Quote of the day 27th November 2013
"If God had granted all the silly prayers I've made in my life, where should I be now?"
( C.S. Lewis )
( C.S. Lewis )
Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria
Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Comments
wishing or praying for something will not make it so, working towards a certain end has a far better track record.
too many times these days i hear things like "the government should act on ......" or "the government should give us ....." or "i wish i had more ....." too few people these days understand that as a new employee who is not profitable, then you have no right to ask for a higher wage until you become a much more profitable employee. Those who seek a higher minimum wage are actually in effect causing unemployment.
The opportunity to be employed and work towards a goal, or to seek an ATTRACTIVE education must out weigh the "wishing and praying for" culture. If not we are headed in the direction of certain doom.
yes I wish i was a godzillionare too, but i know wishing wont make it so, what will is working towards my goal, and though i may never be a godzillionare I may well find that in time my hard work and efforts increase my standard of living.
Lewis once wrote that there is no type of prayer which you could say for certain would never be answered, but there is a very old saying, with which I strongly suspect he would have agreed, that "God helps those who help themselves."
I certainly sign up to that one and I think it epitomises what I think you are getting at.
It makes no difference if you are a theist like yourself, or an athiest like me, the fact is you done that for yourself and you increased your income, now you may choose to donate part of that to a chruch or to the conservative party, me i might donate part to other charity as i see fit, or indeed keep it and spend it on myself.
The point really was god never helps anyone, people help themslves. Government intervention never helps anyone, people help themselves, ir is a sink or swim world, and if you are sinking then learn to swim.
of course i do understand that god gives a lot of comfort to a lot of people, but that is never the economic issue at hand. The issue is do you sink or do you swim, and the answer, here and now in this world, can only ever depend on your own actions.
However, I think we are agreed that prayer should never be an alternative to trying to resolve a problem yourself.