At the pitch, a player scores a goal. A spectator only celebrates. The pride is given to the performer.
A player will say I made it. A spectator will only say the player made it for us. We are not born to celebrate. We are born to perform. We must have a goal to score. We must not choose to watch others scoring. One must not say; I support Man U or Chelsea. One must say; I play in Man U or Chelsea. Have a goal to score?
You may be at the pitch of work. At work, some employees perform. Others choose to spectate. Something needs to be corrected. Correct it. Don’t watch. An idea should be presented to the higher office, present it. Don’t watch. There is someone to be rebuked, rebuke with love. Don’t wait that someone else will do it. A path of progress needs to be created; every other person is quiet about, create it. You will be remembered for it. Spectators at work wait to blame. They are not there when something must be corrected. They only appear when something has gone wrong. They must find someone to blame. Don’t spectate at work.
You may be at the pitch of family circle. Children are going the wrong way. You wait for someone else to correct them. Conflict arises in the family. You may not be the head. You wait for the head to intervene. There is no food in the house. It is the responsibility of the head to feed the family. You keep your money for yourself. You always think it is never your responsibility to do what needs to be done in the family. You appear only when the family has fallen apart. You appear at this time to point at some individuals you think are responsible. Are you a player or spectator at the family circle?
You may be at the pitch of saving the nation from war. You hear people propagating about war. You don’t rebuke them. You hear such and such a place have been bombarded. You pronounce hell to them. You think you are safe. You honestly know war is evil. It is the reason you are not in the frontline. You know war kills. Knowing it so well, you advise none of your relatives to get there. You are happy just watching fighting going on. Stop war. Speak against it. Write against it. Rebuke war supporters. War is evil.
You are at the pitch of building the nation’s education system. They announce students fail the national exams. You celebrate it. Students cheat the national exams. It is what you love to hear. There are many untrained teachers. You are silent about it. There is new curriculum, a learner centered one. Teachers continue to use the traditional teaching methods. You don’t raise the concern. Since your children are studying abroad, you careless. You watch other countries insulting our education system. You even tell them that there is no better education in the country.
In this pitch of education, you ignore your role of informing the nation. You can positively present your observation. You can improve your education. Others will learn from you. Tell other nations that we have better education. Start to value your teachers. Love your schools. Be positive about your own leaders. Be proud of our education system. Focus on what we are achieving. Be hopeful about the unachieved. Win debates that contrast our education system with others. Don’t watch the nation education falling.
We have lost our position in nation building. Don’t laugh at the nation. Don’t leave it to the president. Don’t leave it to ministers. Build your nation. We need individuality in nation building. Carry your own block. Forget about other carrying their blocks. It is your block needed. Any construction of a building begins with one block. Move the nation to a truthful path. Remove the thorns on the path. There are tails on our path. Remove them. There are wires electrified on our path. You are the electrician to take them away.
In nation building, we need a united human resource. Unite our nation’s human resource. Our human resource lacks empowerment. Empower our human resource. The human resource must fulfil only the nation’s interest. The human resource must be diversified. The human resource must be vision led.
There are many spectators in the church. Don’t be one. They watch the church leaders going wrong. They are holy men of God. They should not be corrected. The congregation must only watch. The congregation must only wait for their wrongs to be corrected. No one knows where the church money goes. You cannot talk about it. It belongs to God. Church money is meant for the inclusive church services. Some individuals mean it for another. We cannot talk. Otherwise, we attack God. We can only watch. If we dare to talk, that must be in secret. Play; don’t watch in church.
Road accidents happen. I have seen more spectators than players. The person is down badly injured. The blood is flowing like water. There is none to tie. There are people to watch. They watch. After the meaningless watch, they leave. Some will capture to Tiktok with. They will send to social media. I repent for being one of them. I many times watch without doing anything to help the dying person. I must be the player this time.
There was this spectator. A child was approaching a merciless fire. This spectator didn’t care. The spectator concluded the child won’t reach the fire. The innocent child didn’t know anything. The child jumped into the fire. The child burned to death. When asked, the spectator said he/she thought the child would not reach the fire. The beautiful child died. If there was a player!
Rev. Stephen Kumalo is a great spectator. He watches his son. His son has left home for Johannesburg. The son has become a criminal. He has stolen and robbed countless things. He has been taken to the reformatory. He has escaped from the reformatory. He has joined his group. They have gone to Arthur’s house. Absalom kumalo whose father has been watching him has murdered Arthur. The police have looked for him. He has been taken to court. He carries the guilt of killing the white man. He has been served with court sentence.
Rev.Kumalo’s sister has also gone to Johannesburg. He has gone with a claim of looking for her husband who works in the mind. Reaching the town, she joins the group of prostitutes. She sleeps with numberless men. She has a child with unknown husband. Apart from being a prostitute, she sells liquor. Rev. Kumalo said to his sister, “You have shamed us, Gertrude.” If Rev. Kumalo has not been a spectator!
Adding to the son and the sister, Rev. Kumalo has also a brother in Johannesburg. The brother has gone to the town. In the town, he has joined politics. His politics has made him to leave the church. He has divorced his faithful wife. He has illegally married another one. He has become wild and denied his brother. He says what God has not done, man must do.
Rev. kumalo has chosen to be the spectator for his family. He regrets at last. He has returned to his village alone, no son, no sister and no brother. We have lost so many people just the same way. We have Toronto boys in Juba like Absalom. We watch them getting lost. We don’t plan ways to help them. We have many young women like Gertrude. We watch them prostituting. We don’t care helping them. We wait to say,” If we knew!”
A month ago, a young man climbed a tall building before many eye-witnesses. They left him. Some of them knew the man had mental problem. They failed to intervene. The man threw himself down from the top of the building. They all came with their smartphones. In less than a minute, the photo went viral. People put it in tiktok. It became the story for insulting the government. They propagated that it was hunger. They accused the government of not providing food to the citizens. The problem was not the government. It was the spectators. Be a player in such occurrences.
Spectators are the worshippers. Players determine their happiness. They lack emotional security. The players must win for them to celebrate. They are more stressed than the players. Players make peace. Spectators fight. A big fight happened in the camp in Uganda. A team lost and its spectators started to attack. Many lives were lost that day. You can remember the story.
The players after the game are given money. They don’t share their money with the spectators. The spectators spend their money instead. Some go from Africa to watch a game in Europe. Players are taken from Africa to play in Europe. I better become the player.
Choose to be the player in every context. You will get the full reward. You will cherish your worth. Be the first to intervene. Be the first to rescue a situation. Never think others will do anything worthwhile. It is you to do it. Take the lead. Don’t follow! Be kind to the nation.