So what’s new in the world? Actually, surprisingly little. You wouldn’t think so when every headline appears to be a crisis. Crises, it seems, come and go with the regularity of the daily news bulletin.

This is not to be cynical, it’s part of human nature to get excited about events, to speculate. It’s also part of human nature to move onto the next new thing. Human beings are restless creatures and yet we claim to not want to be. We claim we want peace, stability, contentment. So how can these apparent opposites be reconciled?

Well maybe they’re not quite opposites. What’s wrong with a restless desire for change if that change might bring justice or improved health or better food to hungry communities? Is peace, stability or contentment wrong if it makes us indifferent to the sufferings of others or the problems of the world.

What if peace, stability, contentment could only really be achieved through restlessness? What if being restless is in one sense a gift? What if restlessness in some situations, is actually waking up to the reality of the world? I was pondering this question was listening to news from across the pond about the American election. What exactly does Donald Trump stand for? But then, what exactly does Hillary Clinton stand for? From this distance all they seem to stand for is each one of them not being the other one. This makes me restless.

I then look at the politics in my own country and ask a similar question. Are they no more than they are not the other person? This definitely makes me restless. I have no doubt that politicians, like all of us, are driven by some very mixed emotions.

But I realise that I want something different. I want politicians of substance. I want politicians whose flaws I can recognise but whose principles and aspirations I can believe in.

There is a subtle principle at stake, human beings hope not for what they can get, but for what they can become. Not, ‘I want to be a millionaire’ but ‘what kind of person can I become’?

As our political landscape changes, should we ask of our politicians not what money are you going to give to what causes, but what you going to do to our society that allows people to build characters and become more fulfilled human beings?

Rev. Ian Dewar Chaplain, Royal Lancaster Infirmary