The minister writes…. (from October 2020 newsletter)
Dear friends,
Although the middle of the day is still warm and sunny, there is a definite chill to the air in the early mornings and that autumnal feel transports me in memory to school days and the start of the new term. I remember our school assemblies – every morning 600 of us gathered, little 1st years at the front, cross-legged on the floor, with the older pupils behind them, and privileged 6th formers (oh, they did look grown-up!) up in the balcony, looking down on the rest. The hymns we sang stand out in my mind, hymns I loved and learnt by heart. Some we still sing in church, others which we seldom hear these days.
Everything then seemed to have promise – it all lay before us, we could do anything, go anywhere. But, if life is a journey, then every choice we make takes us down particular paths: what subjects we study, what job we do, who we marry, where we live, what we believe in – and other paths have to go unexplored. What other roads might have been travelled? We can never know of course, but I ask myself, would I have wanted it any other way? The more I think, the more I realise I have so much to be grateful for in the road I have travelled and the one still ahead.
In 1678 John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, the story of Christian’s long and difficult journey to reach the Eternal City. It’s a journey that we are all on too. Who can say how far along that road we are, what we have already learned along the way, what tribulations and treasures may lay before us? Only God has all the answers!
The wonderful thing is, we have never journeyed alone. God has been with us each step of the way. Every decision made at a crossroads of life, he was there guiding us. Even when we’ve chosen unwisely, he’s been there to help us shoulder the load. He is with us now, in the situations we face, the challenges with which we grapple, when we’re feeling positive and when we’re full of anxiety. Whatever is ahead, he’ll be with us too, in hard times and in happy, sharing our tears and our laughter. Then – most precious of all – when we reach the end of this life’s journey, he will bring us safe to his heavenly home. What an amazing God, what a wonderful Saviour!
So, my fellow travellers, let us journey well, enjoying each other’s company and supporting one other, especially when the road is rough and uneven (as it is right now) and together let us give thanks to God for all that he has done for us and look forward to what is yet to be.
With every blessing,
Sharon
When the road is rough and steep, fix your eyes upon Jesus,
He alone has power to keep, fix your eyes upon him!
Jesus is a gracious friend, one on whom you can depend,
He is faithful to the end, fix your eyes upon him!
Norman J Clayton, 1985