Living Globally

This is not meant as a political comment, but Brexit will not keep us out of Europe. Nor will building walls stop Central America from being next to the United States.

More importantly, nothing can stop clear and easy communication from taking place between these nations. We live in a Global World. That world is facilitated by the Internet and social media. If it’s blocked, it going to get through anyway.

Much of the recent popular protests in countries as diverse as Hong Kong and Lebanon started life on WhatsApp, Facebook and other forms of social media.

We trade globally too. If my wife (who is of Indian heritage) wanted to buy a new sari a few years back, she would go to the Melton Road (‘Little India’) in Leicester. She’d pay a premium for it. The shopkeeper had had to pay a wholesaler. He’s had to pay transport costs as well as dealing with wholesalers in India. Today she can go online and buy directly from the factory in India.

Sure, there may be tax and tariffs -the financial equivalent to a wall- but it doesn’t stop the trade.

And all that brings me to another thought. As a Christian, I hold in my hands the Book of Life. When people read the Bible, lives change. There’s power in the words. It’s God speaking with lives changed as a result.

I love that we no longer have to smuggle Bible’s into China. Even if Bible’s were banned, they’d still get through – thanks to the Internet. Electronic versions -legally and illegally- get through any barriers that nations and ideologies may care to put in its way.

I love that in Iran, a nation that outwardly prohibits Christian conversion, there’s one of the biggest Christian revivals taking place right now. 

I love that one of the major celebrities of our age has found a faith in Christ and is reading his Bible every night before he sleeps. There’s power in God’s Word.

I love that in our own family we are spread around the world. Our oldest son and daughter in law are in China. Our youngest daughter and son in law are in Africa. Our ‘adopted daughter’ and husband are in New Zealand. Our sponsored child is in Ghana. I can -and do- travel globally and find Christian friends and family wherever I go.

We live globally. We trade globally. And we share our faith globally. God does not recognise geography, politics or ideologies. I’m part of the biggest family in the world – one that transcends every barrier.