God cannot possibly be in the ZANU-PF camp

By Tanonoka Joseph Whande

Let us pray…..

But, please, do not dare to close your eyes; this will disadvantage you in prayer because ZANU-PF thugs, thieves and murderers, with their president from 1980 and Jabulani Sibanda in the lead, are about. Prayer is a personal and solitary joy. Here is my prayer:

Lord God, I am not eager to pray for our politicians. I have seen enough of them and, my Good Lord, please listen to me, it is time to light the match under their feet not to pray for them. Like your servant Paul, I am unable to put up with fools (2 Corinthians 11:19).

Vengeance is mine, you said. Please, Lord, show us; don’t tell, especially since you admit that you are a jealous god, a God who is close to the broken-hearted like me and who saves those who are crushed (Psalms 34:18). If you follow the path one Robert Mugabe has walked, Heavenly Father, you will find millions of us by the wayside. May I give you the matchbox now, my Lord?

Lord, Our Most High, in Genesis 16:12, your angel gave us a fair warning. “He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility towards all his brothers.”

My Precious Lord, you gave us a nation, which we do not have anymore. You gave us fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts and children who we do not have anymore. Yes, we do not have them all because of that wild donkey of a man! I hope, Lord, you feel as sad for us as we do for ourselves.

But that is not enough, Sir; you must take action right away. In good faith you sent us down here, Jesus, your only son, to help us fight off the devil’s onslaught and, in spite of your awesome backing, Jesus did not get out of this place alive. This is a tough neighbourhood, Lord. Jesus knows that it is worse here now than it was in his time. But we soldier on.

Only you, Lord, and the murderer of our kin, know where the bones of our loved ones lie but you won’t do so much as whisper to us where to find them. Why, Dear Father, would you want to share a secret with one who takes the lives of your children, the very same children you made in your own image?

We are not your duplicates, Precious Lord; we are an extension of yourself and we thought that, as a father, you’d feel pain to see us in pain. We thought you would jump up to our defence when you saw that we were being abused by someone who challenges you by killing your creations and who mocks you by naming himself after your most beloved and favourite angel, Gabriel.

Our Most High and Graceful Lord, you remember when we were under severe persecution (Romans 8:28-39) and you, Lord, and us agreed that “we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us”. Are we more than conquerors? Why is Mugabe being allowed to sneak in between us and you?

You seem to be protecting our tormentor at our expense, Lord, for we cannot understand why horrible things happen to good people and good things happen to bad ones. In our sorrows and despair, we grew to believe that the good die young. Why? What about the bad, Sir? Why do you give the gift of life to those who deny that gift of life to your young children?

Why are the bad people in this world given a longer life to torment your children to whom you give shorter lives? Oh, Heavenly Father, I want to know right now on whose side you are because I do not understand anymore as you let the bad people terrorise me, dehumanise me and kill my people.

God, my Father, you have turned my patience into a living hell, pardon the expression, Sir, but I think you understand. We watch as you not only protect the man who brings so much misery to our nation, getting the best out of this life over dead bodies of our kin, and wonder on whose side you really are.

Lord, you have been around even before time and you know the past, present and the future. Since before 1980, we prayed like the Israelites in Egypt, asking you to please keep us and our nation safe. At the very height of that suffering, we were being subjected to inhumane and murderous treatment by foreign colonisers.

But today, my Lord, we are surprised that you answered our prayers by replacing our tormentors with even a worse one who, to mock us further, is a home-grown dictator. There is no bigger liberator than you, Lord.

These pretenders do not deserve our prayers or your mercy; they deserve all the hell brought down on them, Lord. They belong in the Chapters of the Book of Revelation, Sir. Shall I give you the matchstick now, Sir? Hit them hard, Lord. Hit them to no recovery, for you admitted to us that you are a jealous God.

Don’t let the opportunity go to waste, Sir. Show us your vengeance, your jealousy, please. My Precious Lord, would you by any chance know some dude called Nolbert Kunonga? He is here somewhere and is using your name, your churches and even your clothes while destroying your followers, Lord.

He says he is your messenger, an archbishop, and that puts him directly under your Foreign Affairs Department, working for you in the foreign territory of Zimbabwe and in chunks of neighbouring countries. The dude has used tithing money to pay lawyers to prevent believers from worshipping in your church, Lord.

And when that failed, he brought armed soldiers into the church, not as worshippers but to stop your worshippers from entering the house of worship, where Jesus once whopped some traders, accusing them of defiling your temple. Where is your jealous, oh, God?

I love you Lord because, unlike other gods who are touted as merciful, you are indeed a Merciful God. You never chop hands and arms from robbers and thieves; you welcome them back when they repent and, with your abundant patience, you teach them how to do the right things.

I love you, Lord, because you say believing and obeying you is my choice; it is a personal thing between you and me. You never sent anyone to police me or stone my sister to death after the disgrace of adultery. But, Sir, the Sharia Law would be excellent to apply to ZANU-PF thieves, wouldn’t you say, my Lord?

Imagine how many limbs from ZANU-PF people we could have harvested by now! Gosh, where would we keep them? Some have 15 cars in the garage; that’s a good place. Others have tens and tens of farms!

As humans, there are some people we don’t want forgiven, my Lord, because forgiving them is tantamount to declaring that they were right and we, the victims, were wrong. You are a merciful God because you don’t stone our mothers and sisters to death when they stray; you forgive us.

But the Sharia Law would be excellent for ZANU-PF molesters, wouldn’t you say? Lord, teach us again about the gospel of prosperity, which highlights the clean benefits of wealth. The last time you spoke about it to us, Lord, you zipped it past us so fast that only Ignatius Chombo understood what you were saying, Dear Father.

Fifteen vehicles parked at 25 houses later, with more than 60 stands idling by, we fear you might have done with him what you did with the other one who has thousands of human skulls as trophies. I have only seen pictures of skulls in hell, not in heaven. Are you trying to tell us something?

The heart of the matter is that we seem still lost even yet we know you are on our side. It would help a bit were you to show the difference between the abuser and the abused. My Lord, before whom I bow and submit myself, I say I hear you, Lord. We have raised our complaints with this Robert Mugabe but you seem to be empowering him more at our disadvantage.

Be that as it may, you also taught me patience, just like you did with Job. Did I get carried away with my faith in you, Lord, so much that I forgot what you commanded me not to do? “Do not speak to a fool, for he will scorn the wisdom of your words.”! (Proverbs 23:9). Oh, my dear Father, was that directed at me, my Lord?

You sly Father, you! All this time, Lord, I have been raving against Robert Mugabe. I have no wisdom, otherwise I would have seen that he can’t possibly do anything without your permission. Only you have the answer. I love you Lord. Amen.” Now, before we disperse, let me say that there is no room to despair. Pray for our nation and hope that God will do his will with our nation in 2011, not later.

I am Tanonoka Joseph Whande and that, my fellow Zimbabweans, is the way it is today, Thursday, January 6, 2011.