The Faith Action Audit that took place in Plymouth last year showed hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours are pouring into the city from faith groups, Christian and others. It came just as the PM was really starting to promote the Big Society agenda.
Generally speaking, it seems that most people are at least open to the Big Society idea. One thing that we can all see, is that it's going to take a certain amount of sacrificed time and effort from many of us to make it work in the tough days ahead.
The generation before mine knows about adverse circumstances changing their lives dramatically, leading to extreme hardship and difficulty. That generation that lived through WW2. They didn't ask for it, they didn't want it, but they had to deal with it.
We can learn a lot from them. Galvanised by an inner resolve, they rose above those circumstances, sacrificing so much so that we, the generations that follow them, can enjoy so much freedom.
We could say of all of them, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." Winston Churchill was talking about the airmen who fought the Battle of Britain, but as one generation to another we can be thankful to them all.
If we say the 'blitz spirit', we mean that part of us, as individuals or communities or even a nation, that can lay down our own agendas, and seek to do our best for the good of our fellow men and women, under hardship. From a Christian perspective, that is the essence of love. "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend," said Jesus.
This attitude, a belief in something being more important than our own welfare, is essential, especially if we have to make sense of the values of the Big Society idea. Let's hope and pray that we can all develop that kind of loving, gutsy character in the days ahead.
The latest discussions in the media about Big Society, come at a time when it is also reported that up to 20% of 16-24 year olds are unemployed. That's the highest figure since 1992, and it is a sad fact, which we have to deal with compassionately.
My heart goes out to those young people who are stuck without a job in these hard times. But also, I have a concern about the culture that we have allowed to develop since the last World War. We are increasingly concerned about our rights, and less about our responsibilities. It is typified in the compensation culture. It erodes good character, courage and selflessness, and it promotes individualism and selfishness.
I am concerned for the younger generation – how will they cope with the hardships ahead, when they will increasingly have to give up some of those things they have been brought up to believe in as their rights?
The problem is in no way restricted to young people – it's an ancient problem, possibly the most ancient problem of all. 'I want things my way and that's my right' is the kind of thinking that got us all into trouble in the first place, as demonstrated by many individuals in the Bible who had to make right choices for life.
Times of difficulty are also times of opportunity. We have an opportunity to dig a little deeper and find gold in ourselves and each other that we didn't know was there. We can find hidden reserves of good character, of love, of compassion and courage in times of hardship.
To refer back to those saddening youth unemployment figures, how on earth are we to encourage these young people that their lives matter, they have purpose and a hope for a future?
As a Christian, I believe the answer can be found in a relationship with God, through his Son Jesus Christ, who created every one of us deliberately and for good reason, and who is the One who can give us a sense of identity, self-worth and destiny far above anything the world has to offer.
The essence of the Christian faith says that when we stop striving to make our own lives work in our own way, and ask God how He would want us to live, we will, wonderfully, find that life is working a whole lot better.
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