This morning is just like the normal Saturday morning where the sun tried feebly to penetrate the grey British clouds. Other clouds temporarily were out of my mind as I roused myself from the slumber of the consciousness that yet again the different pace of the weekend was evident from the open window portraying the lack of the sound of passing cars. 

Then as I washed and got ready flooded in the realisation that the majority of voters had rejected the proposal to continue in the European Union.

This post is not to approach yet again the issues as I was a pro-Brexit supporter too.  I was Pro-Brexit because I had experience at close quarters what European rule looked like when I lived in Portugal.  It was a country beset with debt and what finesse it had had in the 90s was stripped away steadily as the austerity drum beat louder and louder.

So much was heated up in the campaign that now we have the scaremongering starting again.  People who never bothered to vote in the EU in the elections for MEPs are now campaigning to get the vote overturned in Parliament. This will not happen because it opens a dangerous precedent in that every time the population is given opportunity to demonstrate it’s will it is ignored.  This will only frustrate a volatile population anyway.

Whilst the shock was setting in and many spoke in their fury; the markets and reference agencies reacted by about 5pm the tone softened and the markets stabilised. This shows that all expected business as usual. What happened and very often it does; is that a wake up call comes to our patch.

The fact is as feelings in my side of the pond are high. We must be upbeat and must be positive and see that for all of us the panorama has changed.  It is time to stop entering into the arguments and now lie in the bed we have now made. It is up to us to shape our future.

Faces come and go. Cameron resigned and there are calls for Corbyn to go too. The landscape is new.  All a lesson to us all that changes do come.

When Israel was only paying lip service to its faith and Nebuchadnezzar had come against the city there were those who spoke about business as usual. Jeremiah stood against them all.  In one day the whole city was taken and it’s people captive. The gates were burned with fire and the Temple destroyed.  Their whole identity and heritage was gone. They were taken to a foreign land and there for 70 years they were subject to new customs and new rules to abide by. So as much as then as now no-one reacts well to massive change. 

Maybe your own world has changed; lost a job; lost a relationship; lost even your faith. Maybe you looked out and thought how did I get here?

The fact is you were being warned. There are signs that a turning point is coming. Jeremiah said it plainly. Warned for attitudes to change. The people wanted business as usual. God is not in that and He delights in shaking our comfort zone. Insecurity makes people act in a way that they would not rationally. 

God raised up men to pray through the restoration of Israel to her land and after 70 years God took them back to their own land. There are unstable times ahead for all and we may suffer because of them but we must be assured that “God will bring us back to rebuild our ruins”.

God is not taken by surprise by what is happening and nor should we.

As for us Brits we know that it won’t be easy but the easy road is always that which degrades values and corrupts objectives. We know we may even upset some, but we have to do what is right for all of us. And there is a greater crisis coming than that we are seeing now. In that day we will see the true value of our decision.

What do we do in days of change? We examine the signs that led up to it. We know we were prepared for it. But we rejected to make the adjustments needed.  We bore consequences which we will learn and we shall be brought back to be restored in identity and prosperity.

May we embrace change and work with God’s help to make the future fruit of daring decisions and a pioneer spirit, and those who are hurting around us must be assured we are not furthering our own dreams at their expense!

Shalom.