The Dignity of Work and the Folly of Mockery

On September 13, 2025, the front page headline in The Mast newspaper screamed: “Zambians Mock HH …how can he be writing own speeches – they wonder.” And below the headline was the picture of the Zambian president in his office, pen in hand, writing something on paper. The headline came a day after the president delivered his speech during the official opening of the Fifth Session of the Thirteenth National Assembly on Friday, 12th September, 2025. 

The Mast headline compelled me to pause and reflect. What kind of society ridicules its leader for working? What mindset finds it laughable that a president should pick up a pen, put thought onto paper, and prepare his own words for the nation?

 

This reaction reveals a deeper problem than politics. It reveals a distorted view of work itself. To mock someone, especially a head of State, for diligence is not only illogical, it is symptomatic of a cultural malaise that diminishes labour, glorifies idleness, and confuses privilege with leadership.

 

The Illogic of Mocking Work 

Let us begin with the obvious: writing one’s own speeches is work. It is the labour of thinking, of choosing words that carry meaning, and of shaping ideas into sentences that persuade and inspire. That is not a small task - it is hard, careful, and demanding labour.  

 

Why then would anyone ridicule this? Perhaps because many have been conditioned to think leadership is about appearing important, detached, and served. In such a mindset, “real leaders” do not soil their hands with the sweat of effort. They delegate everything, even their voice. If this is the standard, then indeed a president writing his own speech looks out of place.

 

But this is a false and dangerous notion. Leadership is not laziness. Authority does not excuse one from labour; it binds one to greater responsibility. A president who writes his own speeches is not reducing his dignity, but enhancing it. He shows that he owns his convictions, that his words are not borrowed but born of his own reasoning, and that his leadership is not second-hand. To mock such work is to expose one’s own folly. For what is truly ridiculous is not a president who writes, but a people who laugh at diligence.

 

Work as a Divine Calling

From a biblical perspective, the necessity and dignity of work cannot be overstated. Work is not a curse; it is a calling. Before sin entered the world, Adam was placed in the garden of Eden “to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). Human beings were created to labour, to cultivate, to produce, and to steward.

 

After the fall, work became toilsome, but it never ceased to be honourable. The sweat of the brow was not meant to be despised but to remind us of our dependence on God who blesses labour. The book of Proverbs consistently warns against laziness: “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber”(Prov. 6:10–11).

 

The Apostle Paul gave perhaps the sharpest reminder in 2 Thessalonians 3:10: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” Work is both the condition of survival and the context of dignity. It is by labour that families are sustained, communities are built, and nations are strengthened. Therefore, to ridicule someone for working is not simply unwise, it is rebellion against God’s order. It mocks what God esteems.

 

A Model for Leadership

In leadership, the dignity of work is even more vital. Leaders are called not merely to occupy positions, but to serve. Christ Himself, the Lord of glory, declared: “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). If the eternal Son of God could stoop to labor for the salvation of His people, then surely a president writing his own speeches is no humiliation, but an act in harmony with true greatness.

 

When a president drafts his own words, he models ownership and accountability. He is not merely repeating phrases crafted by anonymous aides; he is speaking from conviction. That act alone should inspire respect, for it demonstrates that he takes his leadership seriously enough to think for himself.

 

Contrast this with leaders who abdicate all thought to advisers and speechwriters. Such leaders may deliver eloquent addresses, but the words are not theirs. They are actors reciting lines, not thinkers shaping policy. To prefer such detachment over the authenticity of personal labour is to choose shadows over substance.

 

The Folly of the Mockers

It is worth asking: what do those who mock gain? Do they not reveal that they would rather have leaders who are ornamental than substantive? Do they not show that they value appearance over reality, ease over effort, and privilege over responsibility?

 

This mindset is destructive. A society that despises labour will not progress. A people that mocks diligence will never rise. Nations are built by hard work, by men and women who do not despise effort but embrace it as honorable. If citizens laugh at a president for working, what hope is there that they themselves will take their own work seriously? Mockery of labour is the seedbed of poverty. Respect for labour is the foundation of prosperity. The choice between the two is not political - it is moral and spiritual.

 

A Call to Recover the Dignity of Work

What Zambia, and indeed every society needs is not less work, but more. We need leaders who labour with their minds and hands. We need citizens who see work not as a burden to be avoided but as a calling to be embraced. We need parents who teach their children that dignity lies not in avoiding toil but in doing it faithfully.

 

When a president writes his own speech, the proper response is not laughter but admiration. It should encourage us to also take responsibility for our words, our duties, and our vocations. It should remind us that no one is above work - not even the highest office in the land.

 

The front page of The Mast may have reported laughter, but it inadvertently raised a serious question: Do we as a people honour or despise work? If we choose mockery, we embrace folly and weaken the foundations of our nation. If we choose respect for work, we align ourselves with God’s design and secure the dignity of our future.

 

President Hichilema writing his own speeches is not a shame to be ridiculed, but a virtue to be celebrated. It is a small but significant reminder that true leadership is not about luxury but labour, not about privilege but responsibility. And until we learn to honour work in all its forms, we will remain a people who laugh at the very thing that could lift us.

 

Pastoral Reflections on the August 12 Elections #2 - For the Love of God and Country

“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:7)

One of the most corrupt, infamous, contemptible, and disgraceful characters in the Bible is a woman named Delilah. Her character is accurately painted for us in the sixteenth chapter of the book of Judges. Despite Samson’s moral failings, we admire his heroic patriotism and devotion to the nation of Israel. Empowered by God, he defended his country and single-handedly defeated Israel’s enemies. On the other hand, Delilah, Samson’s mistress, betrayed Samson to the Philistines. 

We are told that Delilah was from the valley of Sorek, in the southeast corner of Dan’s territory, only a few kilometres from Samson’s home in Zorah. Whether she was a Philistine, or an Israelite is unclear. Was her motivation to betray Samson driven by Philistine ethnicity and loyalty or by her greed for worldly possessions? She was handsomely paid 5,500 pieces of sliver for her duplicity. Her unhindered contact with men probably indicates that she was a prostitute. If she was an Israelite, her ignominy is even far more serious that she could sell herself to Israel’s oppressors for money. Whatever the case could be, here is a woman of duplicity and a cunning mercenary spirit. 

 

What is Patriotism? 

As Zambia heads to the polls next week on Thursday (August 12^th), Christians must rise up to the occasion and show their love for God and for this country. Above anyone else, we are the ones who must show greater patriotism to this country. Patriotism is simply love for your country. Zambia as a nation is a concrete, well-defined territory. We are a community of citizens created by political power but deepened in the development of a shared commitment to, and love of, this community we call Zambia. Such loyalty is not idolatrous; rather, it is a limited affection for a community of fellow citizens bound together for purposes of government and based in our defined territory. 

 

A nation cannot be unified on the basis of only the mutual satisfaction of utilitarian needs. It must rather be bound together by an active dedication to the maintenance of the body politic. To call this dedication love is quite proper if we understand that this particular form of love is distinct from that between close friends, husband and wife, or parents and children. Patriotic loyalty is thus inextricably tied to the shared commitment to do public justice within the context of political community.

 

I contend that there is a legitimate place for our loyalty and love to our nation in a modest and non-idolatrous sense. Our love for this country must flow from an ultimate love for the triune God and express itself to our various and diverse fellow citizens who, as defined by the Lord Jesus Christ in the parable of the Good Samaritan, are our “neighbours.” (Luke 10:25-37). It is God who has given each one of us this territorial setting in which we live (Acts 17:26). Christian citizenship is a good and important calling.

 

It is our calling as Christians to strive to maintain our patriotic feelings within proper biblical bounds. To show our devotion to Zambia in a godly manner is to want to participate in any way that would bring justice, love and mercy in the nation. It is to pray that “God’s kingdom come, and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And one way we contribute to making our nation better is to participate in the electoral process.  

 

Unhealthy Tendencies to Avoid

Even as Christians, we are not immune to earthly tendencies and the appeal of ideologies, despite our commitment in principle to the exclusive claims of the gospel. Concern for one’s political community is, of course, right and proper, and Christians can hardly be faulted for wishing to correct their nation’s deficiencies. But we must be wary of the unhealthy variety of Christian nationalism masquerading as patriotism that errs on many fronts: 

 

1. We must be careful not to apply biblical promises intended for the body of Christ as a whole to one of many particular groups of people bound together under a common political framework. There is no single leader or political grouping that should claim to be God’s exclusive choice in the same way that God ordained and anointed kings in the Old Testament. I will talk about democracy in my next posting. 

2. We must keep away from the tendency to identify God’s norms for political and cultural life with a particular, imperfect manifestation of those norms at a specific period of a nation’s history. We must judge our nation’s present actions by transcendent norms given by God and not by precedents in our nation’s history deemed to have embodied these norms.  

3. We must refrain from too easily paying our nation a homage due only to God. We must not see our nation’s history, such as the Christian heritage bequeathed to us by many missionary agencies and the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation as somehow revelatory of God’s ways and making us a special country in the eyes of God. We are what we are as nation only by the grace of God. 

4. We must not make the mistake of conceiving of our nationhood as an undifferentiated community with few if any constraints on its claims to allegiance. Nationhood must remain within the normative limits God has placed on everything in his creation.

 

No country can legitimately make an absolute moral claim on the loyalty of the Christian or of any of its members. Christians and the nations are called to a greater love and an ultimate loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is identity in Christ and the gospel of the kingdom which offer hope and reconciliation in a divided world, not national identity and patriotism. And yet Christians and the one human race live in the context of a range of social, cultural, and political communities. That is an integral part of a God-given humanity as created social creatures. 

 

The gospel both judges and affirms the social context and cultural identity of human life within history, including the context of country and nationhood. Patriotism may be a worthy disposition for Christians in their earthly citizenship within the wider loyalty and horizon of the heavenly city. The love that Christians may show for their country must be discerning and discriminating. At its core, patriotism must be an affirmation of what is best in a country’s history and life, including the humane and creative achievements of its culture, its struggles for greater justice in human affairs at home and in the wider world, and the expression of certain moral values in its public life and institutions.  

 

The scale for assessing the worth of one’s country does not lie in some innate national spirit or genius, but in that human creativity and partial grasp of truth which remains open to all humanity even after its fall into sin and rebellious history.Each culture and country may express that creativity and grasp of truth in its own distinctive ways, but no mere country is endowed with a monopoly of wisdom or possesses some unique destiny. The church of Jesus Christ alone is the herald of the coming kingdom of God, a community which draws its membership from every country and culture. Only from within the loyalty and perspective of the kingdom can we exercise a true patriotism for country deserving of a penultimate loyalty and provisional commitment.   

 

At its core, a true Christian patriot must expose fully all that is evil and morally compromised in the history and identity of a nation in the light of the gospel, and still love that country. Christian patriots like the biblical prophet Jeremiah and the German Christian Dietrich Bonhoeffer show the cost, honesty and courage required for true love of God and country in Christ. 

 

How much do you love Zambia? How much do you want to see it prosper and put its fragmented past behind us? How much are you praying that God may use even your seemingly insignificant vote to shape a new and better trajectory for this country? Don’t be like Delilah and sell yourself to those who might not mean well for the country. Keep your national identity card and voter’s card safe. You have a patriotic duty to play on 12^th August, 2021.    

 

Pastoral Reflections on the August 12 Elections #1 - Rebuilding a Fractured Nation

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 

(2 Chronicles 7:14)

 

On 12th August, registered Zambian voters go to the polls to elect a President, Members of Parliament, Mayors/Council Secretaries and Counselors. The country is awash with campaign messages from participating political parties and independent candidates.  

In the run up to election day, I will be posting my thoughts on this blog on the subject of politics, democracy and governance from a theological and biblical point of view. Our country in its present form is a broken and fractured nation. It is bleeding on many fronts. Our politics are increasingly characterised by violence and tribal divisions. We have become polarised as a country. The economy is in tatters, and the basic social and ethical fabric of society is rent by the crippling winds of injustice. Like a destructive hurricane flattening a city, we have seen a system-wide collapse of law and order. The challenges and effects of the Covid-19 on all spheres of the nation’s life have been devastatingly enormous. Good and inspiring leadership is in short supply. 

 

This hopeless scenario and downward spiral may cause some people to despair and lose hope, or entirely give up on participating in the electoral process that our democracy affords us. Is this unfortunate situation reversible? Is there any hope for Zambia? Can the fractures on Zambia’s bones be healed? 

 

I am writing as a Christian, and as a Christian, I am not ignorant of the fact that politics is a broken cistern. When Christians exclusively trust in political solutions and politicians to save the nation, they will be miserably disappointed. (Jer. 2:18, 36-37). My mind has never been held captive to the idea that the only place where the political and economic fortunes of this country can be turned around for the better is at State House and at Parliament. I have never assumed that the executive and the legislature alone can change this country for good. I cannot put my hope in any government, and never will. The gospel challenges this myth. It tells me that the political sphere is just one area, and not the only one, through which change can take place. 

 

So, as we go the polls on August 12th, each one of us has a civic responsibility to play. The basic duties and responsibilities of Christians in a free society includes the electing of civil leaders. I wish to remind my Christian colleagues that we have an awesome responsibility in this nation and we need to approach these responsibilities from a biblical perspective.  

 

In these reflections, I set out to assist Christians understand why they should gladly be interested in the electoral process of our country and exercise their patriotic responsibility on Election Day. I must make it clear that I am not advocating for any one particular party or candidate. I am simply engaging with you my readers so that we begin to see how best we can contribute to the good of our country and make an impactful contribution on society by voting with a Christian conscience. 

 

May God’s people bend their knees and bow their heads and cry to the sovereign LORD of the universe to heal our broken and fractured nation. 

 

Irving Steggles (1945–2020) — Shedding The Robe Of Flesh

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, ..” (2 Corinthians 5:1-2, ESV).

Many tributes have been penned down in honour of Pastor Irving Steggles. Those who knew him well have plumbed the depths of his life and given us a glimpse of his character and life worthily lived in the service of His Master. Our hearts have soared to the heights of heaven in gratitude to God for the life of His servant who lived and faithfully laboured among us. What can one say that has not already been said about Pastor Irving? 

When news of his passing into glory rang out from South Africa on April 22, 2020, it didn’t come as a total surprise to me. I last met Pastor Irving on January 18 when I preached in his church after doing a run of conferences in Kwa Zulu Natal province. It was clear then, as it had been the last few years, that his earthly tent was about to be dislodged from the pegs that held it firmly into the ground. It had evidently been battered and bruised, and it was really a matter of how long before a blast of wind could rip through the frail fabric canvas of his life. Even in his frailty, he led the service that Sunday and offered the pastoral prayer, the voice strong and firm, but his feet barely able to support his physical frame. That he had come this far was nothing but an act of God’s grace. 

I first met Pastor Irving in December 2008 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. My family had just returned from the USA a few months earlier, and after we had found our feet back home, I was asked if I could help with the preaching at the African Pastors’ Conferences that were being held in various places across Southern and Central Africa. My first assignment was in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe from 8^th to 11^th December. I flew into Bulawayo from Lusaka via Johannesburg, South Africa, and Pastor Irving and the team travelled by road through Botswana. We met that evening during supper and got to know each other. After supper, we spent some time together, and he explained to me what the African Pastors Conferences were all about. Afterwards, we prayed together. He prayed with such passion, energy and intensity, weaving together the petitions to God with words taken from the promises of God in Scripture. His prayer was three times longer than mine. These conferences meant so much to him, and he knew their potential to impact the African continent through the main pastors who would attend them. 

Pastor Irving, Dr. Nakah and me in Bulawayo, 2008

After that conference in Bulawayo, he wrote to me: “Thank you so much for taking the time to prepare and to get alongside the men at the conference. Our great desire is that these men will slowly be weaned out of their dysfunctional ministries, often dysfunctional through ignorance. Please continue to pray that God will point them to the truth, and that sound, good reformed churches will be established through them.” 

And, thus from that time and for the next five years, I took part in two conferences each year across South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and had the unspeakable privilege and joy of sharing the ministry with Pastor Irving in some of these conferences. I spent several nights in his pristine bachelor’s home and was treated to his typical English hospitality. Our numerous conversations would always be about the gospel, ministry and theology. He had read widely, and I found his knowledge of church history and theology profound and encyclopedic. He rarely talked about himself, unless you asked him a question about something personal. It was in his house that I came across the widest collection of Classical music CDs ever in my life, from performers such as Mozart, Bach, Arion, Franz Liszt and Murray Peharia. As we parted one of the evenings, I picked two CDs from his collection and told him I was going to play them on my laptop before sleeping. He chuckled, and said, “I hope you will like that music. It sure will send you to sleep quicker than you thought.” I told him that if he liked it, I probably would like it, too. “But I am British,” he answered, with wittily humour, “and you are African. I have not come across many Africans that love Classical music.” He was right. The music sent me to sleep before the second track finished on the CD. 

Pastor Irving and I during the Q & A at the APC in Bulawayo

Pastor Irving was a selfless man, who rarely thought about his own comfort first before that of others. He was inflexible and not easily dislodged from his decision about something, even when that was for the good of his health. In 2012, we were taking a long drive from one of the conferences in the Eastern Cape, and he was evidently very tired and was failing to concentrate behind the wheel. I offered to help him drive, and he shot back and told me, “You need more rest than I do. You are the one who has more preaching sessions than I do in these conferences.” And with that, we drove on, without the rest he thought I needed because I had to stay awake, praying that we don’t end up off the road, or perhaps in hospital. 

He was a very humble and godly man. In 2013, we had a misunderstanding, and after much prayer and reflection, I opened up and told him what I felt. I was humbled by his gracious response, in spite of our age difference. He apologised, with a crack in his voice, and we prayed together. What a kind, courteous, gentle, patient, and encouraging man he was. Although sometimes eccentric, you could not fail to see that there was a man who loved the Lord, loved the church and had a heart sold out to missions and the training pastors for the gospel labours in Africa. He has been a model for many of us in faithful service to the Lord, to one’s dying breath. His heart was submerged in the doctrines of grace, and he was an able defender of Reformed Theology. 

One of the lasting legacies of the APC - free and affordable, sound reformed literature

In the last few years of his life, Pastor Irving constantly groaned as his earthly tent was yearning to put on his heavenly dwelling. And that day came. He completed his earthly race, having fought the good fight of faith, and he entered into the joy of his Master. And without doubt, he heard the words we all long to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Praise be to God for His grace in gifting the church with such a servant as Pastor Irving!

Sleep is an Act of Faith

“I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.”(Psalm 3:5-6)

I thank God that insomnia (inability to sleep) is not one of my weaknesses. I have an uncle who, regardless of what time he goes to bed, will be up around 03:00 hours. Sleep completely disappears, and no matter how hard he tries, he cannot fall asleep again. I have never come across anyone who hates sleep. Normally, all of us sleep about a third of our lives. The need for sleep is part of the way that God hardwired us. Isn’t it interesting that the One in whose image we have been created, made us with the ability and urge to sleep when He himself neither slumbers nor sleeps? (Psalm 121:4). 

Sleep is not only a gift of God, (Psalm 127:2) but also an act of faith. Psalm 3 is a psalm of David when he fled from Absalom. This was a time of great distress and danger on every side. What David was facing was overwhelming enough to cause him fear and anxiety and deprive him of sleep. But David did what all of us should do when fear and anxiety overwhelm us – he “cried out to the LORD.” (Psalm 3:4). And did God answer his prayer? Yes, He did. With enemies all around him, David manages to fall asleep (3:5). That he was able to rest and sleep in the face of overwhelming danger was an act of faith. 

Peaceful sleep is the opposite of fearful restlessness, sleeplessness, and anxiety. When we trust God, He will send us His divine gift of sleep. In the face of the threat of the COVID-19, do you fail to sleep because of excessive worry and fear? Turn your fear and worry over to God, and lay down to sleep confident that the Lord will sustain you. George Horne (1730-1792), an English churchman and vice-chancellor of Oxford University beautifully wrote: 

Happy is the Christian, who having nightly with this verse, committed himself to his bed as to his grave, shall at last, with the same words, resign himself to his grave as to his bed, from which he expects in due time to arise, and sing a morning hymn with the children of the resurrection. 

Advent Meditations - Lesson on Humility from Elizabeth

“And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:41-43)

The more I have read this passage, the more I have been struck by its portrayal of the character of true humility. If you struggle with pride, as sometimes I do, these verses come right at you and clearly spell out for you just what true humility looks like.

You know what? There are subtle moments when I want to be preoccupied with myself. When my mind tells me, people ought to recognise and acknowledge my accomplishments. When I am tempted to rehearse all my successes and show people that I am worth something. You see, pride is an orientation that wrongly assumes that everything should revolve around us. Elizabeth’s words in these verses give us a good example of a truly humble disposition.

When Elizabeth was visited by her younger cousin Mary, she was six months pregnant. When she heard the greeting of Mary, we are told that the baby leaped in her womb, and filled with the Spirit, she spoke these words in our text: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Do you see the humility of Elizabeth? An angel came to her husband months earlier and told him that she would be the mother of the forerunner of the Messiah. That in the person of her son, the great prophecies of the Old Testament were going to be fulfilled.

But when Mary shows up by her doorstep, Elizabeth has nothing to say about herself. Just this: “Blessed are you among women.” She could have said, ‘Mary, let me tell you how I'm going to be used of the Lord!’ But for Elizabeth, it’s all about Jesus. ‘Blessed are you among women, Mary, because you’re going to bear the Messiah. You’re going to be the mother of my Lord.’ 

Elizabeth is not envious of her younger cousin who has been chosen by God to bear the Messiah. She does not think of herself – older, more mature and perhaps more godly, as the one who should have been given this honour to give birth to the Messiah. No. She is content with providence’s gift to her, and she is happy for Mary. And it struck me, as I was reading this passage, that Elizabeth’s son was just like her. You remember John the Baptist’s word? “He must increase; I must decrease.” (John 3:). John learnt humility from his mother. The self-denial, and the focus on Christ that is latter displayed in the ministry of John is evident in the heart of Elizabeth!

My friends, we could learn something from that. For so many of us “it’s all about me…all about mine…let me tell you about me…let me tell you what I’ve done.” Not with Elizabeth. All the focus is on Jesus. All the encouragement is to Mary, who is going to be the one to bear the Messiah. What an example of humility she is to us. The Bible’s answer to our fallen self-obsession is a great work of grace in the gospel that creates a worshipful fixation and focus upon God. 

Amen!