Today I come in peace (and apologies). I am a day late and tempted to explain what happened, but a good friend of mine once told me that no matter how valid your excuse is, it's still an excuse. I am sorry I am late, I hope today's blog is worth the wait.
Lately, I have been thinking and talking about solutions - both the surface-level ones and the deep-rooted ones. I have shared a couple of blogs that were focused on surface-level solutions, a kind of warning against them and a call to seek and implement deep-rooted solutions. Today I want to share my thoughts on deep-rooted solutions (and possibly an example - hopefully I don't get into trouble for this).
I was watching a conversation facilitated by Bishop TD Jakes and Carl Lentz said something that has been on my heart for so long, something that I shared in the Beware of SLS, It speaks to the notion of providing surface-level solutions because you want the people you "lead" to keep following you, to keep coming back to you for more. As a pastor, he said "Teaching people HOW to think takes power away from the preacher." and it hit deep! I immediately said, "and that is why they don't do it!"
We have leaders who won't give us deep-rooted solutions, not can't, but won't. This is because they know that if they do, we might (and probably will) stop following them. They are addicted to having a needy crowd following them and chanting slogans! I personally know people who don't even have a big following, in fact, they don't have a following, but they are addicted to having people come to them with the same problem. I don't even know if it's the feeling of "importance" or the "attention" they are addicted to, but I can't help but think that at a deeper level, they are just insecure.
I could be wrong, but I don't remember people coming back to Jesus with the same problem he had addressed before. He didn't give the man with leprosy pain killers, he didn't give the woman with the issue of blood a pint of blood and a cookie - he solved those problems, but not did he just solve them, he solved them in such a way that for these people, the problem was never going to come back. They didn't have to keep going back for their "weekly shots".
Anyways, let me stop ranting and share the other side of this chat!
I had a long conversation with one of my mates. Our friendship is recent but it has grown in leaps and bounds, and it's full of conversations like this. In our most recent conversations, we started talking about some of the challenges that are being faced by communities (we actually spoke about a specific community in a specific district, in a specific province - but I don't want to get into trouble so I won't use any real names). And I believe this is a good example of a deep-rooted problem.
In our discussion, this is what I suggested as a solution for Community X's challenges.
Create an ecological system that is focused on retaining skills and talent within the community, the district and ultimately the province. Model it on one child and scale it up one community at a time. In our model we have Tshepo. Tshepo is a dramatic child, everyone keeps telling him this. However, Tshepo goes to under-resourced school in his community. How can we put a system in place that will ensure that Tshepo grows up to be a successful and contributing member of society - and not just society, but specifically the community she grew up in?
We find the nearest well-resourced school in Tshepo's region/district (some communities have well-resourced schools in their communities), and we ensure that they partner with Tshepo's school. Through this partnership, we create an Arts Department and direct Tshepo's dramatic nature to Dramatic Arts. From an early age, we create an environment where Tshepo can pursue her passion and explore her talents. We host plays at the community hall and use those funds to further equip the newly formed Arts Department.
By the time Tshepo finishes her basic education journey and acquires a matric certificate, we will have built a strong ecosystem around Arts in her community and district, and we ensure that Tshepo can pursue Arts related work or further her studies related to Arts in the province's tertiary institutions - this ensures that as a province, we don't haemorrhage talents and skills.
Upon completion of her studies, Tshepo can pursue her talents nationally and internationally, but we will have spent 12 to 16 years building a strong sense of community which will inspire and propel Tshepo to invest in her community. But beyond that, we would have shown other Tshepos that it is possible. They will have a model they can follow, a model support by a well-structured development path/process.
We can do this for Sports, Science-Based Careers, Commerce-Based Careers, Hospitality-Based Careers. We can do this in such a way that no child gets left behind.
I'm going to stop here, and let you do your own critical assessment of what I just shared. I hope you will engage, sharing your views, concerns and questions.
The intention here is to say we can build models that are deep-rooted, ensuring that we have long-lasting solutions to the challenges we are faced with. It is our responsibility as the people chanting black lives matter to roll up our sleeves and do the work that will ensure that our kids and their kids and their kids' kids won't have to chant black lives matter.
Comments