The Moment of Truth
Man considers himself free in the present world. Death makes him realize that he had been given everything as a test. He is responsible to God for his actions and would be taken to task for everything.
The power supply used to be plentiful in the Ivory Coast. Thanks to its glittering array of houses and shops, the country was once called the “Showcase of Africa”.
Everything suddenly changed in December 1983 due to a long dry season and recurrent forest fires. People were forced to eat by candlelight in luxury hotels, while lanterns lighted houses and offices; hydroelectric stations, which had supplied ninety-two per cent of the Ivory Coast’s electricity, were brought to a standstill by a severe drought which reduced the water flowing through the dams to a trickle. The turbines stopped running, and the electricity supply fell so low that there would be no power for up to 18 hours at times. Industrial production was reduced by 65%. Computers, electric typewriters, refrigerators, and other gadgets ceased to operate.
For fear of being caught in the lift, many business people gave up going to their offices. One commuter explained his situation to a New York Times correspondent:
“For years, I had gone from my air-conditioned villa to my air-conditioned car to my air-conditioned office. I never realized how hot it is here.”
This businessman, dwelling in air-conditioned surroundings in the heart of Africa, lived in an artificial world. When the electricity failed him, he realized that, in reality, things were very different from what he had supposed.
The same is true, on a larger scale, for all humanity. Man considers himself free in the present world. He thinks of everything he has as his property. However, when death comes, it will dawn on him, all of a sudden, that he had just been fooling himself: he had been given freedom as a test whereas he had thought it was his right; he had taken what God had given to him as his own, whereas it was given to him for the test; he was responsible to God for his actions, but he lived under the misapprehension that, whatever he did, he would never be taken to task for it.
