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Everyone thinks and has a thought process. In fact, today you have been doing some thinking—some of it good; some of it probably not. We differ from one another by the way we think. As a pastor, I am continually interacting with people from all sorts of backgrounds, and I am shocked at times at how some people think. As a husband and father, I quickly learned in marriage that my wife thinks differently from me and that my kids have a mind of their own. I have traveled the world extensively over the years, and I have seen how thought processes differ from one place to another.

I am not a psychologist so I cannot give you the details of how the brain works in individuals; but we can start this journey by looking at Scripture.

This Scripture states that there is a direct relationship between our thought processes and who we are. So if you are not happy with who you are, where you are in life, and what you have achieved, then it means you are probably not thinking right—or not thinking at all in some cases.

Growing up in Africa, I saw certain things that I thought were “normal” until I started traveling and seeing how other cultures and nations treated the same subject matter. For example, let us look at transportation systems around the world. In some countries, loading twenty people into a twelve-seat van, squeezing them really tightly like sardines, with arms and legs hanging out as the van drives off, is a “normal” mode of transportation. That is their culture—who they are and the way their transportation system works.

So according to the Proverb we just looked at, what is the thought process behind having a transportation system that treats people with such little regard? We can ask this question, too, about any societal and organizational infrastructure in a nation. We can ask this question with regard to our church, to our children and marriages, to our businesses, and to our families. Who we are is a fact; it is not a debate. If you are poor, then you are poor. It is not debatable. You cannot debate that you have a million dollars in the bank when your bank statement reads zero. It’s who you are. When your nation is in debt or when your nation cannot provide basic services like affordable health care or clean water or safe, reliable transportation, it is who it is. I am amused at leaders and politicians who try to hide and sugarcoat the state of a nation from what it really is. And, it is not amusing to see a husband who pretends that his marriage is healthy when he cannot remember the last time his wife smiled and laughed in the home. When we try hiding who we really are, we are hiding from the way we think because we are a product of what we think.

An orange tree cannot produce apples. Stop deceiving yourself. You are poor because of the way you think. We have systemic poverty and poor quality of life in some communities because somewhere in that society, someone has a poor thought process. What and how are we supposed to think then?

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” —Philippians 4:8

I remember watching an interview on CNN about an architect from Ghana called David Adjaye. Adjaye is one of the most sought after architects in the world. He has a unique style of design that taps into ancient African cultures mixed with modern twenty-first century thinking, capturing the present, past and the future. Some of his most notable buildings include the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, Norway; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Colorado; and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. This man is a genius, and I was highly intrigued by the interview he gave. One of his statements that stood out to me was that, in the next fifteen years, all the free spaces of land in Africa will have cities and megacities built on them and major developments happening there.

This is an amazing statement because a megacity is considered to have ten to fifteen million people. Adjaye said it would be possible to build entirely new cities with a metropolitan culture in the next fifteen years. For me, this was extremely shocking. How would this happen? Adjaye explained that Africa has an extremely high rural population of which millions of people per year flock into urban centers and cities looking for jobs and a better quality of life. The rural population in Africa (and, of course, in some other parts of the world) is not acclimatized to running water, electricity, roads, schools, Internet, and all the “necessities” that urbanites are used to having.

What would happen if the entire rural population in Africa was acclimatized and acculturated to have a mindset of twenty-first century city dwellers and norms? Not all of the population can move into existing cities because a city can only take so much. But the fact is that these rural dwellers will have to set up their own running water, construct their own roads, build their own schools, and so forth. Adjaye is saying that by changing the mindset of rural dwellers, the environment around Africa will change.

It is amazing how an architect is becoming a social reconstructor. We can see that construction takes place in the mind first before it happens in reality. The rural population will not have the impetus to change their environment (way of life) if their minds are not conditioned to think in that direction. Imagine the jobs and industry that would be created if we were able to shift the mindsets of entire populations. Imagine how people’s lives will be better—having running water instead of walking miles to fetch water and having electricity instead of using wood fires. Which national leaders would not want that for their country? What a difference organized thought patterns of many people bring into society. Is it possible to bring many people together, to organize their thoughts, and, most importantly, to organize their resources in order to implement their ideas? I can hear the skeptics as I write, but this is not a new concept. History has recorded remarkable events of a nation’s environment changing dramatically because of a mindset shift in the population.

Let us start by looking at the earliest example of how an organized thought pattern can change the environment around us.

“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”” —Genesis 11:1–6

This group of people were the sons of Adam who dwelt on the earth after the days of the great flood.¹ They lived similar lifestyles to the ones set out by their forefathers—as wanderers and tent dwellers. Their tents were most probably made from animal skins and leaves; and their livelihood most likely consisted of herding sheep and goats and maybe cattle, too. If they remained in one place long enough, they would farm and grow crops as well.

To build a city was a major shift in thinking for this group of people. The remarkable thing is that it is very likely that no one among them had even seen a city before because the flood would have wiped out any trace of city life. So everything they built was first constructed in their minds. A nomadic, agricultural people became a major metropolitan city. Their organized system of thought prompted God to intervene, as we learn from the Scriptures.

We can see another example of environmental reconstruction happening again in 1789 when France remarkably went from being in a bloody civil war and economic meltdown to becoming a global superpower in the space of ten years. Even more remarkable was the fact that this process of reconstruction took place in the midst of that civil war, known today as the French Revolution. The Revolution was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France from 1789 to 1799 that profoundly affected French and modern history, marking the decline of powerful monarchies and churches and the rise of democracy and nationalism. Popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and aristocracy grew amidst a financial crisis following two expensive wars and years of bad harvests, motivating demands for change.² The peasants and laborers hugely resented King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. The commoners, with aspirations for religious freedoms and social, political, and economic equality, also found distasteful the Catholic Church’s influence over public policy.

Additionally, Queen Marie Antoinette was despised because she was seen as a spendthrift while the population wallowed in poverty. This resentment and deep financial despair caused the population to revolt; and in 1789 a group of peasants assaulted and broke into the famed and feared Bastille prison—where the King locked up and tortured his opponents. This event led to civil disorder. A growing number of people wanted to see the abolishment of the feudal system, old laws, taxes, and royal courts and the establishment of a republic that held out to the promise of rule by law under a constitutional order.

A young man called Napoleon Bonaparte was instrumental in promoting and fighting for this pro-republican agenda. Napoleon published a pro-republican pamphlet called Le souper de Beaucaire (The Supper at Beaucaire) that helped him to organize influential pro-republicans to assist him in the war effort. They were so successful that by 1799 he was the greatest general and political leader in the world, and he led a wide array of liberal reforms across Europe including the abolishment of feudalism. His legal code in France influenced numerous civil law jurisdictions worldwide. In ten years, Napoleon changed France into a global superpower by changing its concepts, ideas, and environment. He completely reconstructed the social, economic, and political fabric of an entire continent. In fact, historian Edmund Burke³ maintained that, “The French Revolution was the product of a few conspiratorial individuals who brainwashed the masses into subverting the order.”

Over one hundred years later, another young man wrote a book that would be fundamental in the reconstruction of a nation—to devastating consequences. Adolf Hitler wrote a manuscript called Mein Kampf (My Struggle), and, in the space of ten years, he managed to convince a nation—defeated and battered during World War I and stripped of its dignity by the resulting Treaty of Versailles⁴—that they were a superior race, and all other peoples should be subjected to them. Using this manuscript, Hitler organized people and organized money around his ideals. By 1936, Hitler’s Germany, like Napoleon’s France, went from abject despondence to global prominence in a short space of time. Hitler rebuilt the economy and rebuilt the military, and, in ten years, he was ready to “retake” Europe—thus launching World War II.

There are several case studies of men and women who have reconstructed entire communities and shifted how people think. How did America elect an African American man to be President of the United States? From Rosa Parks⁵ in 1953 to President Barack Obama in 2008, the thought patterns on social, racial, and economic equality have shifted dramatically in the U.S. We can study different subject matters and see the same principle working over and over again. This gives me hope for African nations and third-world countries in general. David Adjaye’s ten-year vision is not a fairy tale; it has been done before. Environmental reconstruction has facilitated and can facilitate the rapid turnaround of entire continents.

Several American presidents and political leaders, including Abraham Lincoln, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, have intentionally propagated and coined the message of the “American Dream” to the public. Wikipedia defines the “American Dream” as a national ethos and set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work. In his definition of the “American Dream,” James Truslow Adams⁶ said in 1931, “Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstance of birth.” These leaders were helping to reconstruct the thinking of the public through their messages. Even though the “American Dream” is blamed for inflating American expectations, it is largely credited for helping to build a cohesive American experience. This ethos caused men like John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan to rise from obscurity and spark the industrial age that secured America’s position as number one in the world. Additionally men like Napoleon Hill⁷ and George Samuel Clason⁸, who were modern philosophers of societal construction, began to produce literature that promoted positive thinking. These influences helped America to grow and become entrenched in the “American Dream.”

My question is: where is the “African Dream”? What set of ideals will Africans aspire to? It seems that in Africa, for the longest of time, there has been no progress—but rather regression. It seems Africa is unable to move forward. What will it take to have positive thinking in Africa? Who are Africa’s societal reconstructors?

If who we are is determined by what is in our hearts, we must ask ourselves the fundamental question, “What is it that forms the heart?” The heart is formed by the environment—what a person sees, hears, smells, touches, and tastes. In order for you to understand the way you think, it is important to realize that your thinking not only stems from your current environment but also from the environment you grew up in as a child.

Lifelong impressions are formulated in a human being between the ages of two and seven years old. What a child sees and experiences during these years becomes a norm for him in the future. So, if a child is raised in an environment lacking love, protection, and basic care, that child’s future is already compromised. What a child hears and sees during this period is the responsibility of his or her parents and caregivers. God has given parents the responsibility of being the environmental constructors to their children. Parents need to paint a picture in the minds of children that will help them succeed in life. I always encourage young parents to expose their kids to different life situations. Exposure creates a new normal.

I remember growing up in Rhodesia⁹, seeing the differences between white and black families. What was normal to black kids was strange to white kids and vice versa. Unfortunately, because of the racial imbalance in Rhodesia at the time, black kids were at a disadvantage and were not exposed to certain things or to a certain quality of life. The consequence of this was that, when racial segregation ended and independence eventually came to the nation (now called Zimbabwe), the majority of the white community strove to be business owners, employers, and property owners while the majority of the black community were satisfied as employees and renters. This stark difference in mindset was constructed by the exposures and experiences seen as young children.

I remember hearing of a story of a young black boy who grew up on a cotton plantation as a slave in Mississippi in the 1800s. This young boy grew to be a young man, and the white slave owner gave this young man the job of shaving his beard. So for the next forty years, this black slave shaved the white slave owner’s beard every day until the slave owner died as an old man (of old age of course). The irony of this story is that the black slave had the means and opportunity to change his immediate future by slitting the slave master’s throat with the shaving knife he used. He could have taken revenge, at the very least; or, at best, he might have escaped. But he didn’t. For forty years he did nothing. This is because as a young boy his mind was conditioned to be a slave—he would be a slave to the day he died. An environmental reconstruction would have had to take place first in his mind before it could have taken place in reality.

Propaganda has been used for centuries now to shape the views and opinions of the public. There is an intentional attempt by politicians and news media outlets to control the flow of information. Propaganda uses sound, visuals, and emotions as tools to influence how the mind processes information. Even though it is a very shallow attempt at environmental reconstruction, the principles of societal reconstruction are similar. There are gates or entry points into the mind and heart of an individual; and as reconstructionists we need to understand the science of utilizing these gates.

Words play a major role in shaping an individual’s mindset. What we hear, especially when we are younger, determines our belief system. Some of the world’s greatest innovations and inventions have come into reality via this process. When the Wright brothers¹⁰ invented the first airplane, they had never seen a plane before (because it didn’t exist); but they believed they could invent a machine that could fly. But how did they believe? The Bible says, “How can they believe, if they do not hear?”¹¹ The Wright brothers probably heard someone, somewhere, say, “Human beings will fly one day.”

The power that comes from words is amazing. An insult from a loved one like a spouse or father can cause lifelong pain in someone’s life. I have heard people say, “Pain caused by sticks and stones will eventually heal, but pain caused by words will never heal.” Think about it—marriages are sealed by the spoken and written word. Business contracts are concluded in a similar fashion. As Christians, we believe that the world was created by the Word¹² and that a fundamental principle of being a Christian is reading God’s Word. How can you believe in something if you have never heard about it? How can a belief system be created if words do not exist?