The Ganja Planter Chronicles

There is a legend in Zomba of a house on top of a mountain. To get to that house from down where the local version of a main road is you get to walk for two hours uphill climbing. The owner of the house is isolated, if you try you won’t succeed to make him move down the mountain to where the other villagers’ houses are. It is a strategic position for him and his trade. He is a Ganja Planter. Any cop who would be willing to climb that hill for two hours is surely worth his salt and so few even try. The few who get there are palm-oiled effectively.

Then there is tell of a man in Machinga who refuses to let anyone cut

down his trees, he says they provide him with shade. The government advisors come and say “look here, we need to prune down these trees to help fight mosquitoes” and he will have none of that. The Policeman comes sniffing around for some ganja and he doesn’t see it. Shame on the blind sight of men, for the policeman only had to look up from under the tree he was standing for shade to see the bucket filled with soil and watered everyday by the owner, yes the buckets of Marijuana hidden effectively on the upper branches of the leafy tree. The owner climbs up each day and waters them well.

Of them all the most creative I think would be the significantly old man from Nkhotakota who walks down a

road carrying a long pole. The policemen from the narcotics division follow him down the road towards the forest. Till they find the road ending into the forest with closely-packed unpassable tall trees and the old man with the pole nowhere in sight. The pole was very long for a purpose. The man in his old age pole-vaulted himself from the clearing deep into the forest where he had himself a farm of the “Sensiminia” far from snooping eyes where not even the bravest of policemen could dare enter.

 

These are true stories, they happened in our lifetimes in this country Malawi. From them we learn two things: Ingenuity and dedication. What would happen if we applied that sort of ingenuity and dedication to our spiritual life?

Man will use ingenuity to escape obeying the laws of the Bible, he will with great creativity figure out an excuse for why he should go on and do that he is warned from doing. Yes man is dedicated only to the point that the effort he is putting into the works of God will bring him a sweet reward either in cash, either in reputation with the ladies from the Praise Team, or with positions of great influence. Short sight like this surely have I seen in my lifetime.

What if we took that ingenuity and creativity and used it towards honouring and obeying God? Wouldn’t we see fewer sinners? What does it take for one to have that passion, that dedication to want to fight so hard to protect something like the Ganja Farmer? Can it be emulated?

All it takes is a willing heart. If your heart is willing you will be dedicated and passionate towards God and

the things of God like the suicide bomber screaming ‘Takbiiiiirr’ from the top of his lungs. I envy the Muslim faith, their passion, their zeal. I hope one day I will get to learn the doctrine so I can understand what they are taught that makes them so into God. Could it be that the three times a day that they pray works to instill that passion? Or is it the 7 virgins up there in paradise waiting for them? I wouldn’t know.

With all my heart I know God sees the man who loves him, the woman who adores him. They will not let evil in their path nor will they let corruption in their soul. They fear the Lord and honour and obey him with all their hearts, souls and spirits.

At some point you and me will really have to stop being funny with God and get serious. For that is the message in Revelations when Jesus says “you are neither hot nor are you cold”. He is saying you are Christians yes but your passion for your faith and your God is weak, get serious, stop playing games. Why do you let yourself fall into the same sin today then come and repent only to repeat it five more times the following month?

I pray that one day I will have the passion and the zeal to put my dedication into the faith enough to put the desires of my God above my own, that my passion will give me the strength to resist sin. I don’t know where to start though I do know it is possible for my God is ‘Mighty to Save’. Till then I remain true to yours, a sinner, a liar, a hypocrite, a fornicator, a thief, an adulterer, a Ganja Farmer. God will have mercy on my soul, aye even if he doesn’t I will keep following him at a distance behind His back like the little boy that I am. Nothing better in this life left for me to do anyway. Maybe that’s my form of dedication. Takbiiiiiirrr!