Pass The Bucket

What do Clare Balding, Simon Cowell, Kylie Minogue, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Anne Hathaway, Lily Allen, Benedict Cumberbatch and George W. Bush have in common? They - along with thousands of others - have all completed the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Over the summer months, the world has gone crazy for the social media campaign, which aims to raise money and awareness of the neurodegenerative disease ALS, also known as motor neurone disease. Launched in America, the Ice Bucket Challenge consists of participants getting doused with buckets of ice water while being filmed, posting the video on a social media website, then nominating others to do the same within 24 hours. Nominees can accept the challenge or make a donation to charity - or do both. The craze has spread like wildfire.

After completing the challenge himself, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg nominated Microsoft man Bill Gates, who then nominated TV presenter Ryan Seacrest, who then nominated David Beckham, who then nominated Leonardo DiCaprio, who then nominated Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada. The list of people willing to sign up for a soaking appears to be endless.

One who has taken the plunge is Cara Macfarlane, deputy editor of The War Cry’s sister paper 'Kids Alive!' ‘I knew that it was only a matter of time before I was nominated,’ she says. ‘I wouldn’t say I enjoyed having water poured over my head, but it had been funny watching other people’s videos. I knew I had to do it.’

As the water continues to wash over people’s heads, so the charity-giving keeps going up. The ALS Association reported that in just one week, donations had increased from some £13 millarbara Newhouse, said that she was thrilled not only by people’s generosity in respondingion to more than £53 million. The figure continues to rise. The president of the ALS Association, B to the challenge, but also by what it meant for the future. ‘Every day the scope of what’s possible when it comes to fighting this disease has changed and continues to change,’ she said.

She’s right. Whatever challenge threatens to swamp us, there is a power that cannot be matched when people unite. Possibility can sweep away hopelessness. Problems which once seemed insurmountable can be dissolved. Strength is found in numbers more so than in going it alone.

When circumstances cause us to feel as though we are drowning in our problems, we need to find a similar source of strength. We need to know that there is someone we can turn to, no matter what. In every situation, God can be that someone. The Bible reassures us that, in all things, God is by our side. He says: ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you’ (Isaiah 43:2 New International Version). When we ask God for help, he promises to stay with us always, so that we need never feel alone again. He promises to pour out enough strength and power so that we can overcome the most impossible problems. He promises that, if we trust him, life can be different.

Is it time to take the plunge?

UK & Ireland War Cry September 2014