EXISTENCE INCOGNITO

A number of us who did O'levels in the late nineties would recall the 17th century Russian drama setbook, 'The government inspector' by Nicolai Gogol. The storyline is characterised by local officials of a remote Russian town who are anticipating the arrival of a government auditor to check the ongoings in the town's business. The mayor is informed by some bureaucrats from the capital that the arrival of this official would be 'incognito'. This means that his identity would be concealed. His presence in the area would be on undercover basis. He would mingle with the locals and make sure he arouses no suspicion whatsoever about his whereabouts. In many ways, his dealings would be clandestine. So the mayor, the local judge and other town officials embark on a hefty ' clean up' exercise. They try their best to rid the local offices of any present malpractises such as bribery, lack of accountability and even theft of public funds. They embark on a massive clean up exercise in town. They do all this with a watchful eye as they anticipate the bureaucrat to land. The happenings are however shortlived when a young, educated and sophisticated traveller arrives in town. His name is Ivan Alexandrovich Hlestakov. The mayor is briefed by his informers on the new arrival. He does his minor investigations and after a while, he is totally convinced that the young man from Moscow is the much dreaded and eagerly awaited Government Inspector. The mayor's attitude degenerates from simple fear to pandemonium. He is totally confused. He devices ways of trying to entice the young man in all ways with goodies and other benefits. Hlestakov is invited for dinners, he is given gifts and even offered land as am enticement. All the while, Hlestakov knows that something is just not right. He is being showered with goodies and can't understand why. The mayor and other town officials believe beyond any reasonable doubt that he's the government inspector. However, in real sense, he's just a young man on his numerous adventurous escapades in the country. The situation for the mayor and the town is complicated further in the conclusion of the book when the actual government inspector lands in town. How attractive it did look for the young Russian to enjoy the benefits of an identity he was being given by mistake. How attractive such life looks. Living anonymously. Living INCOGNITO!In many ways our fast paced and information laced society is forcing us towards such a tendency. Comments can be put on the web anonymously. We can exist anonymously in an estate and not even known by the next door neighbor. We can attend church and even participate in activities but do all this while still making an 'incognito' appearance. We can exist in a community and portray a face we want all to see and be in awe: and not share our real selves with others esp.in the household of faith for us to be a community. As Pastor Ondachi of Mamlaka Hill chapel said, 'You can't be shallow with God's word and His people and expect to be deep in Him'. In many ways i am guilty of ignoring true community and living incognito. When i have deep seated struggles yet decide not to share with a brother to pray with me. I only hope that God will hear me: and He does. However, He's put me in a community so that His goodness might reflect through it. I act incognito when my next door neighbor doesnt even know my existence. I wake up and leave the house at five am and and back at eleven pm and have never seen eye to eye with them. They in turn build all possibilities about me: maybe he's a secret agent, or maybe a very busy businessman,etc.when in actual sense am just one among them. Struggling with the same issues they struggle with. Living just next to them yet so far away. I then choose to blame the citylife with its individualism. But can't i make a difference? Scripture is full of accounts of men and women who thrived due to accountability. In the book of acts, believers shared all their possessions and even their lives and thats how their faith and numbers grew. They chose to be accountable to each other and not anonymous to one another. Christ, being God chose to be accountable to his disciples and not remain incognito about His identity even during the most difficult of times at the garden Of Gethsemane. So i ask God to help me to be accountable and not anonymous. This is because i am dwelling in a community of believers. Though sometimes its hard, I choose to be accountable and not Exist INCOGNITO!