Thought for the Week

by Rev Dick Watson, Associate Minister All Saints Ilkley

HAVE you decided for whom, or for which party you are going to vote, on D Day June 8?

With so many issues to consider, coming to a decision can be a weighty and difficult matter.

Which candidate or party can one trust most? Who will work with real commitment for a truly fairer Britain?

Who will look beyond self-interest or purely national interest, and take a world view, where the plight of refugees and those escaping persecution or conflict are also included in their deliberations?

As well as the economy, the NHS and Brexit, what emphasis is afforded such important issues as education, safety, security, defence, the environment, and the marginalised in society?

We are getting used to hearing all sorts of promises, yet many are short on how to fulfil them.

Do we want our children’s children to be bearing the ever increasing burden of national debt, with all its implications for exacerbating family - poverty levels in the future?

God has given us wonderful minds that are capable of solving how to explore outer space, and of achieving the most amazing advances in technology and science.

Yet we are called to live on this earth and make it a home for all mankind; for all to live in safety, within loving, caring relationships. This is the unfinished task that we should all strive to work for.

Whilst there is a great responsibility for leaders to work for the common good, we too must play our part and accept our share of that responsibility and express it in words and actions, both locally and beyond. Those who follow Christ’s example and who recognise that they are part of God’s worldwide family, regarding others as brothers and sisters, know the joy of looking beyond self in the service of those with even greater needs.

Last week was Christian Aid Week, when we were all given the opportunity, through the door-to-door collections throughout Ilkley, to be associated with the amazing work of Christian Aid in places of abject poverty and appalling suffering in our world. Thank you to all those who responded positively and cheerfully.

We are greatly privileged in this country to enjoy the freedom to make decisions and to cast our vote, and thereby to influence policy decisions.

May the Decision we are called upon to make on June 8 be made with wisdom, prayerfully, and with thoughts not for ourselves alone, but for the common good.

May God, in the power of the Holy Spirit, guide all our thoughts on Decision Day, as we too make our mark with a significant Cross.