LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!

A certain ring announcer made this his trademark catchphrase whenever he was about to introduce a bout, in which two physically endowed men punched each other with all the strength they could garner, without mercy and in certain instances, one party literally beaten to pulp. He’s made over $ 400m from patenting these few words. Michael Buffer made this catchphrase gain currency in our boxing parlance. It’s almost like it’s impliedly supposed to be screamed at every boxing bout the world over.

It usually goes like this: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLET’S GET READY TO RUMBBBBBLLLLLLLEEEEEEE!!! [Yeah! The tongue is kept rolled in the mouth in order to stretch the ‘L’ in “let’s”!] I usually wouldn’t ‘enjoy’ a boxing bout whenever I missed that phrase, even if it was the infamous bout in which the church usher Evander Holyfield got his ear bitten by a certain bald-headed heavyweight Iron Mike Tyson whose punch weighed more than a bag of Ghacem cement, or the latter’s famous tumultuous defeat by the dreadlocked Brit Lennox Lewis. It was that serious, really!

Recently, when our very own Nathaniel Attoh blurt out his version of the catchphrase to herald the ‘one-way onslaught’ of Ayittey Powers, by his very good friend the ‘Banku-eating’ boxer [emphasis mine] , it didn’t sound like the originator’s, neither did it come with the usual excitement and buzz that accompanied its uttering. However, something struck me when he made that call, which I will endeavour to explicitly share with you with the next few sentences.

We are all very familiar with the story of Jesus; his birth through to his death. I’m sure most, if not all of us will be able to tell this story almost without even thinking about the subject. I believe the story of his ascension is also very clear in our kinds, most importantly, the events preceding it.

There is an assignment He gave us believers just before He went to sit at the right hand of God the Father; “Go out to the world and preach the Gospel to every creature”, He ordered. When He explicitly issued this fiat in Mark 16:15, He wasn’t only referring to His disciples (Pastors) but to us all who claim to believe in Him and profess our faith accordingly. Rather conveniently, most of us tend to think this role was assigned to them alone and therefore sit on the fence and watch on as the few ‘labourers’ harvest the many grains from God’s field . Most of us are guilty of this! I am, perhaps you also are!

Aren’t we discerning enough to know that current happenings are harbingers of the ‘End Time’? Wars, global economic meltdown, increasing trend in homosexuality, Boko Haram’s  shameless slaughtering of human beings as though they were fowls, as well as the unfortunate abduction of the young girls are only a few of these End Time trumpeters. If there was ever a time to seek to populate the Kingdom of God, now couldn’t have been more apt!

When God uttered the word “preach”, I believe it stood for many things and not necessarily picking up a micro – or mega – phone and trying to dazzle people with our eloquence, which doesn’t really please Him by the way. Indeed some are not gifted with this talent. Does that mean they are exempted from carrying out this task? Certainly not! Now here is the beautiful thing about the Great Commission; Evangelism isn’t only limited to doing the afore-mentioned. One can do it via different means. We preach to others by the way we conduct ourselves. One will be called a hypocrite if he ‘pretended’ to be a believer only when he was public, but lived a totally reckless life when left alone in his closet. Just a simple statement: “God Loves You”, is enough to win a soul for the Master. Some may also not be able to go to the fields to harvest because of their ‘tight’ schedules, but ca can evangelize by supporting those who offer themselves to go out there. Support here includes, but not limited to financial aid, food, used clothing to be distributed to the needy etc…

Michael Buffer’s legendary catchphrase presupposes that there is still time, but sadly, there isn’t any left. We need to hit the ground running. We need to hit it so hard that the earth trembles, perhaps quakes when we do. So instead of using the celebrated Donald Trump Casinos lead ring announcer’s patented catchphrase “Let’s get ready to rumble” and paying royalties to him [used it anyway…let him demand payment when we shake hands someday], I’ll say “LET’S START RUMBLING”, and silently hope that I’d receive some good money as royalties. God’s still in the miracle working business, you know?  

So in the mean time, I’m on my way to the Registrar General’s Department to have mine patented.

 See you on the field.... God bless you, my friend.