'We can learn a lot from Bob the Builder and Jesus' (From Stroud News and Journal)

'We can learn a lot from Bob the Builder and Jesus'

9:00am Sunday 27th January 2013 in News By SNJ Reporter

YES we can! I didn't hear Barack Obama use that slogan this time round, although he did in his last election campaign (inspired, many people think, from watching Bob the Builder from British television with his kids).

But for the rest of us, well, yes we can - do a lot of things to make a difference that perhaps we thought were outside our capability.

There are lots of areas in our community where a few more people saying "yes we can" would make a big difference.

We've all got views on political issues, so getting involved in a group working on a particular project, or even joining one of the parties, is a way of saying "yes we can".

If we're concerned about social needs, then helping Foodbank, say, or Marah is something we can do.

The environment? There's the Canal Trust looking for volunteers.

The arts? Can we paint, or sing? Yes we can - the local art clubs and choirs would be glad of our support.

And if we need to improve our skills, there's the college and the library ready to help us.

We may need to explore working together with others more closely.

The churches in the area are certainly doing that. Within denominations the Anglicans are working as a team and the Baptists as a cluster to help smaller churches, and across the denominations with schools and with the support organisations mentioned above.

And we're free to do all this because of God's grace  -  that very difficult to define word that includes love, kindness and undeserved favour, and is perhaps best described as "the strength God gives us which enables us to live or do as Jesus would do were He in our situation".

As the New Testament puts it, it makes us "eager to do what is good".