One of the wonderful aspects of the holiday season in Nagaland, especially around the time of Christmas and New Year, is the countless number of celebrations taking place amongst the people, irrespective of tribe, gender, class, village etc. Wedding anniversaries, Church or village jubilee and centenary, citizen-public conventions, student conferences and the list go on and on. By what we gather therefore, it is a time of celebrating and acknowledging our achievements made in various fields. It also would mean that Nagaland and its people should be getting stronger and better as the years go by—whether it is our marriage or family, our worldly affairs and spiritual well being. We have already celebrated more than 100 years of Christianity. Even the Baptist Church, the apex body of which is the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) has recently completed its Platinum Jubilee—75 years. The State of Nagaland though a little younger would in fact be completing 50 years i.e. celebrating its Golden Jubilee on December 1, 2013. So whether in the area of our spiritual life or in the affairs of the State we cannot say that we have not got the opportunity. By the years added into our lives, the question is whether we have grown as a people. And if the answer is no, we need to perhaps ask ourselves why we have not developed into a strong and better Nagaland.
We as a people seem to have lost our way in the mad rush of all that the modern world has to offer—money, power and material gain. As Christians it does not mean that we cannot enjoy life. However we are living our lives the wrong way, not by honest means but through corrupt means. If we earn and build ourselves by the sweat of our hard work and God given ingenuity, then there is something to celebrate. But we know that only a few among us can claim to have gained by honest means. The politicians may try to preach about dignity of labour or trumpeting such slogans as ‘work to eat’. However there is nothing dignified about their own conduct and that is perhaps the reason why no one is convinced about all their big talk about good governance, transparency and development. There is no inspiration at all for us to be honest and to do good. And because we are unable to cleanse from our corrupt ways, this cancer will be passed on to the next generation and all our hopes on a better future will go up in smoke.
As we all know, corruption has become a way of life, acceptable and given great honor within both the Church and society. And because of this, the moral force of goodness has lost its strength, to be drowned in the sea of our depravity. When even the institution of the Church has lost its moral bearings what can be expected. As Christians we may go to Church and give our heart to God for one hour or for a little longer during Christmas or at the time of your tribal or village centenary. But this is not going to be even sufficient to transform Nagaland. The answer lies in truly knowing God. If we can walk every single day, hour, minute or second with Jesus, only then there is hope of real change and reformation taking place within our individual selves, in the Church, community, government and politics. We may have grown over the years in our stature, wealth or the number of Churches or government offices build, but this does not mean we are stronger or better though we should have been.
