Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, in his book, Things Fall Apart, charts one mans journey from village hero and strongman to criminal, against a backdrop of family feuds, colonial advancement and Igbo spiritual practices.
The books title comes from a poem by William Butler Yeats: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. – (The Second Coming)
The poem, and Achebes book, deal with how things unravel when the centre can no longer hold it all together. For Achebes main character, Okonkwo, life spirals out of control when his circumstances change, and in the space of a few years he loses everything. Whatever we centre our lives around will determine the direction of our future.
If we choose to believe that having financial security will fulfil us, things will fall apart if our circumstances change; if we hold tightly to our possessions, we will suffer a great blow if we lose them and if we barricade ourselves in our homes and always fear the worst, true joy and peace will be impossible.
Finding freedom and fulfilment in our lives cannot depend on what happens in the political realm, how the economy improves or whether there is enough money for the month; it comes from the belief that in Christ all things hold together (Colossians 1:18).
Yeats goes on to say that, The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. One only needs to watch the news to see the passionate intensity of men and women with a misguided sense of what is important. The violence, intimidation and indoctrination that is rife in Zimbabwe is evidence of how things are falling apart in our nation. The centre of our government cannot hold; the centre of Western power cannot hold and the centre of international decision making bodies cannot hold. We need to have something more constant to put our trust in.
In The Message translation of Colossians it talks about how everything finds its perfect place in God because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. 18-20He was supreme in the beginning andleading the resurrection paradehe is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universepeople and things, animals and atomsget properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
Jesus death on the cross means that we have security in our identity as sons and daughters of the living God. He is the centre that can hold everything together; a rock that cannot be shaken and a God who is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Post published in: Opinions