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In
light of the journey so far and the journey ahead and with
Sunday’s talk by Jo Gambi in mind, here's one
particular impression that Alison Walker had:
“I
was encouraged that He said this is not like a hill climb
where you think ‘thank goodness there’s the top’
and then when you get there see another hard slog from the
false summit. It’s a lot more like sledging –
you’ve tried that short slope so you’re keen to
go higher, and on the way up you’re not thinking about
the hard work because it’s all about the great sledging
you’re going to have.”
Now,
this image may be very helpful in posturing us when we think
of our journey ahead regarding building and missional projects,
of having missional projects in place plus phases 1-3 of
the building redevelopment completed and the ½ million
pounds that would need to come in. This venture of faith
can seem like a slog, a single remote and high summit to
reach and always evaluating progress by how far short we
are. Yet this word suggests that there are ahead of us a
series of summits each their own stage on the journey. None
of them are the whole journey and they are not false summits
as such. Each have their own challenges and joys - reaching
the summit and ‘sledging down’ to a point to then
climb again to the next summit, the next stage. We must
be committed to the journey, being accompanied by each other
and Jesus himself, and not solely to a future destination.
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