OWEYEGHA AFUNADUULA: Most of us are insecure, not secure

I have been reading Joice Meyer’s little inspiring book ” The Root of Rejection”. I read it before and had even forgotten it was on my shelf. It must have been the Holy Spirit that, without prior thought about it, led to the exact place where it was hidden.

Let me first tell you what I have learnt rejection is.

Feeling rejected is what all of us feel at one time or another. Even the most powerful have to face it. May be fear of rejection pushes many of them to amass weapons of mass destruction and ignore that they are relevant when they deliver in social terms (especially quality education, quality health, quality education). If they don’t, people’s value of them will be very low, but because they have power and guns they continue manifesting as if they are darlings of the people, and even manipulate them when in fact they were rejected long ago and few still have trust and confidence in them.

It is however, important to mention that feeling rejected does not necessarily mean that one is not liked or valued or important. It just means that at one time or during a period of time a country, community, people or institution does not think or judge that you are working well or hard enough to add value to yourself and to them. They may judge that you have become a burden instead, and could actually be ignored or ejected if possible.

There are many synonyms of the word rejection: among these are excommunication, snubbing, desertion, exclusion, shu being, abandonment, ostracising, forsaking, dismissal refusal etc. During my lifetime, I have suffered most of these negativities. It has been God who has given me strength, security and peace even when many thought I would succumb. In order to defeat these, the Holy Spirit has miraculously taken me from nasty situation and put me even where a person of my alibre would never survive, and ensured that I remained myself and even became more influential. I think and believe a combination of knowledge, wisdom, understanding, inspiration, patience, hope, love of humanity and God, capacity to forgive and forget, adaptaility, resilience, persverance, endurance, unselfishness, and character have enabled me to defeat rejection and move on, even when at the lowest ebb of life.

But one thing is true. rejection makes one insecure, even if one has power and authority. Indeed a great many people in the world of 7.9 billion people are insecure. Indeed in our increasingly diminishing global village where greed, selfishness, militarism are on the rise, many more are becoming increasingly insecure than secure. For example, in our African countries, rulers are relying more and more on militarism, kinship and ethnicism power rather than the power of the people to build their individual sovereignty, dominion and hegemony over the countries and peoples under their power and authority. Automatically they are rejecting, depriving, dispossessing displacing and marginalising the communities and majority of people they rule. In the process they are abusing people’s and community rights, such as the right to justice, the right to being wholesome beings (through quality nutrition, quality education and quality health), the right to their ancestral lands, and the right to inclusive development. Increasingly, peoples and communities are collectively feeling rejected by their leaders in favour narrow, selfish interests. They are feeling more and more insecure.

These are the usual results of rejection: judgementalism, poor self-image, inferiority complex, guilt, bitterness, anger, rebellion, poverty of mind, jealousy, destructive competition, disrespect, distrust, hardness, defensiveness, fear of all types, perfectionism, hopelessness, haplessness, witchcraft, idol worship, mere church going, idol worship, fortune-seeking, turning to false prophets and escapism (e.g., spiritualism day-dreaming, drugs, alcohol, silence, suicide, television, abuse of social media to attack leaders, abusiveness, I don’t care attitude, etc).

Unfortunately, many people in Uganda are offering to become slaves in and outside the country, and others are joining the armed forces spy rings and prisons, not willingly as many people think but because they have been rejected, either by their families, marriage partners, education system or country. This can enhance their insecurity or that of their country.

I have steadily come to believe that Jesus Christ is the answer to our growing rejection and insecurity; not human strength, or strong leaders.

“When he comes he will rule his people with the strength that comes from the LORD and with the Majesty from the Lord God himself…..and he will bring peace.( Micah, 4: 4-5).

For God and My Country.