“Not another one!”

Brenda, from Bristol won legions of fans with her frank reaction.

A reporter put the microphone under her nose following PM Theresa May’s announcement of a snap election.

Brenda may have said it—but thousands probably thought it and now it’s just around the corner.

So, the nation has been examining those party leader promises and the paths they lead us on, in order to help us decide where we will place our cross on the ballot paper.

Surely the events of the last 11 months (is it really not even a year since the Brexit vote?) have affected and scarred us. We were left shocked by the result, which many did not expect. We are facing the consequences of choices that voters took which have created storms for some and changed the political landscape completely. Promises were fought over and made: you believed them, I believed them and now we feel let down because it all looks and feels so different.

That makes it more difficult for some of us to consider the new promises any politician makes in election speeches without a sense of disbelief, cynicism and perhaps even resentment.

There are increasing concerns over hospital and social care, and promises are being made to improve both. Fly-on-the-wall documentaries have highlighted the conditions and pressures of the NHS and Social Services in a shocking way. Older people especially are feeling vulnerable and anxious.

“No one cares!” is the cry of many a heart.

I recall how shocked I was when a neighbour was found frozen to death on her bathroom floor. She was a recluse but we had managed to speak with her and started to look at ways to help her. But we were too late.  One very cold night, wandering around with the taps fully turned on and no heating, she fell and was found the next day when the police broke in. Did no-one care?

I recall meeting Mother Teresa at her rescue mission in Calcutta, reaching out to the homeless and destitute. Some street children were deliberately maimed “to increase their value” when begging. Does no-one care there?

What about the person in a church I visited recently who lost his wife to cancer weeks ago, struggling to care for himself and no longer on the prayer chain or pastoral list for food? Daily life is hard and he wonders if anyone cares, anymore.

The needs are overwhelming and tragic stories bombard us daily. Whose job is it to care anyway?

I consider care to be the outworking of my Christian faith; being and doing like Jesus. It’s not just my mission, it’s not even just my calling, it is surely my DNA.

And, if you are a disciple of Jesus, it should be yours too.

Jesus, in responding to the Pharisees’ question of what the greatest commandment was, said, we were to love God with all our heart and with all our mind. Then to love our neighbour as ourselves. (Luke 10:27) It’s the logical outworking of loving God.

Love Him and then love them.

The Association of Christian Counsellors, in their pastoral training, say that within a congregation everyone is responsible for creating caring relationships.

Caring relationships have different faces: taxi service, meals delivered, coffee breaks, a listening ear, baby-sitting, fixing a car, writing a note, prayer, mending a fence or making a phone call to name a few!

Love Him and love them.

What a manifesto that would be!

P.S. The shocking tragedy of the Manchester bomb was followed with hundreds of astonishing acts of human kindness. An example of what theologians term “Common Grace”—the image of our Maker may be marred in humankind but not totally destroyed.