Opinions

News

Sports

Business

Entertainment

GhanaWeb TV

Africa

Country

God will do it: Ghana’s second national anthem

Aglow Prayers.png File Photo

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 Source: Joel Savage

Like most religious people in Ghana, with faith, we often assure or console ourselves with these wonderful words“God will do it.” But the true fact is our faith in God helps us to endure the hardships, trials, and tribulations but it doesn’t build us castles or fills the belly of a hungry man.

We need to work hard for it, unfortunately, many who don’t understand what Christianity is about, go to church and pray for six hours, empty their pockets for the pastor asking them to “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.”

Faith is very powerful, it is often used to encourage and comfort, but the fact is, don’t expect to find your bread after many days if you don’t work for it. Europe and America are beautiful continents built on hard work, not prayers from morning till evening as many Africans are actively engaged.

Once living in a quiet village called Sacrofano, few kilometers from Rome, I decided to go to church one Sunday. Anyone who has lived or travelled to Italy before could tell you how wonderful their churches look like. Italians have the world’s best architects, decorators, and designers; therefore, any church in Italy is magnificent.

As soon as I stepped inside the church, I nearly retreat but the pastor who was then preaching has seen me, he was still looking at me, thus; no time to retreat. I couldn’t believe that in such a big church which I think could accommodate over a thousand worshippers, had only one person worshipping that day.

I timidly walked into the church and joined the woman and the number of the congregation increased to two. There is no part in Africa one can observe this scene which is hard to describe. There are hundreds of churches in Europe but hardly will you see Europeans worshipping God, even though there are groups such the Jehovah Witness, Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints etc.

The day you will see a few people in the church on Sunday, means someone is dead. The casket is in the church for the deceased to have his or her last prayers and respect. Europeans work very hard. Even when it’s raining, you will see them working on the streets or fixing something. They will never try to find shelter because it’s raining.

During the time I worked in the bakery, my shift runs from 6.00 in the morning to 6.00 in the evening, then after a fortnight, the shift changes from 6.00 in the evening to 6.00 in the morning. This was very tough physically and psychologically but I have to work hard because that’s how they built their country.

Serving God is beautiful, it brings happiness and reduces pressure, worrisome and depression, but it seems Africans are doing it the wrong way. Hundreds of miracles have taken place in Israel, a country before I thought was in heaven, but they work very hard without depending on any miracle.

Therefore, Africans, Ghanaians, if we want to move forward, then we need to work hard. Many are in Europe who want to come home to settle and help the country but there are several problems the Ghanaian government has to fix them to encourage us.

I can’t stop saying this; I have lost 10,000 euros investment in Ghana because there is no law which arrests a criminal chief who sells a piece of land to several people and until such law becomes effective, Ghana will be among the nations Donald Trump consider a "Shithole." Why do such things only happen in Africa?

Columnist: Joel Savage