He hath founded it upon the seas

The motto of the Cayman Islands is “He hath founded it upon the seas” and it comes from the 24th Psalm verse 2 that finished with “and established it upon the floods.”

The fact that the Cayman Islanders went to the Bible to mark their place in history with this motto speaks volumes for these God fearing founders.

Roll on now to the powerful speech Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin made just a few weeks ago when he blasted David Legge and The Cayman Compass Editorial Board with these words:

“This country was built on hard work and honesty and this is our foundation. Our forebears will attest that nothing came easy to them. They worked for what they had and helped build these islands, along with those who came to help, into what we are today.”

If we have a solid foundation it will withstand everything that is thrown at it.

The foundation to our life is faith. We work first and most often we get paid second. We have faith in our employer that he will recompense us for the hours we have worked for him.
We have faith whether we believe in a God or not that there will be a morning to look forward to after the night.

Our foundation for that faith lies from the time we were born.

One of the big things that separate us from many countries in the world is the faith that a very large proportion of Caymanians believe in God. And not just Caymanians. West Indians in general believe in God and believe in Jesus Christ.

Forces are at work, however, to hit at everything that up until now has stood the test of time. Forces are ready and arming themselves and have actively commenced battle to try and shake our foundations and our faith in what has gone before.

This was brought home to me only yesterday when a Caymanian lady made an unexpected acll at my door. I had not spoken to her for over two years and then that was only for a few hours when we were judges at a competition. Neither of us were close friends – we were at best acquaintances and we always greeted each other with a smile.

Therefore it was with some puzzlement why I had been sought out shall we say although that got clearer during our meeting. In fact both of us were stunned at the end. I will not say more on that as it has nothing to do with this editorial except faith was prominent in it.

What did come out during the conversation was her revelation that she was at a function recently where a prominent speaker from the USA praised Caymanians for their motto, their faith in God and their unashamed stance for Christian principals that he said were nowhere to be found in the USA.

He warned her, however, that evil forces were at work and would be soon attacking us. Some people we looked up to will come tumbling down and our countries reputation would be tarnished not only from outside but from within.

Our very foundations will rock and it will test our faith.

This Monday (29) as I write this I attended Mass to celebrate St Peter & St Paul. Interestingly but I doubt it is by chance one of the readings was Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians Chapter 4 verses 1-5 are very pertinent today:

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you:  proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.  For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires,  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.  As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.”

Paul could have written this now instead of 2,000 years ago – “For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths”.

Let us not turn away from our motto because we have no need. We have a good foundation.