Stability and freedom for Africa
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
This article is coming to you from a tiny hotel room in Ebolowa, Cameroon, about a two-hour drive south of Yaoundé, the capital. And I can assure you that the effects of the major changes taking place in the northern part of the continent—Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and in other countries—are being felt here, not to mention the political stand-off not that far away in Côte d’Ivoire. It’s not that there have been political rallies or large demonstrations in the public plazas in Cameroon. But people are talking.
This is the concern: With elections coming up in almost half of African countries this year, including Cameroon, will there be political instability, or worse, after these elections? I sense that many are thinking if a country pushes hard for freedom, it will experience instability. But are stability and freedom incompatible? In fact, they’re more than compatible. One is absolutely necessary to the other. Freedom without stability is volatile and illusory, a mythic chimera. Stability without freedom is a tower just waiting to topple.
The Bible describes spiritual reality where stability and freedom do coexist. Relative to stability, consider this passage: “The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens” (Prov. 3:19 ). And the master Christian, Christ Jesus, described those who put his teachings into practice as building on a rock and not on sand (see Matt. 7:24, 25 ).
God is a rock in the sense that His nature is unchanging. He governs constantly and dependably. He is the source of all law and of all that is permanent.
Stability and freedom are our birthright.
The Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, used the term “Principle” to describe the totality of God, the sense of His complete reliability and of His immutable government. Because God is Principle, He provides stability in our lives. God is Truth that is universal and solid, ever present because He is infinite.
God’s reality also includes freedom. The Apostle Paul grasped this when he wrote: “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (II Cor. 3:17 ). Because God is infinite Love, the sons and daughters of God cannot be deprived of freedom. This freedom doesn’t mean license to selfishly do whatever we want. Rather, it signifies freedom from fear, oppression, sin, selfishness, addiction, and so on. This freedom is as inherent to each of us as are stripes to a tiger.
God being at the same time infinite, divine Principle and divine Love means that in the one reality that God sees, the universe has both stability and unchanging freedom. This spiritual truth comes to us individually and collectively to rescue us from oppression and chaos.
In Libya, Bahrain, Cameroon, Nigeria, this spiritual reality is already present and is communicating itself to guide people in their personal lives and to make changes on the political scene. These changes need not be violent or disruptive. On the contrary, the fact that God is Principle, Love, constitutes a law of smooth transition to freedom and stability in human lives. This is because moral and spiritual progress, individually and collectively, is supremely natural and flows from divine reality.
And actually, in our times we have seen smooth transitions to stability and freedom. Once apartheid was dismantled, the transition to democracy in South Africa was remarkably smooth considering the violence and bloodshed of the past. The breakup of the Soviet Union, and the gaining of freedom by its former members, can also serve as a positive example for everyone around the world as to how peaceful transitions can be achieved.
We cannot claim our right to freedom too much or too often, since it’s inherent in our very character as children of God. Knowing that stability and freedom are our birthright, we are shielded from human will and buoyed up by the divine will alone. Cherishing these ideas constitutes a prayer that stability and freedom be shown forth by people everywhere—stability and freedom that, in a spiritual sense, belong to us all this very day.