Be thankful

Let us, ‘remember the Lord who gives us the ability to produce wealth’, and ‘be thankful’

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A few years ago, when sorting through our parents’ possessions, my sister came across a hand-written note, very clearly in my distinctive dad’s style. This A4 sheet was among the numerous files of financial records recording the final years of their farming business and then the transition into ‘retirement’ - which as many folk know, can be just as busy! To my knowledge (and very fallible memory), my dad never kept a journal diary, though in later years he took over as the calendar scribe. For most of his life, he was the ‘back-of –an –envelope’ planner, though when it came to making a public speech, he wrote it out in full. However, this brief note spoke volumes to me: 

‘But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth’ Deuteronomy 8 verse 18

Last year, a dear family friend died at the age of 101. She was 10 years old when my dad was born, and when I called to see her after she had turned 100, she vividly recalled him as a young boy. In fact she was born at the same time that the ‘Victory Hall’ in Castle Bromwich was opened – June 1922. Although the Hall was built to celebrate the allied victory in the First World War, multitudes of men (886000 British troops) never returned, with many others severely wounded and traumatised. Then the Spanish flu pandemic raged from 1918-1920. It was probably brought back by the troops from the trenches, and infected over 25% of the UK population bringing another estimated 228000 deaths. This epidemic actually brought our country’s death rate above the birth rate for a short period and caused a dramatic decline in life expectancy. By 1922 the life expectancy rate had recovered, so that someone born in 1922 could on average, reach 55!

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55 is still the life expectancy for a few countries in the world today. However, our national average rate rapidly increased and has been steady at about 80 years for the last decade or so. We know that along with the corporate (national) ability to produce wealth there have been widespread improvements in healthcare, educations, technology, governance and more. Much of this has been built on the foundation of the Christian worldview; for these extraordinary advances have not happened in all countries. But of course we must admit that it is all far from perfect, as we have had to face the fact that our foundational wealth was built on the slave trade and massive exploitation of people, creatures and natural resources. And, this continues in many more veiled forms to this day.

So I hope to encourage you, dear reader, to look back, not just at your own life and family, but at our communal history over the past 100 years. Let us, ‘remember the Lord who gives us the ability to produce wealth’, and ‘be thankful’. Even as we have experienced the Covid pandemic recently, where many have predicted end-of-world scenarios, the global figures suggest a mortality rate of 1-2 per 1000. We should remember that during the Spanish Flu when there were no antibiotics, the mortality rate was anything in the range of 10-50 per 1000. 

“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.” 1 Chronicles 29:14.

Author: Richard Windridge

May God bless and enrich your life

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