“I’m all hot and bothered!”

“I can’t be bothered!”

“Oh, bother!”

The catchphrase of Catherine Tate’s teenage character, Lauren, was, “Am I bovvered though?”

All of these expressions suggest that being bothered is a bad thing. They suggest that it is something that interrupts and distracts from our priorities. It is something that causes distress. Or it is an expletive.

But I think God wants us all to be bothered. He wants us to be upset by injustice, poverty, suffering and aggression. He wants us to be disturbed by events we see and hear on the news. He wants us to be bothered by them.

And then he wants us to bother to do something about it. He wants us to take the trouble to do something. It may start with praying. But it may not end there. It may take us into uncomfortable territory. We may be accused of being political (I was chided by an MP for taking a political stance). We may find ourselves being inconvenienced. We may even find ourselves getting hot and bothered.

But that’s what he wants. Cause that’s also what he’s done. He bothered.

Be blessed, be a blessing