On Sunday afternoon, I returned to London from Newday 2011, an annual camp that gathers over 6,000 young people at a showground in Norwich.
It was an absolute privilege to have taken 12 young people from my church to spend time together and meet with God in different ways. God definitely moved that week! 338 people were healed and 365 people made first time commitments to Christ!!
But coming back to London meant that I heard the news about the rioting and the devastation over the last few days. If I’m honest, I’m disgusted by what I’ve seen and I am now beginning to understand a new level of brokenness of the country I live in. I don’t understand what motivates somebody to want to cause such devastation and destruction; help someone up and then steal from them when they are helpless, and destroy people’s lives in an instant by setting alight everything they have worked at for decades.
What I do know, is that God understands these people and sees more to this situation that what we see. Above all the mess is a God who knows how this is all going to work out, what’s going to happen tomorrow, next week and how to resolve this. Our God sees hearts that we don’t. He understands minds that we don’t. And has ULTIMATE CONTROL over this whole situation.
But to keep it in perspective, although these incidents have made breaking news, they have only been caused by a minority of our country. The ‘riot clean up’ initiative spoke volumes to me, of how at a time like this, communities can still pull together and turn this situation around. The images I have seen of hundreds of people holding brooms and clearing up the mess has really encouraged me that the destruction has been caused by a minority of people.
Also, having been at Newday last week, where thousands of young people hit the streets of Norwich to show God’s love by gardening, handing out leaflets, supporting at community fun days and washing cars also speaks more of our country and the influence that God has on us.
Our God is FAR greater than anything we have seen on the news this week. He sees it all. He isn’t letting it go on without Him. Our God knows how this is going to end. He knows the decisions our leaders are going to make and He knows the hearts and minds of those causing the trouble, even better than they know their own. So with this knowledge we can be confident that whatever happens, our God is in COMPLETE CONTROL. I trust Him – do you?
If you weren’t at Newday this year but want to see what all the fuss is about, check out the video and links below!
Newday BBC News (with video)
Newday BBC News 2 (without video)
Newday BBC News (with video)
Newday BBC News 2 (without video)
