Rejoice the end is nigh!
There are only 3 full days to go! 3 days of full on debate, and promises, & interviews and a constant war of words, which usually generate more heat than light, and then finally, after what seems like an eternity, on Thursday morning bright and early the polls will open in village and town alike across Shropshire and the nation and most of us will go off to our local polling station and put a cross by blue or red or yellow or green or some other colour.
after that the candidate who is in the returning officers immortal words “duly elected “will go off and represent us at Westminster
Some of us, perhaps uninterested in politics or perhaps appalled by the recent expenses scandal,will simply stay at home and refuse to vote
Such a reaction is understandable I think it was Aesop who said “we hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office!
Indeed my favorite ever sticker was one I saw on a yellow ford escort driving through Wem one election campaign many years ago which carried these immortal words” Don’t vote it only encourages them!”
That makes me laugh ,but it won’t stop me voting
As a Christian I have a responsibility to be involved in the society in which God has placed me
I worship a Saviour who saw the world for what it was, who saw our failures, who saw our weakness ,and who saw our need .
He didn’t sit on his hands! He got involved at great cost.
In the words of a modern hymn “Hands that flung starts into space to cruel nails surrendered”
His life is the model for ours. we are called to get involved. To be in Jesus words salt and light -to change things
William Wilberforce came into parliament as a v young man, from a very wealthy background. He became a Christian, he wanted to leave parliament calling it “a stage for prizefighters”
His Christian friends protested and reluctantly at first he stayed and gave his whole life to fighting for human rights it was a long struggle marked by many setbacks and it was only as he lay on his deathbed that he was brought the news that his bill to abolish slavery in the British Empire had been passed
Of course politics is a messy business; of course, it’s easy to be cynical about politics
but we should never forget politicians do not only give us scandal and sleaze and expenses, it was politicians who passed the anti slavery act , the factory acts which stopped child labour ,who introduce the national health service and education for all
The people we elect next Thursday need our prayers that they would genuinely seek the common good
The slogans are out there we may be sick of hearing them a future fair for all, building a better Britain, the big society
You may or may not thing their good slogans but they are laudable aims
On Thursday I would encourage you to vote but on Thursday and every other day I would encourage you also to continue to work in your community in your street in your village towards the common good . We need politicians but the future doesn’t just depend on them but in us all!
It’s been said and I think well said we get the politicians we deserve, it’s probably also true we get the society we deserve- lets work hard to build a better one
What will you do this week to make your corner of this world a better place
One where in the prophets immortal words we all including politicians act justly
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