Looking back to move forward

Dear Friends,

I know that everyone in the world thinks I exaggerate too much, but as this July is my 35th wedding anniversary, I couldn’t let the occasion go by without letting the world know just how good those 35 years have been and how blessed my wife is to have me!!

Anniversaries are good because they take us back to where we started. And though our wedding was pre video so I can’t get depressed watching how young I once was, now and again I go back and ponder what I promised this wonderful woman who was in essence, trusting me with her life on July 11th 1981. I know there are areas I need reminding of in order to make right what I’ve not always lived up to. She knows it even more!

To stop the world for a little while and go back to where it all started, is not just good for couples, but even more so for those of us who belong to Jesus Christ. In (Matthew 28:10) just after Jesus has just blasted out of His grave on Easter morning, He has a message for His disciples: “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; THERE they will see ME.” Why this trip back to Galilee to be with Jesus? They were in Jerusalem at the time. That’s a long 90-mile walk from Galilee, but Jesus would send them back to Jerusalem to start their mission. “To go make DISCIPLES of ALL Nations…” So what’s the reason for going back to Galilee? I believe it was because that’s where it all began. That’s where they met Christ and abandoned everything to follow Him. That’s where they needed to go after all the battles, the failures, the mountains, and the valleys they had experienced since they met Jesus and before He launched them with “All authority in heaven and on earth…” to go and do it. Go make a difference. Go change lives. Go be all that I called you to be and the means by which I am still calling others.

Maybe Jesus is asking us to go back to our Galilee? To remember the wonder of what He did to rescue us? To think again on those things about Him that captured our heart then? The time we surrendered fully to His purposes for our life. When you couldn’t keep us from church and any chance we had to serve was grabbed like it was the last dessert in a buffet. Sadly, all of that does tend to get obscured by all the baggage we’ve acquired, responsibilities, disappointments and disillusionment. But Jesus is saying, “Come back with Me to where we started, so you can remember again just who I am, who you are, and just what I’ve created you to do.” Let’s remember the excitement, the joy, the hope and the reason for why we came to Him in the first place.

When we started, following Christ was pretty simple, right? Wherever He was going, we were too. But now with all the other voices in our life; the extra risk of being distracted; the scars caused by insensitive words or hurtful action it can be easy to take our eyes off Him and wander away. That is why He wants us to go back to that point where we sensed things that He was calling us to do. It’s still His calling on our life, like me being faithful to my wife is, no matter what has happened since the day that vow was taken. There was probably a time and a place where we totally surrendered to Jesus with no strings attached. We didn’t care where that commitment took us and what sacrifices would be required. We were all His for whatever He wanted us to be and do. Maybe that unconditional surrender has become a conditional surrender, encumbered by our position, our possessions, our convenience, our comfort, a lot of stuff? Well, just as my wedding anniversary calls me back to renew my heart, my love and my vows to Kathie, so too perhaps today Jesus is calling us back to that original surrender where it all began with Him.

Maybe it is time to go back to our Galilee? To rekindle our first love and remember that it’s still all about Jesus. Like His first disciples He wants to bring us back to where it all started so He can take our life where it’s never gone before!

Happy anniversary to my dear wife and whilst I pray that in being stirred afresh to stay on track in my own marriage after 35 wonderfully happy years together, we all might be reminded to stay true to Jesus, looking back to what was in order to look forward to what is yet to come. In the words of the apostle Paul, “To press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12)

Your Friend and Pastor

Shaun