Discernment, the relevance of the ‘Gideon Test’ in the 21st Century

I am privileged to be part of a people that have lived in a transition period -- between the “BBC” (Born Before Computers) era, and the Dotcom generation. I have watched interesting experiences such as working out a mathematical equation on ground and the teacher marks you because at that age, one cannot give you a book to waste. A few years later, I now watch in awe how little children manipulate ipads and play games while the elderly, some of whom work in the Information Communication Technology industry still toil to rub their hard fingers on those gadgets. Thanks to programmes like “one laptop per child” in Rwanda. During the advent of cellular phones huge as they were, the rich that possessed them in our villages were given the front seats at every function. Then came the amazing laptops, little did we know that they would also give way to the fancy “i” generation i.e. iPods, iPhones, iPads...and now some of us are looking forward to an “iPlane”. The advancement is not simply within the ICT gadgets but many areas of life such as the skills and processes employed in solving man’s problems. A case in point is the sophisticated medical operations that are performed by neuropsychiatric gurus. It is simply amazing. To sum it up, one would borrow the slogan of LG Electronics company that “Life’s Good”. Unfortunately ladies and gentlemen, it is not only the good that has advanced, evil has continuously germinated and flourished. It is no longer news to hear of a child that has killed his parent and vice versa, “not for profit organizations” soliciting relief that does not reach the intended beneficiaries and journalism, a medium of transforming livelihoods being used otherwise. The political arena is totally complicated. In Africa for instance, we have armed groups almost in every corner of the continent. A group of people gathered in a place of worship, some to give thanks while others to pour out their anguish to their creator; including those that had no supper the previous night, the barren, those diagonized of incurable diseases etc, news is aired on radios that the church or mosque has been burnt up, people have perished and rebel group “X” claims the attack and even promises more of the like. When you ask the cause of such inhuman acts, the answer is that the people that did it are against the government in power and want to bring peace to such countries. To worsen the situation some groups of the like posses religious names such as the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments and the like. The questions that have disturbed people for generations therefore include; how do I tell whether the peace negotiator is actually not the one delaying peace or catalyzing war to keep earning from such crisis at the expense of the innocent beings, or how do I prove that Tom loves me and is not after his vested interests, or of all the political candidates campaigning who shall stick to his word? The list is endless. I thus find the recorded Biblical account in the book of Judges chapters six and seven very relevant. The story tells of a time when God had been angry with the Israelites and allowed the Midianites to rule over them under harsh circumstances. However when the Israelites cried out aloud to him, God had mercy upon them and chose to use Gideon to rescue them. Gideon then gathered sufficient troops for war, but God told him they were too many and had to be reduced rest they would count victory upon their numbers and strength and disregard the role of their defender. Immediately an announcement was made for those that felt not ready for battle to go back home, cowards went, twenty two thousand in number but God insisted that even the remaining ten thousand were still too many. The screening exercise for the remaining lot was so amazing. It did not involve carrying out a comprehensive medical check-up for every soldier or taking them through intensive military drills to identify the unfit but instead God instructed Gideon to take the men at the well and simply watch their drinking habits, those that dipped their mouths in water and lapped it with their tongues were asked to go back home while those that gathered the water in their hands and drunk responsibly were declared fit for the battle. This is what I have referred to as the “Gideon Test” and do believe that it is one of the greatest assets one needs in this twenty first century where our minds need to be employed more than ever before. This is not to promote pessimism but rather to alert the innocent to use their God given ability of discernment to differentiate wrong intentions from genuine ones even when the dividing line may not be easy to identify. It is a weapon applicable in every area of life for instance; Investment; Sean Hyman, one of the world’s best investment advisors, in his Biblical Investment Code emphasises the “need to look well into the matter” before taking on any project. Religion; The Apostle Paul in his teachings desired that the Christian church no longer be like children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting” Ephesians.4:17 NKJV. In the same spirit John continuously alerted the Christians to be on their guard, so that they would not be led away by the errors of lawless people and fall from their safe positions. 1 John 3:17. In a nut shell, mankind has a freely endowed gift, this is the ability to discern, let us use it as we seek the cure to Africa’s continued stagnation. The writer is a social commentator