CRISIS? Which crisis?

Did you know that a decade ago there were 125 million children not in school in Africa, and today the figure is 75 million? Did you know that eliminating malaria by 2010 is not just an aspiration? It has a business plan: it could really happen. This Good News came out of a recent UN Emergency Summit to review progress towards the Millennium Development goals to halve world poverty by 2015. Paul Vallely, an observer who writes in The Church Times, comments that politicians, including from the UK, have been steadily and consistently working behind the scenes to get world leaders to deliver on previous promises, and it seems to be working. He believes that the summit gave an impressive boost to the war on global poverty.

It's great to hear some good news isn't it? The global financial crisis means we hear a lot of bad news, especially for those most vulnerable here and around the world. But I think nearly all of us feel some anxiety at the moment. The people Jesus spoke to 2000 years ago lived more closely with financial uncertainty than most of us do, many only having just enough to live on. To them (and to us) Jesus said “Watch out, and beware of all greed! Your life isn't defined by the number of things you possess... Don't be anxious about your life - what you should eat; or about your body - what you should wear. Life is more than food! The body is more than clothing!... Think about the lilies and the way they grow. They don't work hard... but not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of them... So if that's how God clothes the grass in the field - here today, into the fire tomorrow - how much more will he clothe you, you little-faith lot!” (For the whole episode see Luke 12:13-34, NIV, LDS, KJV).

If the financial crisis we face causes us to look to God for help and if in so doing we discover that we can live with more faith and less worrying - that would also be good news in my book.

Kate Mier