It was when I was out for an early morning run, or more a jog nowadays, that the following thoughts came to me for a letter, or even a brief short concise article.
The Royal Bank of Scotland had just announced massive losses, and we were being informed of long established Banks and Financial Institutions crumbling and collapsing across the world.
It is not so much a financial collapse as the disappearance of morality and Christian foundations on which many of these banks and institutions were originally founded. The consequences of greed and mismanagement and corruption, and misleading people to take on more debt than they could ever repay, has led us into a crisis from which we will take years to recover and some may never recover.
There are those who are carrying such a burden of guilt that the only way out for some may be to commit suicide, which is really self-murder.
If you know of anyone who, if only for a brief moment contemplates suicide, do whatever you can to help or get help to that individual. Help is available and suicide is never the answer, no matter how enormous the problem or how heavy the burden.
What was the nature of the words that came to me? Let me get back to that letter, because it deals with the root cause of the current crisis: SIN! This picture demands a different type of leadership to emerge.
Imagine the scenario in some financial boardroom. My thoughts were centred on the Royal Bank of Scotland, and I have been a customer with that bank for over forty years.
Come, let us build a tower. Let us build the biggest tower that has ever been built. We will get bricks from other places. We will acquire other banks so that our bank will be the biggest and tallest in the world.
Our tower will be taller than anyone else's and we will make a name for ourselves.
What will we call our tower? What about calling it Babel? No, that has been done before.
I know. We will take away these three strong words and call it RBS! We will put these letters everywhere: on rugby pitches and race tracks and tennis courts and everyone will recognise our tower.
But what if it becomes too tall and it topples upon people! People? What are people?
Our concern is the tower.
Sandy Shaw
Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org entitled "Word from Scotland" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.
His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.
Sandy Shaw
sandyshaw63@yahoo.com
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