• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Dragon Lake Books

The home of great stories

  • About
    • Sample Chapters
    • Events
    • Privacy policy
  • Where To Buy
  • My 100 Goals Blog
  • Contact Form
  • Mailing List Sign-up

General Election

Who runs your life?

June 10, 2017 by frozbie Leave a Comment

I’m writing this on Thursday as an exit poll has just predicted a Conservative win which may lead to a hung parliament. By the time this post is published on Saturday, we’ll know who is supposed to be running the country… Or if no-one is…

Earlier today – Thursday – for the first time in my life, I took advantage of my right to spoil my ballot paper. Of the five political parties on our local ballot, I rejected all of them.

The government doesn’t run my life and I hope you realise it doesn’t run yours either. Scottish Independence, BREXIT, the economy, they might impact our lives, but they do not determine our future.

In Scotland, I understand the desire to declare independence and control our future as a nation – I wrote the story of how Scotland became independent after all – but regardless of whether Scotland was independent or not, each of us would still be solely responsible for what that future is like. Independence would not be a miracle cure.

Much was made of the magic money tree during the campaigning in this 2017 election. It seems likely that fears over what would happen to Scotland’s economy lost the first Independence Referendum. Yet, while banks may threaten to jump ship and industry bluster about pulling out, the fact remains that in an independent Scotland, each adult would still be an economic force, both earning and spending. We would still need jobs, would still pay taxes and even if some business did abandon us, we would still be able to attract other banks and other industry and whatever we needed to manage our economy.

Yet so many were afraid and put their trust in the UK government.

In Scotland, twice now, a majority has voted to turn away from independence, first from the UK and then from Europe. Yet a sizable minority of my fellow countrymen took a contrary position, rejecting union with the UK while they sought to remain governed in large part by Europe. (Ironically, all the arguments both for and against Scottish Independence could be applied to BREXIT…)

Most of us, it seems, desperately want a government in some location, to run our lives for us. To make decisions that we don’t understand or are overwhelmed by.

I’ve been reading the book of First Samuel recently. Israel was originally intended to be a theocracy, governed ultimately by God and managed on a daily basis by prophets and judges. But the people grew jealous of the neighbouring tribes who had kings to lead them. They didn’t trust the judges (and to give them their due, some of those judges were utterly corrupt.) Eventually they rejected both the judges and God in favour of a king.

I believe we were meant for more than being governed by other people. That God created us with the capacity to rule. Yet to rule, even in our small sphere of influence, takes great courage. It’s much easier to hand off to someone else that we can then blame when they get it wrong.

This week Heather Tomlinson wrote an article on Why Christians need to stop blaming the government for everything. Of course people of every faith and none blame their government. The real challenge though is to stop blaming government and start taking responsibility for our own lives. To seek to stop living off of someone else’s charity, to be the provider for others, to be the carer, the defender in our communities.

While I believe God wants us to seek his help and protection, I also believe he made us to govern ourselves. Will you live as God intended you to, or will you let others run your life?

Filed Under: 100 Words 100 Days, Jesus Tagged With: BREXIT, General Election, Government, Hung parliament, jundges, prophet, Samuel, Scottish Independence

When the money runs out

June 3, 2017 by frozbie Leave a Comment

Every year household debt gets a little bit bigger. Every year the UK national debt continues to rise.

We’re all borrowing from someone.

What will we do when the money runs out?

But can it, run out that is?

Money is a theoretical concept where we assign value to pieces of paper and coins and now numbers, so we can buy and sell and exchange services without having to cope with a vastly more complex bartering system.

Do any of us really understand where this money comes from? I’ve tried and it hurts my head to think about it!

In one theory of money creation, banks create money when people borrow. That money is then circulated, exchanged for goods and services and spread out.

In another theory, Kings and governments create money which they lend or give away in place of paying their debts.

However it happens, all money is created and only has whatever value people place on it.

Governments can always “print” more money. They’ve been doing it for the past decade with Quantitative Easing. The danger is that our perception of the value of money reduces the more of it there is. Hyper-inflation anyone?

In the UK we got a very practical demonstration of the ethereal nature of money after the BREXIT vote when the Pound plunged in value. Not because anything physical changed, just because worldwide perception of the future value of the UK economy lowered.

The real problem our economy faces is not that the money will run out, but that there will be a never ending supply, lowering our perception of money’s value and making what we thought we had worthless.

And that is one of the real dangers of debt. We keep borrowing until we’ve inadvertently created so much new money that even the money we don’t owe is worthless.

After every crisis and tragedy, people still carry on as before, heading out to work, making, creating, serving. Our economy is nothing without people who work. Whether or not BREXIT goes ahead, whoever wins the General Election next week, we, the people will continue to prove that our country still has economic value, that we are worth something, that we are creating something worth buying, services worth paying for.

When the money runs out, we will still be here. And if we need to, we can always create some more…

Filed Under: 100 Words 100 Days, Economy Tagged With: BREXIT, debt, economy, General Election, perception, pound, value

Primary Sidebar

Follow

Follow me on:

Recent Posts

  • Goal 31
  • Q2 Halfway point
  • The 12 Week Year – a first quarter review
  • Double Your Salary …Without losing your soul!
  • 40K

Recent Blog Posts

  • Goal 31

    Goal 31

    February 22, 2025
    I keep returning in my thoughts to Goal 31: To be and do all that God wants of me. Not every minute or every day, yet this phrase follows me around. I used to have a website: www.goal31.co.uk which I used for my contracting/consulting business. I made a poor decision to take it down and […]Read More »
  • Q2 Halfway point

    Q2 Halfway point

    May 12, 2021
    Back in December 2020/January 2021 I wondered if the contracting and job markets in the UK would continue to be dead through till the summer. It seemed possible that I might have to go six months without working and so to put a plan in place to make constructive use of the time seemed sensible. […]Read More »
  • The 12 Week Year – a first quarter review

    The 12 Week Year – a first quarter review

    April 21, 2021
    I recently finished my first 12 Week Year and wanted to review how it went to see if I could learn some lessons from the experience. If you’ve not read it, The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington proposes by working to a 12 week plan, you can get more done […]Read More »
  • Double Your Salary …Without losing your soul!

    Double Your Salary …Without losing your soul!

    June 25, 2019
    I’m excited to share that the hardback of my next book: Double Your Salary …Without losing your soul! will be released for sale on 1st August 2019. I believe that doubling your salary is possible when you understand who you are and what you are capable of. Sharing my story of how I doubled my […]Read More »
  • 40K

    40K

    June 15, 2019
    It might be that weekly posts are all I can manage until the first draft of Fallen Warriors Season Two is complete. I met my target of 10,000 words today and did manage to hit 2,000 words each day this week. That feels good. An accomplishment. I haven’t managed much else, publishing wise. I kept […]Read More »

Footer

My 100 Goals Blog

  • Goal 31

    Goal 31

    February 22, 2025
  • Q2 Halfway point

    Q2 Halfway point

    May 12, 2021
  • The 12 Week Year – a first quarter review

    The 12 Week Year – a first quarter review

    April 21, 2021
  • Double Your Salary …Without losing your soul!

    Double Your Salary …Without losing your soul!

    June 25, 2019
  • 40K

    40K

    June 15, 2019

Copyright © 2025 · Author Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in