Dear friends
I wonder if you’ve ever watched the TV series, ‘Race across the world’? At our recent ministers Spring school, we thought about this programme.
For those who haven’t seen it, participants are asked to make their way across the world to a certain location. To get there they must pass through a number of checkpoints. They work in pairs and are given the price of the direct airfare but are to use this to travel through each checkpoint and reach the final location. The whole thing becomes an adventure. The pairs work together, sometimes they must rely on the kindness of strangers, sometimes there are challenges, going through different lands and cultures, but the whole journey becomes one adventure until they reach their final destination and the prize.
The series allows us to go with them, to experience the journey with them as they make their way through different countries and cultures and to see how they progress.
It made me think about life’s journey.
In life there are challenges, high’s and low’s. There are times when we must rely on each other – for help, for forgiveness, for kindness, we cannot do things alone. Life’s journey also is an adventure, a gift given by God, the one who gives us the resources we need as we travel.
Some travel quickly, others more slowly. Some want to take the direct route, but in trying to get there as soon as possible, we lose some of the richness of the experience.
And we know that as Christians, we don’t travel alone. One of Jesus’ names is, ‘Immanuel’ meaning ‘God with us’. Jesus experienced the human journey too, travelling the same roads as us and overcoming even death itself.
In June we celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the church and we remember how the first followers were given the gift of the holy spirit- God who lives in us, guiding, encouraging, comforting- a reminder that we are never alone. Unlike the TV participants, we have all the resources we need in God, the one who loves us and the one who brings us home
Your friend and minister
Cath
