Lately, I have been talking to a good friend of mine. There are quite a number of lessons I have drawn from our conversations. It’s my honour and privilege to pilot us as we soar through them.
Progress has a price. It is rather comfortable to be without drains, without deadlines to beat, without explanations to make to random people who may storm your office or your door in quest for answers.
Actually, we are naturally lazy people! We don’t really want stuff that stresses us. We want to simply relax as things do themselves.
It is this very character that puts lots of institutions in inertia and lethargy. Inertia stalls movements and loves company; that is why it is easy to live in a stagnant institution and still be as comfortable, relaxed, and indifferent.
However, when progress sets in, it is, in most cases, rejected and fought against. We fight the people affecting the progress, we hate what progress does to inertia, and we fight the ideas of progress as we juxtapose everything to the status quo. We naturally don’t want to get out of our shelves.
Progress comes with challenges; there are challenges that only come to those progressing (actually, there are challenges we can’t run away from as long as we are progressing).
Yet there are challenges that will never come while we are static. This explains why progress is often fought against; it brings challenges we would never have faced in our comfort! This is when we normally join forces to get rid of progress and, in most cases, those stirring it!
The biggest irony is that those championing the progress are always for the good of the institution, but they are normally misconstrued. Comfortable people tend to take things personally, and they fight in what they call a battle for survival, yet they fight their liberators.
No pro-progress person seeks after the downfall of personnel; they always seek to make things right with actually the same personnel to make a better institution. This is exactly where David was.
David always fought for the honour of God and the honour of Israel, but Saul perceived usurpation engineered by David. Saul’s life became preoccupied with the destruction of David, and in this, Saul destroyed himself.
The most tragic thing is that sometimes, the face behind the progress becomes the price of the same progress. This should not scare you into a coil; even if you are the price, the institution shall be liberated.
God will always go with you. His name shall be lifted, and your efforts shall never be futile.
Pr. Caleb Mbabaali Ssaalongo
Chaplain, Bugema University
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain. – 1Cor 15:58
