Maintenance of infrastructure must be the single most time consuming and painstaking job function of a public official. Infrastructure needs constant care, maintenance, and upgrades in order to effectively serve the needs of the people. When it works well, the whole economic machine is fully lubed and highly effective. When it doesn’t work, many things are ground to a halt or slowed down to a snail’s pace.
While visiting Kenya recently, I noticed major traffic in some areas due to roads that had outgrown their initial purpose and were in need of urgent upgrade and repair in order to accommodate the rise in usage. Simple solution – fix the potholes and expand the road. You could hear it dripping from the mouths of every single level headed person. From Uber drivers to the average person on the street, the solution was that simple – fix the potholes and expand the road and easily fix the problem.
Complex humanity has a hard time getting this done. It didn’t take any special skill on my part to identify the problem and assign a specific solutions. What takes skill, tact, and time is the implementation. Somehow these projects get lost between those two stages. The complexities can be staggering or shocking at times.
Just like in the situation above, many people will often have simple solutions to your personal problems. Complex humanity sees things different because there are many moving parts within the psyche of a human being. When we view things in the right perspective, we tend to have God’s mind on them and are more likely to deviate from issues and solutions that may create more problems by seeing things through His perspective.
Unlike the roads, the solution to all of humanity’s problems happens to be hidden in plain sight – Jesus Christ.
He is the image of the invisible God, The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.
– Colossians 1:15-20 (NIV)
The solution seems simple yet fallen mankind toils endlessly in search of variations, additions, and deletions to this simple solution. Complex humanity will always be in search for solutions to problems, often complicating the simple things. One thing is clear; salvation comes through one person alone – Jesus Christ. Complex mankind must strive to find this solution and implement it by following Him alone.
As for the roads, potholes and traffic jams, my prayer is that the simple solutions will prevail through the adversity of the implementation process just like a seasoned Christian endures a race filled with obstacles and challenges. Salvation is a simple solution to the fate of man and Holy Spirit resolves the implementation issue. Let’s never complicate it.
Nelson Masinde 