This has been a wonderful week for journalists. With the government lurching from crisis to crisis there has been no shortage of stories to fill up their column inches. Extended news bulletins have ground out tales of woe befalling the government as the Taoiseach, flushed by the success of his party’s vote of confidence in him, forgot he was in a coalition situation. In an excess of zeal to preserve his party he sought to replace the resigning Cabinet ministers with fresh blood from the rank and file, thereby increasing their election prospects in 7 weeks time. The partners in Government, the Greens showed him the red card and the Taoiseach woke up to the fact that he is not in control. He has now resigned as leader of his party! The drama was spiced up by the resignation of a number of TD’s and Cabinet members. These saw the writing on the wall and preferred to lift their pensions rather than suffer the ignominy of being dumped out of office at the next election. At a loss for words to adequately express her astonishment at the meltdown happening before our eyes the leader writer of a National daily descended into blasphemy. Her article commenced with the words “God almighty” as she aligned herself with the vast majority of her readers who think nothing of breaking the 3rd commandment. Perhaps that is part of the reason “we are where we are” (to quote the Taoiseach)? What does the Bible have to say? El Shaddai was the name God used to reveal one of his attributes to Abraham. He is almighty as he controls the powers of nature, in this case opening the womb of barren Sarah. (Genesis 17 verse 1) What is it in the human physic that retains some vestiges of optimism when there are no grounds for it? The editorial which started with blasphemy ended the sentence with false hopefulness, “no one thought it could have got worse”. The cynics may well have thought it could get worse thereby aligning themselves with anyone who reads the Bible to get God’s verdict for the reason “we are where we are”. Our ill-founded optimism withers in the face of “there is none righteous – no not one” and “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. (Romans chapter 3 Verses 10 & 23) God’s verdict on Mankind since the fall is “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis chapter 6 verse 5). Our view is “there is some good in everyone” as we judge them by our own standard playing at “god”. It is much more realistic to start with the fact of universal sin starting with you and me! Acknowledge that we have left God out of our reckoning, repent and listen to Him for a change. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” and it is faith in that act of God almighty that gives solid grounds for hope in a world that continually gets worse. Neither the optimist nor the cynic can see it because they omit to listen to the voice of God. We need to get real and put our faith in Christ – the only one who will never let you down.