Cam McVey

Scot­land has a repu­ta­tion, within Scot­land at least, of being an inde­pend­ent nation. And yet, because we’re not, there’s a sense of oppres­sion hanging over us and the nation. And whether that oppres­sion is per­ceived in the polit­ical, cul­tural, or spir­itual realms, there is a com­mon under­stand­ing that true free­dom does not exist. Per­haps most alarm­ingly, that sense of oppres­sion is being rein­forced as suc­cess­ive gen­er­a­tions remain under it. Worst of all, as sons and daugh­ters are raised in that atmo­sphere, it becomes our iden­tity. It’s what we under­stand. It’s who we are.

How­ever, I feel that change is com­ing. Import­antly, though, I don’t think it will neces­sar­ily come through a com­ing out from The Union. I believe that, as a people, we are suf­fi­ciently dif­fer­ent from the rest of the UK that, over time and in con­junc­tion with the work of the Holy Spirit, our dif­fer­ences will start to pull us in a dir­ec­tion that is away from the rest of the UK. There may be many reas­ons why we should or should not be ‘in union’, but if God is call­ing this nation to have a more Godly char­ac­ter and value sys­tem — and I believe He is — and we move with it, we will auto­mat­ic­ally have an inde­pend­ence far more import­ant than the polit­ical status of this country.

The release of the Lock­er­bie bomber was so sig­ni­fic­ant. It was a wee nation show­ing mercy des­pite great pres­sure from the UK and US gov­ern­ments. And, while I have sym­pathy for the fam­il­ies of those affected by the bomb­ing, and the cor­rect­ness of the decision from a legal pos­i­tion can be forever debated, the import­ance to build­ing the iden­tity of Scot­land is huge. It showed the way we can become inde­pend­ent. I don’t just mean going against the flow for the sake of polit­ical gain, but com­ing into align­ment with bib­lical prin­cipals, par­tic­u­larly when that is not the norm.

So, here’s the point: if Scot­land is to become inde­pend­ent, I believe it’ll be, at first, through a spir­itual shift and then, if ever, a polit­ical one. So, Body of Christ in Scot­land, now is the time! Start being an influ­en­cer. Start pray­ing for your local area and the people in it. Pray for God’s will to be done. Ask Him how you, per­son­ally, can bring that change in your area of influ­ence. Stop believ­ing the lie that you have no influ­ence — you have as much as you want. And stop believ­ing the lie that you don’t want influ­ence! You are called to be a light and to do that you need to stand out and not hide. Come on, Church. It’s not ever going to hap­pen by leav­ing it to the Spir­itual Super­stars! Ima­gine how the nation would look, even overnight, if the whole church in Scot­land woke up and real­ised who they are and what power and author­ity they carry and what they are called to do with it. A nation so trans­formed, it would be independent!