I Want To Sue God! ― Blasphemy Or Satire?

When many people for the first time hear the title of our new play, I WANT TO SUE GOD!, it sends them into a moment of bewilderment. They begin to ask a world of questions and wonder how much guts it took us to make such a bold statement.

The question on the mind is, “Can a man ever sue God? And even if they could, what could the reason be? Who will mediate a case between man and God? If a man ever sued God, could they win? What happens to them if they lose?”

While some are anxious to know how on earth a man will sue their Maker in heaven and in which court that will happen, others are quick to conclude that it is such a blasphemy for a man to dare to take on a deity in court. That brings us to the multi-million-dollar question, “Is I Want To Sue God! blasphemy or just another satire?”

In I Want To Sue God!, a young man invests his entire life savings into his wedding only to be utterly disappointed by the return on his investment ― his wife. She is indeed everything but a wife. The ambitious young man goes on a mission to sue the deity who established the union.

This social drama was first staged in February and March 2016 at University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology respectively. Thereafter, it has been staged on different platforms within the country and abroad. With a focus on how many people, especially the young ones, are misled into marriage because of the excitement about the pomp and pageantry that comes with weddings, the musical uses drama, spoken word and dance to tell its beautiful story.

Considering the theme of the play, one realizes that someone wanting to sue God for their unmet expectations is not farfetched at all. Day in and out, we all look out for someone to blame when our expectations are not fulfilled. Some even go to the extent of blaming their parents for giving birth to them without their consent. Whew!

Life can be hard and we must be intentional not to blame others when it fails. If we would have celebrated the success alone, we must learn to not apportion blame when failure comes.

Frankly, everyone has once reached an “I Want To Sue God!” moment in their lives before. We have all experienced that moment when we blamed everyone for our woes except ourselves. We blamed our family and sometimes friends and even the government.

In finding fault with others, we forgot how we perfectly played a role in the circumstances we are currently drowning in. We were ready to blame everybody except assessing our own selves.

“I Want To Sue God!” is a sober reflection of a people who will blame everybody before they consider blaming themselves. It is a mirror of a people who think no one is perfect except themselves. When our businesses fail, we blame our staff and not how we misused funds. We assume fixing a country is someone’s duty and not ours.

Identifying a problem is the first step to solving it. Unfortunately, oftentimes, we are the problem. Our problems are almost always never solved because we are always pointing fingers at everybody except our own selves. We end up solving some parts of the problem while the root of the problem grows deeper and deeper.

Who do you blame when life doesn’t happen according to your plans? Do you blame people you were looking up to for help? When you are not able to achieve your set goals, who do you hold responsible for your failure? Those who take responsibility of their mistakes take responsibility of their lives.

If you find yourself entangled in any problem of a sort, look for the solution within before you look without. Admit your mistakes and rectify them quickly. The solution to most of our problems is sitting right inside of us.

I Want To Sue God! is a test of our character of responsibility. If we are intentional about our choices and decisions, we will all mold the future we want to have. Our future is only a product of our choices today. How our lives will turn out solely rests in our choices. The only person to blame when it messes up is our own selves.

Is your life what you want it to be? Are you fulfilled? Who do you blame when things don’t go as you expected them to? God or the devil? Have you taken the time to do a detailed assessment of your own self and how you have wittingly or unwittingly contributed to your current woes?

Sometimes, the only devil standing between us and our destiny is our own character. We may be our own demons. Our poor choices and decisions keep hurling us behind while all others are moving forward. Before we play any blame game, we must take a retrospect of our lives and rectify any fault therein.

Is I Want To Sue God! blasphemy or not? Well, maybe it is. Maybe it is not. Find out on 5^th and 6^th March, 2022 at National Theater.

The writer is a playwright and Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications, an Accra-based writing company ( www.scribecommltd.com ). His play, I Want To Sue God!, is Saturday, March 5 & Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 3pm and 7pm at National Theater. Visit www.scribeproductions.com for more details.