The famous play “The Gods Are Not to Blame” presents a tragic story shaped by prophecy, fear, pride, and human decisions. Though the title appears to defend the gods from blame, the deeper lesson is that human beings often participate in the making of their own downfall.

Yesterday, like many other heavy rainy days in Ghana, various parts of the country got flooded. My heart was heavy with sorrow when the founding executive director of the BuzStopBoys, Heneba Safo, showed how the well constructed drains at Mallam had been choked with rubbish. And this explains why Mallam and many other places were heavily flooded.

The days of deferring blame are over. We are to take responsibility for the mess and change from our bad attitude of dumping rubbish anywhere. Unfortunately, some crude sanitation workers who go round people’s homes and pick their rubbish at a fee dump the garbage in gutters when no one is watching.

Oh Ghana, how long will we be the reason why properties and precious lives are lost every rainy season? You will be shocked when I tell you that we are labeled a Christian country, with a minority belonging to other religions who also claim to be God-fearing. Do we really fear God?

Certainly, our filth is only evidence of the condition of our soul. We have choked the drainage systems of our souls with “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like” (Gal. 5:19–21).

If only journalists and bloggers could enter our hearts, they would see that our souls are more flooded than Accra. Unbelievable! The residence of the Creator should never be treated like this, for He purchased it at a costly price; so we are to glorify Him in our bodies and spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).

Until we allow Jesus to truly reign in our hearts, and confront the moral and spiritual waste we have allowed to accumulate, every rainy season will remain a mirror of our inner condition. The gutters will overflow, but so will our conscience. And when both the land and the heart are clogged, no amount of rain can pass through in peace.

If we truly fear God, let us honour Him in our hearts: believe in Christ (Rom. 10:10), repent of our sins (Acts 2:38), confess our faith (Rom. 10:10), be baptized (Acts 22:16; 1 Pet. 3:21), be added to His church (Acts 2:47), and continue walking in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).