England Going Down the Plughole?

We both felt sad when we watched Ambulance on the BBC in the past week. This particular episode featured some cases on mental health. There was one patient, a female teenager, who was hysterical in her bedroom and claiming to see "a brood of snakes" in her room. Later in the programme, this same lady was caught on the parapet of a bridge as if ready to jump off. She was saved by both the Police and the Paramedics.

She explained the main reason behind her hysteria. She was due to take her exams, and she was overwhelmed by her fear of failing, leaving her hopes for her future like that of a boat adrift on the wide ocean, with no land in sight and no clear directions to take. Such is the importance attached to higher education and fulfilling careers.

Her present situation was a far cry from her predecessors. In bygone days, such a young woman was preparing to settle down to married life, to be supported by her breadwinning husband, and herself getting ready to raise children. A typical 1950s home scenario. Indeed, I'm aware that these words I had written could quite likely raise concern among modern, career-minded women, but actually, I'm old enough to remember that during my school days, girls had needlework and housecraft (that is, learning to cook and prepare meals) whilst us boys concentrated on woodwork and metalwork. As far as I remember, back in the mid-sixties, there were no "feminist protests" when such lessons came around, nor any "gender issues" among the boys.

Does anyone remember the Fairy Liquid dishwashing advert on ITV? A child is at home with her mother, who is at the kitchen sink, washing the dishes. The daughter asks a silly question and the mother turns to answer with a big smile across her face. Of course, Daddy is not around. He's at work. The mother then embraces her daughter while the background choir sings the virtues of the product.

And how could I forget the weekday, fifteen-minute Watch with Mother slot? As a young boy, school holidays always featured Andy Pandy and his mate Teddy, Bill & Ben the Flowerpot Men, and the Woodentops - the latter as the ideal English farming family, consisting of the working husband and father, his homely wife and mother of her two cheerful and active children - a brother and sister duet who were never naughty and never in need of discipline. And not to forget their pet dog, a Dalmation who never barked, but made vocal sounds almost akin to talking.

Innocence, pure innocence. In referring to Andy Pandy and Teddy. If this was shown to today's audience, there would be immediate controversy when the two jumped into the same basket hideaway. Both pro- and anti-gay groups would be at loggerheads over the airing of such a scene. Meanwhile, the BBC naturalist David Attenborough would be alarmed at the welfare of the lad if sharing a confined space with a bear cub, notwithstanding the anger shown by the cub's mother-bear for the loss of her offspring.

But it's the title of the whole series that makes up the whole point. Watch with Mother. An ideal, homely lifestyle which, had the mentally ill patient originally anticipated, would most likely not had any emotional distress or strange visions.

A word of caution here. I'm not discouraging women from attending college and making a career for themselves. Rather, all I'm pointing out was one young female suffering mental illness over the possibility of failing her exams. If any male and female student can get ahead in life, good for them. But having an obsession over failure is certainly not healthy! 

As I look out of the window whilst writing this, it's pouring with rain outside. Normally, this doesn't bother me. Especially now that I'm retired from paid outdoor work. But, since August, we have had a leaking roof. However, I only became aware of it after my wife had discovered that rainwater was dripping from the ceiling of our daughter's bedroom. It took another wet day, nearly two months later, to trace the source of the dripping. I eventually found it above our loft and placed a bucket under the appropriate spot. The bucket now catches the dripping, thus reduces further leaks into the bedroom below, and thus also hoping to avoid the development of black mould that could a health hazard.

You may ask: Why not call a private roofer? If the house was our own, then indeed, by now, the roof would have been fixed for a hefty fee. But we're not homeowners but tenants. Therefore, the property belongs to a Housing Association, an offshoot of the local Borough Council, which rents out properties to those who can't afford to take out a mortgage. The scheme is known as Social or Public Housing, which was both essential and very popular across the UK during the 1950s through to the 70s.

Therefore, it's the responsibility of the Association to see to the repair of our roof. Had I hired a private contractor, then I would be paying for the repair of a Council-owned property. Instead, we now have to wait until November before we receive a call. That is three months after making our initial report. 

Why the long wait? That's not too difficult to answer - a shortage of roofers. Whether it was due to Brexit, Covid, or a combination of both, many of these workmen were from Eastern Europe. I recall a few years ago when our landlords insisted we have a total refit of both our kitchen and bathroom. Several contractors were involved - all of them were foreigners, each one of them from the European Union. And they had all done a wonderful job. Our home is much better now than before.

And there was the redevelopment of our town centre. The entire shopping precinct was demolished and a new one was built over the site. It took a couple of years. But whilst I was in town, not only had I spoken to one or two of the workers, but I overheard their talk with one another. They were all mainland Europeans.

And in recent years, many of them had returned to their own countries. Perhaps, this was due to the hostility that was shown towards them after the 2016 referendum Brexit victory. That was enough to discourage them from working any further in the UK, so they packed up and left. After this, the pandemic might have driven more Europeans out of our country.

There's a shortage of roofers in the UK.

The shortage of truckers, roofers, and other key manual workers has demonstrated how necessary to have people carrying out such jobs. They are of great value to all of us. It's through experiences like these that we come to realise that such employees are the very lifeblood of the country - any country, not just ours.

And this morning, as I had my usual cappuccino at Starbucks (annexed to a Sainsbury's superstore.) Once again, there was a long queue of cars, all lining up to use the store's own petrol station. Being such a wet day, I doubted their intention for a day's outing. Rather, they were filling up in readiness for the Monday morning's commute. In the meantime, the Army is being called by the Government to deliver fuel to the pumps. As Remainers blame Brexiteers for the shortage of truckers, Brexiteers blame Covid or the Government's inefficiency, nobody wants to accept blame for both the fuel and food supplies affected.

And so, a universal fear grips the nation. As the media constantly spout out the daily rising Covid infection rates, hospitalisations and Covid-related deaths, people are pondering on the possibility of another lockdown, prolonged social distancing and perpetual mask-wearing - together with rising energy prices, reduced incomes, businesses going bust, empty food shelves, long queues at filling stations - wow! Is England going down the plughole? The whole of Britain, in fact?

I was on one of the Zoom prayer meetings when the host hinted at our reliance on God for the future well-being of ourselves and our nation. Then, while he was discussing this, I thought about the 7,000 Israelite men who had not bowed down to Baal and were therefore kept safe by God, a story that could hold a key to our nation's future health.

Later that day, my PhD friend Andrew invited me to a midweek meeting at the Kerith Centre, the main Baptist church of our hometown of Bracknell. It was during that meeting when I brought up the issue of our nation's critical condition and the story of the 7,000 men.

For those unacquainted with the Bible, perhaps I need to enlighten the story. It's found in 1 Kings 19 in the Old Testament. Here, Elijah had defeated a large group of Baal's prophets, beloved by King Ahab's wife, Queen Jezebel. Furious with rage over the destruction of the prophets, the Queen made a vow to chase down and kill Elijah. In sheer desperation, he flees to a faraway mountain. From the summit, he has an encounter with God.

Feeling bitter and depressed, he pours out his heart to God. After a conversation, finally, God reassures him that he had kept for himself 7,000 men of Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal, the pagan idol demanding child sacrifice and worshipped by the Royals and the whole of Israel. 7,000 men? Considering that the Hebrews of that time were very family-orientated, and each most likely had several children. If that was taken into the maths, the likelihood of people refusing to bow the knee to Baal could have reached between 30,000 to 40,000 - a small but significant percentage of the Israelite population. I then made a comparison of Elijah's situation with that of Britain.

Britain, and England in particular, is the homeland for Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution, as he was born and grew up here. His theories took a stronghold in the minds of many until even Christians have shown a form of compromise by accepting theistic evolution. Thus, to believe in Evolution is to deny Divine Creation, hence, calling God a liar and denying His existence. The Theory of Evolution, in a way, can be compared to the idol, Baal. Both were held in high esteem and both hindered worship of God. The main exception is that Evolution does not demand child sacrifice as Baal did. Yet both were robbers of the soul.

Therefore, with the nation forgetting God and denying His existence, will England be sucked into the plughole?

Abraham's intercession for Sodom might answer that question. After the two angels were sent to Sodom, Abraham began to intercede on the city's behalf. Starting with fifty righteous men in the city, he whittled it down to merely ten. Would God destroy the city, even if only ten righteous men are living in it? God's reply was, No, even with just ten righteous men, He wouldn't destroy it (Genesis 18:17-33.)

I am convinced that our country will not go down the plughole, so to speak. As in Elijah's generation, God always keeps for himself a certain number of believers. Each one is kept by the power of God. He could never lose his salvation and be lost again. Each one is the light of the world, the salt of the earth. Even the title Christian, literally mean Little Christ. Although a title of contempt during the Roman era, I think it's an honour now. Little Christ. To be in Christ and Christ in us, with the righteousness of Christ imputed into each believer, God the Father sees each Christian in the same way he sees Jesus - "my beloved son, whom I am well pleased." 

And as long as our Christian presence remains here in this country, indeed, we could suffer a period of economic hardship and poor health one way or another, but as long as we're here, Britain (and all other countries) will survive. In the meantime, it's God's desire that everyone repents (change their minds about our Saviour Jesus Christ) and come to the knowledge of the truth. 

About the female teenager mentioned at the opening of this blog: She had passed her exams, and she's far happier as she is now training to be a nurse.

All the best to her.