carefully select types of material to read. One becomes the bad effect of the bad material or good effect of the good material. If the written material causes one to kill another person, the author would have caused it. But the written material caused the killer who then caused the murder. The effect downstream represents the chain, originally caused by the writer, who would have not, necessarily, committed the murder.
The mechanism works as follows: Idol worship, when prevailing, would have been caused by the first person to practice it. This goes back to Adam and Eve, the original authors of that deception. However, Jesus has come to be the cause, in correcting the wrong information. Jesus is the cause, to those bringing His teachings. But, such people are effects, who turn out to be the cause to those listening, downstream.
The fear displayed by His disciples, during that stormy sea, had its source, which was the cause. Jesus sought to break the chain of wrong information. He caused the squall to calm down. But something had caused the stimulation of the squall. In our own environments, we face similar situations, which we ignore, due to lack of faith, according to Jesus. The most important datum is that whatever caused the squall to be the effect, Jesus caused the same squall to stop.
Interestingly, if one complains, or does something unusual, as caused on him, that person becomes effect, like the squall. Principally, the person causing one to be angry is superior. The fact that it is the other person’s fault that made him angry, confirms the other person’s superiority. A normal person visiting the insane, in a mental health-care hospital would, naturally, not be angered by any of those mental patients. He understands them to be sick and needing help.
However, if he gets disturbed as to behave like them, he would also be in need of help—being sick as well. Whoever the insane person causing the visitor to behave abnormally, would be superior to the visitor. The law of cause and effect makes one causing things to behave in a particular way, superior. Having visited the insane, but becoming effect, the visitor would be sickly, as to also need help. Humans were created to be the cause over everything:
“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26-27).
When Jesus said: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” He was, basically, saying this with Genesis 1:26-27 in His mind. If those people understood this Scripture and applied it, why could they have been afraid? The rebuke that Jesus effected against those winds caused calmness. Jesus was the cause so that the winds become the effect. The power of cause, inherent in Jesus, caused the winds and the waves to stop.
Naturally, women scream, or close eyes using hands, in the face of danger. That would be a display of desperation, typical of those not aware that they were created with power to solve problems. Doing anything else, other than solving problems, is a sign of aberration, reducing a person to irrationality. That person is the effect, rather than causative. He assigns his causative abilities to what he then succumbs to.
Zimbabwe is currently graced with about fifteen or sixteen million citizens. However, those people assigned their causative nature to one of their own, Robert Mugabe, now replaced by ED. But how possible could a mere man, ruin the entire country, while fifteen million people watch, helplessly? This reveals how true the datum that whatever one puts the blame on is senior. ED’s power lies in being blamed for everything wrong. The fifteen million people make him cause, and themselves effect. This is irrational. How can one person do that, against fifteen million people? Obviously, something appears not right and needs correction.
Another important datum is that all failure is preceded with excuses. There is always an excuse for every failure. Whatever failure conjured under the sun; there would be an excuse justifying it. It could be lack of education, poverty, age or anything. There is no failure without justification, in this world. The last degree at which a person fails is death. The opposite of failure leads to survival, which is the aim of every individual.
The most comical aspect of being effect is where Zimbabwean leaders become emotional about imposed sanctions. This being a clear declaration by those calling themselves revolutionaries, that Europeans are superior to them. I wonder how those whites feel. But I suppose they feel sorry for those displaying such stupidity. Imagine having fought, losing life and limb, seeking to gain access to managing own resources. Only to then be found squealing for the same whites to come back and help them out of self-imposed misery.
Worse still, the so-called sanctions are said to be punishment for butchering their own people. Considering that they appear as seeking friendship with the same whites they fought against, to gain independence. Unashamedly, they continue to call themselves revolutionaries, yet on bended knees begging for rescue, by those whites. This has got nothing to do with the skin-color. It all emanates from the inability to appreciate being cause. As long as the blacks are effect, they would be subjugated by those who remain to be cause over them.
The more those blacks continue to advance conspiracy theories against whites, the more they remain in that condition for ever. Those assumed to have subjected them to poverty remain superior. The more the blacks hate those whites, the more they sink deeper into poverty. This is one of those natural laws, as workable as gravity. Some whites also go as far as believing that whites are more intelligent than blacks. There is no truth in that, as everything revolves around the inability to avoid being effect and becoming cause.
Such irrationality starts with the stupidity of assuming that being appointed a leader makes one wiser than everyone else. The common man believes it, as also assuming that to be truthful data. That kind of thinking causes the leader to be an introvert. He seeks to acquire close supporters who then help him sustain that fallacy. Rather than putting the blame on ED, those giving him that feeling of superiority are more to blame.
Nevertheless, the blame of what prevails should be shared equally, among the citizens. Including those white Zimbabweans, having left to settle elsewhere, because of the prevailing appalling black leadership. Such whites should also be regarded as being effects, rather than being the cause. Bear in mind that being caused to do anything, without your self-determinism, makes you be the effect. A human being was created to be the cause to his environment.
Considering your own skin-color as to be of significance is itself, introversion. A human being was created in God’s image, so as not to be identified by skin-color. He was created to be the cause, over his environment. Humans have got the power, even to convert a desert into blossoming green pastures. There is nothing impossible with humans, created in God’s image.
All answers lie in the realization that one was created to solve problems in the environment. There is no need to worry about what one was not created to be, except doing what one was created to be. There is no need to envy another person’s talent, except encouraging another person and concentrating on one’s own talent.
Answers to the problems of African people assumed to be less privileged, lie in the realization of being each other’s keeper. Instead of constantly desiring benefits, Africans should seek to benefit others. Each individual ought to answer the question as to how others could benefit as a result of his existence. When benefiting others, one becomes the cause. However, when desiring to benefit as a result of the existence of others, one becomes an effect.
Those who constantly complain of poverty in their midst, are effect, where poverty would be the cause. They would be elevating poverty, instead of elevating themselves to become the cause in their environment. The admirers of Jesus, whom He castigated for having no faith, were the effects. They did not understand that they were created to be the cause over the environment. Jesus, actually, told His disciples that, with faith, they could, actually, do greater things than He did:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:12-13) (NIV).
The stupidity of idol worshiping is in that the worshipers become effects. This made the idols to be more powerful, even though such things were just dumb objects. In other words, such dump idols were the cause, even though they could not do anything. The people, created in God’s image were effects on such things. Obviously, no-one could be expected to solve any problems, under such circumstances. When experiencing draughts, those idolaters even sacrificed their own children to the altars, as a means to appease those gods.
This is different from those thinking in terms of how problems could be solved in their environment. Amazingly, God has always been the target of blame for all problems of humanity. Jesus said that it is a lack of faith that causes failure. This emanates from not knowing the meaning of faith, which they interpret as meaning being more of the effect. Rather than being the cause, in their environments.
Faith means believing in what Jesus said, with the understanding that it leads to the capabilities of Jesus, and avoiding superstition. Those believing in miracles, rather than understanding what being created in God’s image means, are superstitious people. They are effects, where their superstitious condition would be the cause. Each individual ought to understand being cause rather than effect, so as to effect changes in their respective environments.
Andrew Masuku is the author of Dimensions of a New Civilization, laying down standards for uplifting Zimbabwe from the current state of economic depression into a model for other nations worldwide. A decaying tree provides an opportunity for a blossoming sprout. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is a product of inspiration, bringing relief to those having witnessed the strings of unworkable solutions––leading to the current economic and social decay. In a simple conversational tone, most Zimbabweans should find the book as a long-awaited providential oasis of hope.
The Print copy is now available at Amazon.com for $13.99
Also available as an e-copy at Lulu.com for $6.99
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