Well, a last-minute deal has been thrashed out at the COP26 Summit. Not enough to avert disaster, one fears; more of a fudge than a genuine agreement; and a compromise that, it is generally agreed, will not take us anywhere near close enough to an ‘acceptable’ temperature increase by 2050; but at least it’s a start, something that can be built upon. In the meantime, we must not only continue to pray for change but also recognise that this includes us: our actions, our lifestyles, our commitment. That’s the theme of this prayer, taken from my latest book Praying without Pretence: Being Honest in Prayer, just published by Kevin Mayhew Ltd.
What’s the point, Lord?
The point of working,
planning,
dreaming;
of putting my faith in anything –
even you –
when we’re told that this planet is in crisis,
on the verge of ecological collapse
and that, even if we change our ways drastically now –
which we show precious little sign of doing –
it will almost certainly be too little,
too late?
I can try to change things, of course,
and I will do –
for all the difference that might make.
But it doesn’t amount to much,
still less answer my question or give grounds for hope,
for it needs more than just a token handful to make a stand.
It needs a wholesale rethink –
a complete reappraisal of the way we live,
the way we do business,
the way we manufacture and produce,
the way we function as a society and as part of the international community –
if we’re not to hurtle inevitably to a destruction of our own making.
It would be easy to give up.
To shrug my shoulders and conclude:
eat, drink and be merry while you can,
and devil take the consequences.
and though sometimes I feel just like doing that,
it can’t be right,
for abdicating our responsibility towards creation feels little better than abusing it.
Move in the hearts of people everywhere, Lord,
and, above all, of governments, leaders,
corporations, multinationals,
industrialists, engineers,
investors, bankers, economists, businesspeople –
all who have the power truly to make a difference.
Give them, and people everywhere,
courage, wisdom and determination to see beyond narrow national interest
or short-term prosperity
and commit to a greater good.
Deliver us from a spirit of defeatism
and give us time,
and the will,
somehow still to turn things around,
before indeed it really is too little,
too late.
Amen.