Hovika T Swu
Dimapur
We Nagas most of us are raw blooded and short tempered since we all came from the lineage of Warriors and background of head hunting and we can’t do anything about it unless we control ourselves, because its already in our genes but when we look back to the days of our grandparents becoming Christians by accepting Jesus Christ, they brought a radical change in their lives and attitudes because they became a true Christian.
At times I used to think how hard it might have been for our grandparents to leave aside their weapons and head hunting attitude all at once and how hard it might have been for them to a start new life as a new person in Christ but they easily overcame all those challenges and set an example of a True Christian all over their neighbouring villages, as a result of which majority of our Naga grandparent became Christians one after another.
I believe foreign Missionaries played a major role in making Nagaland a Christian state but the way our grandparents lived with their neighbouring villages after they became Christian really impacted in the spreading of the Gospel.
They changed their attitudes from barbarians to Christ like and it was never hard for them because they whole heartedly accept Christ and His way of living and dealing with people. But that Christian attitude that was taught to us by our grandparents is every less seen in our lives today, especially when we go out to market and deal with non Christians living in our state. It is so painful to see that many of us are going back to old life of ungodliness and barbarism that our parents and grandparents left behind. As a Christian we are to carry our Christ like attitude wherever we go but we are not able to show the non Christians living in our state that’ loving and caring attitude of God that is living in us.
For instance, a traffic police on duty will beat an auto driver or Rickshaw puller if they cross lines mistakenly or if they fail to see the sign of traffic due to rush road. The traffic man on duty will beat the driver as if they are ‘Lathi charging’ the protestors. I believe it is such a hard job to control the traffic in a rainy or burning day and obedience is demanded from each driver on the line but as a Christian traffic man on duty, I feel, they should be more patience in terms of temper. If situation compels ask for fine and give away the challan but beating someone mercilessly is an act of barbarism and that does not suit a Christian man on duty.
Another Example is beating up non locals because they did not satisfy us, one such incident happen, where our Naga brother was beating up an auto driver because the driver couldn’t drop him in time, and like mistreating the domestic helpers in our homes, like paying half the wages after hiring them for whole day, paying half auto fare by scaring them with your local power, taking away cloths/ things by force from shops in just give away price. All these behaviours and attitudes do not suit any of us as Christians.
Some people may critic me saying am too much in support of minor communities but that kind of critic would be wrong because what am trying to say is, we really need a true Christian attitude while dealing with religious minority people in our state or even within our fellow brethrens. Remember, many of our Naga brothers and sisters are serving the Lord as Missionary outside our state and how would they minister towards those people who once was mistreated so badly in Nagaland, how would they share about the love, care and attitude of Christ to those people who saw nothing of those Christ likeness in Christians when they were in Nagaland.
Whenever we go to church we sings songs like ‘Let others see Jesus in me’ but from the moment we step out of church those songs has no meaning in our life at all. We must realise that we all play an important role in making a Nagaland a respected Christian State in India; we must remind ourselves that when we live with Christly attitude wherever we go we are helping our fellow missionary brothers and sister by showing and proving to those non Christians that whatever our Missionaries brothers/sisters are teaching and preaching is right.
In my conclusion I would like to encourage each of us to be more careful with our Christian Identity and the image of Christ that we carry in us from the day we accepted Christ, by always thinking how beautiful it will be if every policeman wears Christ in their uniform and show Christ like attitude in their duty, if every driver drives like Jesus would, if every Nagas treat their neighbour like God would, if every Government officers and employees serve the government like Jesus served the Spiritual Government, If we all truly try to let others see Jesus in us, our land will be a thousand times better place to live and we can always feel proud to call ourselves a Christian and our state a Christian state.
God Bless us
