I have been wondering how the prophets of old would have written about the credit crunch? Obviously they would only have said what God inspired them to say, but I do wonder. I can 'hear' them saying for example: 'In those days men and women gave themselves over to the love of money. Their children were placed aside, their worship relegated to a mere irrelevance, their possessions and prospects elevated and the LORD was grieved. So God gave them over to inequality, to insecurity, to family breakdown, and to an endless dissatisfaction. And behold, man's pre-occupation with wealth was so great that few stopped to notice. And so God, in His great mercy, cast the financial systems into ruin that men and women might stop and notice the futility of their search for meaning and return once again.' Or indeed the prophets might well have written of the Lord's anger burning at the oppression of the poor, be it in body, mind or spirit. I am not saying that this crunch is a divine judgement, but I do believe that it is an invitation to search afresh for grace. We live in a crazy world, but the good news is partly about the security that we can know in God. Let's not be afraid to invite people into it.

Is it only me or is anyone else wondering how come we can find billions of pounds to save a bank but not find a few to save a life? The global economic crisis raises many questions, but I think this is one of the most important.

It is easy for us to be all judgemental, but I do find it difficult to understand how the German Chancellor can say one thing in conference with European leaders one day and then return home the next and do the opposite... ... except that it is just human behaviour writ large. It's so easy to condemn our leaders (and I am not saying that she's right to do what she has done; I have no crystal ball!), but sometimes what shocks us in others should help us to what is closer to home. I ask myself two questions today. Am I a man of my word? As the weekly bit says we need to be transparently trustworthy if we are following a God of truth. And secondly, how do I deal with it if I make a mistake and need to change course. Politicians rarely seem to admit error, but it seekers of grace need to. It is at the heart of the Christian life.

I went caving on Saturday. It was an extraordinary thing; I didn't expect to like it, but I had a chance to go but I had the chance and I do like to try things... The thought of spending a couple of hours in the dark, slithering through narrow gaps half filled with water odesn't sound too appealing. But I was very wrong - it is lots of fun. Perhaps not enough fun to get me doing it every week, but enough fun to make me want to do it again some time. Why do I tell you this, when I am meant to be reflecting on current affairs? Well, because when I was deep underground and completely absorbed in what I was doing it occurred to me that almost nobody in the world knew what I was doing and that I was completely oblivious to what was going on outside. Furthermore it seems to me that this is a good picture of how most of us are most of the time. So not a reflection on a current affair in the media sense today, just a marvelling that God's interest in current affairs is able to encompass yours, and mine, and all of us in our own caves. Certainly he also calls us out to engage with him and others, but he is juts as involved in my cave as he is on Wall Street or Number 10. He's that current...

I'm struggling here - I feel I ought to write a blog about the credit crunch, but I don't understand it. In fact I am sitting here with one of my children on my knee with my brain aching. I do understand, though, that a lot of people are hurting, and worried, and confused. It seems to me that we find ourselves in places like this for all sorts of reasons, and sometimes it doesn't matter why we got there, it is what we do when we get there that matters. CS Lewis said "Pain is God's megaphone to a dying world". He wanted to point out that when things go wrong it can be a strong prompt to drive us back to the only palce we can find eternal security. Odd isn't it, that so many could find enduring peace in the one who gave up the riches of heaven and had no place to lie his head, while so many find turmoil in the richest money markets the world has ever known.

We wake this morning to news that Lehman Brothers is filing for bankruptcy and that Merril Lynch has agreed to be taken over by the Bank of America. I am not sure that this will have a massive effect on me, if I am honest, and part of me wishes the media would wake up to the fact that America is not the centre of the universe. However, that is not what what I am really pondering this morning. I am wondering if a takeover is always such a bad thing. I know that it is not nice to have something that you have invested in overrun by a corporate giant. I also realise that all too often things of great value are swallowed up in the name of profit. Supermarkets, for example, are not always better than the grocers they replaced, although we must admit that there is a high degree of romanticism involved when we make this judgement. However, sometimes organisations, and even people, cannot survive on their own. Is a takeover so bad? I guess it depends on who is doing it, and how they are doing it. I observe that some people fear that God wants to take over their lives. I don't believe he does, in the common sense of the phrase, but he certainly wants to provide resources that we cannot find on our own... I am not sure I like takeovers in business, but when it comes to God... ?

OK, so that's not really the news, today, but I bet I am not the only one to have had that thought when I woke up and heard that Andy Murray has won his semi final in the American Open. It is funny how fond we are of Wimbledon despite the fact that it only seems to show how rubbish we are as a sporting, or at least a tennis, nation each year... ... but we live in hope, don't we? It's just that this kind of hope is very different from the Christian sort. The bible talks a lot about hope, but I worry that we get confused. To hope that a brit will win Wimbledon is a wish, a desperate longing. To hope that Christ will return, that he will bring in his kingdom of peace and joy, that all will be right as God intended; that is a 'hope that is steadfast and certain', it is a certain hope, it is a knowledge of that which is as yet unseen. It is hope that brings life and peace, and even more joy than if Andy Murray goes on to win the final.

Firstly an apology for the blog silence - a couple of weeks speaking away, a couple of weeks holiday, and a smashed screen have not allowed much internet access - it's amazing how you can survive without the net when you have to! Anyway, I am sure that you are as relieved as I am that New Orleans has not been massacred by hurricane Gustav. (Although, I do also pray that places which don't have so much media-power are not suffering without us knowing). The next few weeks and months will see masses of clearing up, rebuilding, construction of new defences and warning systems and so on... What will be fascinating, though, will be to see if anyone takes an environmental line on the situation... and if they do, whether anyone responds. No one seems to doubt that Gustav has been exacerbated by climate change, but I bet the next time something like this happens we will see more pictures of 'SUV's queuing to get out of the city. Humanity does sometimes seem to have an aversion to treating the cause of problems when it is easier to address the symptoms. And as so often happens, what is true physically is true spiritually; we are blind to the spiritual catastrophe being wreaked among us, and unwilling to pay the price to address it, even when the price has been paid for us and all we are called to do is follow.

I've missed it really. When I was a child I used to watch quite a lot of Wimbledon (or Wimbly Dunn as it sounded like it was called), but this year I have missed it almost in it's entirety. Apparently the men's final was quite something to behold, and part of me wishes that I had had time to watch it, but actually I got more pleasure from the fact that we won the girls' single's final... ... although, of course we didn't. Miss L Robson did. It's just that she's British and it makes you feel proud that a Brit won something! This feeling of national pride is an odd one, isn't it? Why do we identify with folk born in the same country as us? Actually I think it is quite a good thing, at least when it is not taken to too many extremes. However, there are others with whom we should identify and take action because of our empathy. I am thinking of the citizens of Zimbabwe, fellow humans like us. Or of the thousands of Christians who are suffering persecution because of their faith today. Or of the millions who are starving today due to a lack of food. Identifying with others is important, let's try to respond rightly to it.

Have you heard that, as from today, you can't smoke tobacco in cafes in the Netherlands. There's nothing surprising about that, you might think, until you realise that you can smoke cannabis; at least you can as long as you don't mix it with tobacco. I mention it, partly because it amuses me, but mainly because it is such a great picture of the inconsistency of human nature. Every time I go tot he leisure centre, for example, I notice that mine is the only peddle-bike outside that temple to fitness. People want to get fit, so they pay money for a class or the use of the gym, then they get in their cars and drive to it. Why not increase your exercise and save the planet at no extra cost? This is true spiritually too. We want to be better people so we take on this plan or that. At some point, though, we have to face the truth that with God it is all or nothing. It is only by fully turning to him that we find the life, forgiveness, freedom and hope that he longs to give us.

I know that this is last week's news, but did you hear that the government expect Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England to write a letter! And that's not all, he might have to write two or three letters this year to the chancellor of the exchequer. Honestly, they only pay the man £285,000 a year, how can they expect him to sign five pound notes, play golf and write a letter? I know that's not what is meant, but I did get the feeling the reporters loved saying that old Merv had to write a letter, poor chap. It almost makes up for the fact that we can't afford to heat our houses, run our cars or feed our kids due to the soaring price of things. I'll shut up about it now, but it did make me think how silly and how twistable our language is at times. It's not only that we use jargon all the time, although we do. We also change the sense of what we are doing by how we talk about it. Are you lying or bending the truth? Full of lust or a red-blooded male? A sinner or merely human? Perhaps that's why truth is such a key value for God... however we dress it up, truth matters, especially before God.

I am delighted to hear that Israel and Hamas have called a truce. I pray that it lasts and is part of the route to peace. But what I don't get is WHY IS STARTING TOMORROW? How can you call a truce, in other words agree to stop killing each other, and not do it now? When you agree to stop doing something you only carry on for a while if you have to or want to. You can terminate your phone contract but you will see out the terms of the agreement. You can agree to stop the game after everyone has had two more turns. You stop banging your head against a wall now. You don't realise it is harmful and then say, "I'll tell you what, we'll do it for a couple more days and then stop!" There's something diagnostic about humanity here though. We know things are bad, but we are trapped in them. That's the reason God cares about sin; it's the thing that rips apart those whom He loves. God, though, wants to help us break out now. Why wait?

I know that it was not the most serious news of the week, but did you hear that they have mended the toilet on the international space station? What got me was that it had been broken for two weeks before they fixed it. What did they do for two weeks without a loo on the space station? There aren't exactly any bushes to pop behind, are there? I am sure that there are solutions, and I am equally sure I don't want to think too much about them, but this does raise the point that there are some needs that are urgent! I wonder whether that is partly why the church is so much more vibrant in parts of the world that are less comfortable. In the west we are, perhaps too molly-coddled, shielded from our real needs. The bible says that all of us sin; all of us need cleaning up, and only God can do it. Sometimes, I think, we need to wake up and see the urgency of our need.

I confess to being a bit of an armchair politician - in the same way that I am an armchair referee, coach, commentator and so on - but I couldn't have stayed in my armchair, even if I had been in it, when I heard about Robert Mugabe attending the UN food summit in Rome, despite the fact that he is banned from Europe. It's like some kind of sick joke and it shouldn't happen. On a broader note, though, it makes me think about how Christians should face conflict. Too often we take the easy route and avoid confronting someone even when they are clearly wrong. We have adopted the idea that this is what Jesus would want us to do, despite the fact that we see him provoking leaders, turning over tables in the place that was like a cross between Parliament and St Paul's Cathedral, calling his best friend 'Satan', condemning a pig-farmer's livelihood to a lake and so on. Jesus didn't seem to mind offending people if it served a greater purpose. I have no questions about the fact the the international community should stand up to Robert Mugabe, and even if I don't always like it, it seems to me that we should be prepared to be those who stand up for right more often than we do. It seems to me that this is what Jesus would do...

I know it is a bit flippant, but every time I listen to the news about Burma I do a double take. Fancy naming a national leader "Fung Shui". Is it supposed to bring positive energy, or whatever fung shui is alleged to do, to the country? OK, so I know the leader of the military junta is actually called Gen Shwe, but that is not how it sounds when you hear it on the radio. It set me thinking about how names sound. Mr Shwe's name does not sound good around the world; not because it is confused for some spiritual practice (which I am not advocating by the way), but because he has failed in the first duty of a leader, caring for his people. This is the duty that God places first and foremost upon leaders in any context, and why he refers to himself so frequently as a shepherd. What does your name sound like? I don't mean literally; when people hear your name, what image does it bring to mind. When God hears your name, what does he think. More than anything he longs to welcome you home and restore you to the inheritance for which he created you... restore to you your family name.