The road to maturity is not easy. Within our traditional culture, and especially when it came to men, the process begun with circumcision. The idea was to impute into the young man the mark of growth and development. It was to make a statement so loud and painful that one would never forget to act accordingly. In fact even today in my village, when a man acts in a childish way, he is castigated by his peers, “Wacha utoto.” The process finally took a final stand after one was allowed to sit among the elders and judge others. In many cultures, only those qualified were allowed to drink from the same Jar with the elders. Then as the hair thinned and the man became bald, the young would step aside as the “mzee” passed by.
Every position and stage in our lives requires this becoming. It is that which declares in life that we are worth listening to. St Paul argued with the issue of maturity and sometimes got angry. At one time he shouted at Peter telling him to grow up. Peter needed to decide whether the Christian faith was equally for the Gentiles and the Jews. He needed to capture the spirit of the Christ and the New Covenant. In this new covenant there were neither Jews nor Gentiles and the issue of Circumcision as a qualification for faith had been muted by the Cross. Peter needed to grow out of the Jewish tradition. Therefore Paul rebuked him. (Galatians 2:11)
In the book of Hebrews, Paul tells the believers to leave the fundamentals and get involved in real doctrine: “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.” (Hebrews 6:1)
During the recent prayer breakfast, Uhuru Kenyatta stood at the “pulpit” and spoke words which showed that finally he has become a statesman. In his words, the president said that if prayer breakfast was just a ritual, then, “God have mercy on us.” He said these words, refusing to address anything else but one thing: talk is cheap. His argument goes hand in hand with a man who has realized that positions of power are not for drama but for action. The Kenyan Media missed it, but as a believer, it was obvious!
For this, I finally saw Uhuru, not as his father’s son, but as Kenya’s president: and am glad.
Teddy Njoroge Kamau (PhD) HTBluff Associates. An EMG Consortium. Diaspora Messenger
See.
Columnisthttp://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/watch/2000093427/-president-uhuru-kenyatta-urges-tolerance-among-political-leaders
