A great day for us all

Great swathes have already been written and will be written about Barak Obama's inauguration. It is an astonishing moment for the world that a man whose father would not have been served in restaurants 60 years ago in Washington because of the colour of his skin was sworn in as president of that same nation.

I offer simply this thought. What struck me about President Obama's speech was that it was rooted in values and offered something deeply spiritual to a hurting nation (and world). It said simply, times are tough and he and the nation he now leads need to dig deep into their souls as they struggle to find solutions to their challenges, domestic and international. He said;

"in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness".

and; "This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny".

I don't pick this out to make a theological or a "pro-God" point. Nor do I suggest that some-one without faith in a divinity couldn't do the job. This is not a man who says "God told me what to do because he's on my side but instead asks what do I need to do to be on God's side".

I do think that it is interesting that what met the need of a broken nation was a language that has been sometimes despised in political circles on both sides of the language. I know that he will need to find policies that match those words but at least we will know what drive the man, what he depends on and why he might have the stamina to make it through the pain that he faces. Faith itself will not bring the hard political answers he needs. But knowing what he believes to be true about the nature of world is a good starting point.