andi oakes

The minute the world changed

Turning on the television last night, I settled down to watch the next instalment of Liverpool's Europa League game, live from Anfield in Liverpool and, like the thousands of Liverpool fans gathered in the ground itself, my hopes were high that a great night could be had for the Red Army.  Sadly, it wasn't to be our night.  The boys from FC Braga in Portugal, were just too good at holding the line and ultimately stifled any attempt to breach their defence, resulting in an end to Liverpool's european football campaign.

Ordinarily I would have been bitterly disappointed with such a poor result and, to be honest, such a lack lustre display by the team, but not tonight.  Sure, I was still sad that we were out of the competition; but something else had happened that had given me a sense of hope that was much greater than my chosen football team's (that's soccer to you wonderful people across the pond) potential progression in a cup competition.  And that something was the observance of the minutes silence for what is happening across the other side of the world in Japan.  

The minutes silence...what a wonderful thing it is.  Just one minute where we all stand together in peaceful contemplation and collectively direct our attention towards someone or somewhere else. 

Now, normally, I find these moments are touching enough.  I mean, I think that there is something inherently inspiring about thousands of people standing in total stillness and unity.  But, with the best will in the world, there is always someone, in some corner of the ground who decides that the minutes silence is a complete waste of time and so they, quite literally, voice their disapproval by shouting something inappropriate at the top of their lungs: and sadly, it's now almost something to be expected at Football matches over here in the UK.

Last night was different however.  For the first time that I could remember, the minutes silence for Japan was perfectly observed; something that is even more amazing when you consider that there were at least two nationalities represented: the British and the Portugese.  Such has been the concern for Japan and the shock at how fragile we really are as a species, that even the lunatic fringe seemed to have been touched by the impact of the devastation that has occurred.

This one single minute then; a simple sixty seconds; no different from any other that has elapsed in all the millennia before it, had the potential, I believe, to change our world forever.  Why? Why would that humble minute carry so much importance?  Simple: unity.  For the briefest of moments, before the football stadium descended once again into cultural and tribal division, humanity stood together, unified in one common thought: concern for the people of Japan.

Let's be honest here...how many of us westerners have grown up watching movies representing the second world war and, more specifically, the Japanese role in the battle for the pacific?  How many of us, growing up as the children of the “Allies” have been told of the reported atrocities and belligerence of this eastern enemy?  How many of us have grown up with an inherent and deeply rooted, if somewhat unspoken, suspicion of a culture that is so different to ours.  How many small boys have arrayed plastic soldiers, representing the Japanese, against the combined might of the Allied troops and taken great glee in mighty victories won against “all odds”.  I know I have.  The Japanese were always a sandy coloured plastic; the Germans a steely grey; and the Allies a solid green: it was easy to tell who the enemy was...because they didn't look like the “good guys”.

And yet, many years on and probably still living with the cultural legacies of two terrible world conflicts; nations represented by football supporters (some of the most violently partisan crowds on the planet), are standing together; their teams arm in arm, observing a perfect minutes silence for, realistically from the average European's point of view, a little known or understood people and culture on the other side of the world.

For one perfect minute then, in one football stadium...over 60 thousand people demonstrated possibly the true potential of humanity: that, if we put our minds to it, we can see beyond our differences and stand united in one common cause.

Never underestimate the power of unified thought.  

Jesus said that “All things are possible to them who believe.”  All things.  He said all things.  If only we could fully embrace this profound insight and allow ourselves to experience the magnificent invitation that it holds.  If we choose to believe in something, it becomes, according to Jesus, a real possibility: a real possibility...a re-al-ity perhaps?  

And what is unity therefore, other than agreement between many?  An agreement of thought and belief that leads to a new form of reality around us.  I mean, how much of what we see and experience around us right now is the product of our collective beliefs?  How much of our current economic difficulties for instance has been produced, or simply been made worse, by our collective beliefs? Our belief that we're all doomed; our belief that we're all disappearing down some financial black hole, never to emerge.  It would seem to me that what is actually true is never as powerful as what we believe to be true.  When we understand this basic principle...I believe we will be in a better place to begin to see the kingdom of God emerging here on earth. 

How powerful it is when one of us believes something passionately?  But how much more does that power increase exponentially when many more stand with the same belief?  Surely this is the ground of potentially great goodness or, conversely, the ground of potentially great evil.  I believe, therefore, that Jesus came to teach us how to reset our collective default as a global race from a negative to a positive.  I don't believe He simply came to give us the proverbial “ticket to heaven” but to teach us the ways of the kingdom of God: to show us that there is a better way to live together that benefits us all and brings heaven to earth, here and now.  I think the ticket to heaven mentality is intrinsically selfish...it's all about “me and mine” getting to heaven someday in the future; whereas, it seems to me, that living for the good of others around us is the true way of Christ, which affects the “here and now”.

So, may more of these simple moments of togetherness, that have the potential to lead us to even greater experiences of unity and love, take place in our collective lives.  

“I pray that they would be one” is what Jesus prayed for his disciples, and all those who would come after them.  The true definition of a disciple of Christ, is unity it would seem.  May we all become His true disciples...because our world desperately needs it.