It's still about choice!

It’s been another bad week for British politicians, as The Telegraph newspaper continues to expose the depth of the sleaze and fraud that appears to have been perpetrated by so many of them.

Yesterday, I had a highly disruptive class of about ten pupils, who were among those denied the opportunity to go on a reward trip for the S1/2 classes.

This morning’s Today radio programme broke the news that a long-delayed investigation into Ireland's Church of Rome-run institutions says that priests and nuns terrorised thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades – and that government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation.

Three separate, and seemingly unconnected, situations. Yet the common denominator that runs through them is that the focus is on the relatively small number of ‘deviants’, while the vast majority of those in the bigger picture – be they politicians, pupils, or priests/nuns – are not involved in the activities that anger, and shock, and lead to punishment of one kind or another.
Jesus said “You will always have the poor among you,” (Mt.26:11), but it is also true that, as a result of mankind’s fallen, sinful, nature, we will always have among us, those who do not even measure up to the standards that civilised society sets – let alone the standards set by Almighty God!

That, I would suggest, is why it is important that those of us who claim to be disciples of that same Jesus be faithful in our own witness – seeking, by His strength, to be the individuals that He wants us to be; and in our praying for those who see our witness – and who judge the Master by what they see of Him in the servants!

The few may certainly taint the many but, for the true follower of Jesus, there is an assurance of His promised presence (Matt.28:20), and that He has already won the victory over all that is evil through His sacrificial death at Calvary. May you know His strength, on a daily basis, that you may resist the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (I Pet.5:8), and be more than a conqueror, through Him Who loved us, and gave Himself for us (Rom.8:38). At the end of the day, we have been given – as the post below reminds us – the freedom to choose. But the consequences of our choices are eternal!