(motivation)

The Divine Connection

Sometimes you must do right to find happiness. Sometimes you must do wrong to
be happy. But along the slippery path of right and wrong we are rewarded for doing
right or wrong in every decision or action, by a greater Force.

The reward for doing right enriches the soul. It gives us a sweet sense of fulfillment.
It frees us from guilt which hitherto barricades our ability to attain our full potential.

The reward for doing wrong, if it suffice to be called a reward, leave marks of
disappointment, pain, worry and an ounce of evil on our mind, body and soul. When
these rewards engulf us we die -- that's according to the book of Romans (Rom.
3:23): 'for the wages of sin is death…’

Even though it is difficult to find happiness by doing right in a world skewed towards
evil; a world where it is easy to paint wrong as right if you know how to state your
case; a world where diversity of culture is a near tangible reason why evil may pass
as good; a world where religion may serve as an enforcer of wrong-doings instead of
an evil preventing mechanism, one thing stands to reason: No matter how God goes
easy on us about what is wrong or right, no matter how states define right or wrong
in their statute books, no matter how society puts a damper on what constitutes
bad behavior, with our practical and fickle minds, we will find a way to do the worse.

But if we look beyond doctrinal, societal and even statutory provisions of what is
evil and what is good, we find that in the midst of our confusion of what constitutes
wrong or right; in our double-edged proclivity to do right in the day and evil at night,
and no matter the world's propensity to cause us to do wrong, we can still find
happiness—perhaps true happiness—by doing right.

Technology has brought the world and its people closer together than it was a
century ago. It is easy now to know what is going on around the world and people's
reaction to these happenings. It is even easy to tell people what you think about
anything, from politics to cooking.

Listen to peoples reaction to a suicide bombing in Iraq or the kidnapping of a little

girl in the U.S who years later becomes the mother of two kids fathered by the
kidnapper, or a Nigerian's reaction to the violence in the Niger Delta and you'll get
the feeling that perhaps people don't want to do wrong after all.

Aristotle discovered centuries ago that we humans love to be among fellow

humans. According to him we won’t function properly if we lived like an island, even
if that island has the perfection of paradise.
But this is a most logical philosophy because we came from one parent—Adam and
Eve. Every one on the face of this earth—Black, White, Chinese, American, Akans,
Ewes, Northerners...etc—we are all connected by one spiritual essence, and we
draw strength from each other.

From the man begging on the street (you find obnoxious) to ex-president Kuffour;
from Dr. Mensa Otabil, Denzel Washington to the kooko seller, Abiiba, to ex-
president Rawlings, Michael Jackson, and to Adolf Hitler; from the prostitute around
the corner to the Dalai Lama or the Parish Priest of the Catholic church you attend,
or the Imam... or pastor of your church, Agnes Ayisi (my JHS classmate you probably
have never heard of before)...we are all networked by the God of this universe. If
the person is human, he or she is connected to you in a way more powerful and
significant than by the term 'family'.

So in effect the recent technological advancements which make it possible for you
to sit in your home miles away but still get to read what I've written with my PJ still
on in my small crib here in Kotobabi, is essentially a reflection of God's essence in
us; a message which God is sending to us even more clearly than our forebears got
it: We Are All Connected.

If we start to see the world in this divinely ordained way, we will hardly do evil to
anyone. We will become less selfish and ruthless. We gain a greater encouragement
to find happiness by doing right because whatever you throw to anyone far away or
close by; whatever we throw to the world moves through people back to us.

George Nyavor