A couple of half-remembered snippets from recent news broadcasts… One is the tragic mudslide in Myanmar, in which over 100 died. They were poor people scrabbling around in mine waste for gemstones. The other is that care homes in the UK were more likely to get COVID outbreaks if staff were from agencies or didn’t have adequate sick pay. There’s a connection between these two: poverty isn’t just grim – it makes you take risks. If the choice is between risk-taking behaviour and not having any bread on the table, then you’ll take risks. This is the profit motive at its most red in tooth and claw. This may also explain the number of men I’ve seen all through this outbreak who have suspiciously recent haircuts. Barbers need to survive.
This is not right. We were made for something better than a desperate struggle for survival. “Blessed are the poor” says Jesus (apologies for the repetition): therefore we need to pray even more than ever, Jesus’ prayer… “…your will be done, your kingdom come, on earth as in heaven…”
I’ve spent quite a lot of time recently making up prayers to go with places we’ve been. But when I’m actually praying myself, and when I’m stuck (which is quite often), I go back to the Lord’s Prayer, the most fundamental of all Christian prayers.