Aim higher in 2017
Well, 2016 is behind us. I reckon we must move on regardless of the baggage we may have crossed over into the New Year with from last year that may or will surely be pulling us behind. What is important, I think, is that we get focused and develop a thick skin and a plan that will give us resilience and weather the storm so that we can do better and aim higher in the New Year.
As I said in my last posting here, 2016 has been a difficult year from many fronts. But that will and should not pull you and me down. That is my first resolution—to raise the bar higher in whatever we engage in 2017 even if that means stepping on other people’s toes for the larger good.
I for one certainly did not do well in 2017 in many ways. ‘‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’’ (Romans 3:23). First to please the Almighty who is the provider of the life that I enjoy. The fact that I am still around does not mean I am better than those who have departed from this world. And the fact that I can make some noises here gives me reason enough to smile and celebrate and look at the future positively.
I seek forgiveness from those I stepped on their toes just as I will also certainly and unconditionally forgive all those who tried to make my life difficult for their selfish reasons.
What scares me though, with the passing of 2016 and the coming of the New Year, whether I like it or not, is that I have moved a year closer to my Creator.
But as a proud Christian I am comforted that there is always Him above who watches over me and has oversight over everything including those things I cannot comprehend.
So we, or I, must move on, and in that regard, my second resolution is to make the most (in a good way) of what is left out of the many years He has generously and graciously granted me on earth despite my many iniquities and shortfalls.
As a sojourner on this earth and a patriotic Malawian my first conviction and pledge is to do all I can to my country, Malawi, to make it a better place to live in even if in a small way, and in the best way I can. In this regard, I promise to spare no one in the New Year with regard to issues that give this beautiful country a bad name and make many suffer. The malfeasance, the looting of government resources and Cashgates of all manner, which Malawi is infamously known for, will in the New Year form the folder of my writing here and elsewhere. That is my third resolution.
Malawi would have been a country where milk and honey should have been flowing day and night and in all directions if only some selfish idiots especially in the higher echelons of society did not make it a habit of harvesting where they did not sow. To this end, year in year out, they have been arrogating to themselves a third of the country’s national resources through corruption and fraud. Money that would have built many hospitals, schools, roads, bought drugs, and saved many lives, put an end to the perpetual power outages, to mention but a few of the many things that your and my money which government collects could have done to better this country. In the New Year, I will not look at anybody’s face to name and shame wrong doers or you if you have been or will be the cause of other people’s misery and the country’s woes. I just feel duty bound to do the needful, and that means aiming higher and demanding the best from duty bearers. And that is my fourth resolution.
In the year past I have been rather timid, so to speak, and too soft to expose the rot especially in higher offices but not in 2017. In the New Year, I feel so jerked up and quite invigorated to fight for Mother Malawi. Fight, fight and fight until I shed the last drop of blood. Don’t dismiss me in your usual haste that I am high on something. Just energy, and a lot of it, oozing out of my nerves, to take aim at those who love to see others suffer. And so may He grant me more days and more energy in the New Year, to help me fulfil my wishes. n
