The prayer of an old saint

Billy Graham's Prayer for the United States of America

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values..

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free.Amen!'

Imagine - what would happen if ...!

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

Imagine the unsettling sight of uncollected bins and rubbish strewn across the streets. This was the reality not long ago in Warrington, a place close to my home. The refuse workers and street cleaners were on strike, likely for valid reasons. However, this situation exposed many people to potential health hazards, underscoring the gravity of the issue. 

A few years back, I was headed to Ballymena in Northern Ireland for a week. My travel route was set to pass through Liverpool John Lennon Airport. A few days before my departure, I learned from the web that some baggage handlers were on strike. Upon reaching the airport, I was relieved to find that my flight was unaffected. However, the strike did cause significant inconvenience to many and incurred additional costs for the travelling public, as employees had to be brought in from Dublin and other places to fill in for the strikers. Apart from the recent action by junior doctors, I have not been affected by people striking for quite a long time. However, I remember well the miner's strikes, the fuel protests, and many other types of strikes in my sixty-two years. Strikes are a very effective, if not annoying and sometimes illegal, way of making a point. In the long run, someone suffers, and it costs money.