Response to Zack Mayul: The New Year is for proactive persons, not reactive individuals
By Manyang David Mayar, Eldoret, Kenya
January 7, 2018 (SSB) — I enjoyed reading your article entitled “Who really cares about the New Year 2018.” And as I read through to the middle, I found out that the entire focus of your article was that there is absolutely nothing new under the sun. All the evil things people have done in 2017 will still happen in 2018 and all the hardship of life in 2017 will still remain the same in 2018.
And then I reach the conclusion. I was left with nothing else but a broken heart. I felt broken-hearted for the hopelessness I have seen in you. And I was thrilled to pick up my computer and spare some time to write some words of hope into your life and to try to make you become more proactive than reactive in your thinking and perhaps change the way you look at things.
Your article is a true demonstration of a reactive person. Qualities of a reactive person include those who look at the world in the third person rather than in the first person. People who complain a lot about what others have failed to do; People who ruin their future simply because others have failed to fulfil their expectations.
And once you complain all the time about what others have failed to do, you are developing a reactive personality in you. And you can miserably fail to see the beauty of life and blessings of new years. You will equally fail to do the very best for yourself and your surroundings.
All the things you mentioned as your concerns in not welcoming the New Year, are things that really don’t concern you. They are things that are entirely out of your control. And those are absolutely not the reasons why we celebrate the New Year. Why not try to be the proactive person. Think about your weaknesses and successes as an individual.
And how you would improve on your weakness if you get a chance of fresh new years. These are the characters of a proactive person. This person always focuses his thinking on the first person singular – the I. Not even ‘we’.
If you at least try to look at life and the world in the first person, I hope you would have known what it really means to be happy and cherish New Year. The New Year is about I. Not about they or them. It is about me still breathing. If someone had asked to end your life in 2017, I am sure you would have said no. And I am also sure you didn’t like it to be a dead person in 2017. God forbid!!
Therefore being alive is one of the essential reasons for being jovial on New Year’s Day. You missed recognizing this because you were focusing much on what the Trumps, UN and governments have failed to do. We were held captives by your worries and they blinded you to see the beauty in the new shining morning star of the New Year.
The other reason for why we celebrate New Year can be found in the description of who you are under your article.
“Zack Mayul is a student taking Bachelor of Science in Marketing…”
You are in school. And your course units will not finish in one semester in one year. When you went for the break at the end of last year, you looked forward to seeing another New Year so that you can start new classes and new course units. You have a clear understanding of the year you will finish your studies and graduate. The year you will be in a gown and take pictures to post on your Facebook.
After your degree, you will look forward to a year you will get a job and fattening your wallet with dollars. You will no longer beg a rich uncle in Juba to send you money in Nakuru. You will begin to be free. Buy your home and a car.
Then you will think of a year you will get married in a colorful wedding ceremony to your beautiful girlfriend, a year she will give birth to your beautiful first child, a year to take that child to school, a year you will be attending that child graduation ceremony, the year you will attend that child wedding and so on and so forth.
There is always a reason as to why I care about the New Year. It has nothing to do with IGAD, UN or Trump doing for me. It is about how God has been good to give me more days to do what He has given me to do.
When New Year comes, our hopes for a positive future are energized. We begin to focus on “I”. I will do this in this year. This is my second year at the school. By the end of next year, I will finish my school. My child is going to school this year. I hope to find a good job this year and many more.
This is how proactive persons look at life and at the world. But my brother, if you look at life through the eyes of other people – the like of UN, IGAD or Government in Juba, you will miss beautiful blessings for your future.
You ended with these words – ‘Happy New Fear’. This tells me how you are entering 2018 loaded with the number of fears for your future. And you wish us, your readers, to enter the New Year with the same fears that you have. I will say no. This is the only wish I will turn down. I want you to join me in reading this verse.
In the book of Psalms chapter 23 verse 4, David said: “Even when I must walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you (Lord) are with me; your rod and your staff reassure me.”
Only those who know the Lord takes care of all their fears are the ones who live without fear. So my brother, remove the fears of the world from your subconscious mind and begin to look at the world from positive perspectives that start with you. By that, you will know why we care about the New Year.
I would like to end with this promise that God gave Joshua. The same promise He gives to those whom He loves.
“Be strong and be brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, for I the Lord your God,
Am with you in all you do.” – Joshua 1:9
Happy New Year.
The author of this article can be reached at manyang.davidmayar@gmail.com
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