THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK.
As I write this there is news of yet another round of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran and the continued retaliatory strikes on Israel and the Gulf States. I am sure that you, like me are watching the escalating crisis and worrying about just when and how it may end. Each day it seems to be spreading a little wider and with no obvious end point in sight.
This is just one conflict among many, just recently we marked the fourth anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the consequent terrible war that has claimed so many Ukrainian and Russian lives. Other conflicts continue to claim thousands of lives each year in Sudan, Somalia, in the Mexico drug wars and in many other places around the world.
In the face of such horrifying and continuing news it is difficult to know just what we as Christians here in our corner of the world can do. We can, of course, pray for peace and for all those in the world who work so hard day in day out to relieve the suffering of others. We can give to charities who work in war zones. We can do our best to ensure that the truth about events is told, by supporting brave journalists and not spreading baseless stories on social media. You may be able to add to this list, but even so it can seem that despite trying, all of our efforts can do little to bring about genuine, lasting change. But all we can do is to change those things that are in our power to change and trust God with everything else. Just because so much is beyond us, is no reason not to do everything we can to live the life Jesus calls us to live. Jesus tells us we should love our neighbour as we love ourselves – remembering that everyone is our neighbour – and to remember that God loves each and every one of us and we should show how much we love God in all we do.
A prayer that I often use and that I shared with PCCs I attended recently, is The Serenity Prayer, written in the early 1940s by the American theologian, Rheinhold Niebuhr.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can,and the wisdom to know the difference.
© Revd Lawrence 2026.
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