Yesterday, my social media feeds were inundated with righteously indignant folk posting concerning their disgust at some of what had gone on during the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

As folk who read my sports related blogs might gather, I have been a keen fan of a wide range of sports, following sporting events at the highest levels and back in the day modestly participating in several.

As with the proverbial London bus story, where you wait for an hour for a bus to arrive and then two come within a minute of one another, so it is with my Trumpwatch series – having posted a couple of weeks back after a break of several months, I post soon after, due to interesting, breathtakingly, blogworthy developments that have taken place in the world of Trump since last time.

This my latest blog is my attempt at reflecting on the state of the world as it is right now, where it appears to be heading and my hopes on where it should be heading. In particular, I consider how Christians are responding and ought to respond, noting we are in a culture and spiritual war of monumental intensity.

Some years ago, I recall waking up the day after a UK General Election and feeling deflated after learning that the Conservatives had won. I could have just as easily felt similarly following Thursday’s General Election, which resulted this time in a Labour victory, albeit as predicted, and an emphatic one at that.

Late last night and in the early hours of this morning, I attended the counting of the results for the election held nationally, yesterday, as pertaining to the Southend East and West constituencies.

Between Monday 17^th June and Wednesday 26^th June, my wife and I did our version of a Round Britain Trip that entailed us going from Southend up to Glasgow along the West side of the country and returning to Southend along the East side. The idea was to combine my wife attending a work related conference in Glasgow and to visit friends and family on the way. Here are the highlights …

We had an unexpected, unplanned experience on Sunday. We gave a lift to an elderly gentleman to his home in Eastwood from our church at the end of the service, who offered to buy us lunch by way of thanks. Having no other plans for lunch we accepted, especially as what was on offer was a traditional Sunday Roast.

Just to find out about the Southend Pride parade and event taking place today (13/07/24) then skip to towards the end, else read on.

There is a popular hymn (considered heretical by some of my sound Christian friends) titled “Lord of the Dance” where the hero (in this hymn, it is Jesus) is able to carry on dancing despite whatever is thrown at him, including being nailed to a cross: “I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black. It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back. They buried my body and they thought I’d gone, but I am the Dance, and I still go on”. The possibly irreverent thought came to mind – it reminds me of Trump!