If I'd known ...

I was wondering recently what I would have done differently if someone had told us a terrible pandemic was coming which would affect the whole planet and completely transform our lives.

If I’d known we would be unable to travel and see family and friends, what might I have done? If I’d known that I couldn’t hug my children and grandchildren, how could I have prepared? If I’d know that going shopping would be very different, having to queue and wear masks. If I’d realised that even going to IKEA would turn into an awkward and unwelcome shopping experience. 

Queuing outside shops.

If I’d known that going to anywhere like a National Trust property would mean booking in advance, reduced numbers, social distancing, and then having to sit outside with a takeaway coffee and cake in the autumn chill, would I have stayed at home? If I’d known that social distancing meant treating everyone cautiously as a possible virus carrier and that our social life would be severely dented, what might I have done?

I feel as if we sleep walked into the pandemic, not having a clue what was facing us. At first it was quite enjoyable with the slow down in life but we didn’t have to home school children, while trying to work at home ourselves, in a small flat in the middle of a city. I didn’t lose my job nor was I furloughed. The pandemic is a great leveller. Everyone from the Queen to the humblest citizen had to stay at home unless they had an essential job, but it is the consequences now that have perhaps been the most shocking.  Our whole lives have not returned to what was normal and it does not look as if we will ever do so. 

What might I have done if I’d known?  I’m not sure there is anything I could really have done except perhaps been prepared mentally.  However that could have been counterproductive, as we may have imagined things far worse or quite differently. Someone recently asked why did God not warn us?  

I don’t know but the one thing God has promised and in my opinion has proved very faithful is that he will never leave us or forsake us.  My relationship with God, which was not that bad before, has deepened. I have never prayed as much or as strategically as I have in recent months. I have learned how to pray for nations and governments. I have learned to pray and trust God with the big things of life.  I have learned to be thankful for everything and maybe that is what I might have done if I’d known …I might have appreciated all that I had with a far greater depth of thankfulness. I may have valued everything and not taken so much for granted. 

I have also learned that ‘All things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.’   There is much good that has come out of this – the Church has emerged from its closed buildings onto the internet and has encountered so many more people. 

The Church, along with many others, has reached out to the poor and needy in our society. I remember the singing vicar who walked his streets singing Christian songs to encourage his parishioners. The Blessing has become an anthem of 2020. There have been many inspiring stories as people have reached out selflessly to those in need.

Abroad, those living in the greatest poverty before are living even more fragile lives once coronavirus hit their countries. It has been so good to stand with them in prayer and finance. 

There is now one absolutely certain fact. Everything has changed and almost certainly, nothing will go back to how it used to be.  Life may not be what I want, but I’m going to appreciate what I have now and take nothing for granted. It’s no point complaining; we still have much to be thankful for. 

God is working out a much bigger plan and purpose that should keep us focused, prayerful and expectant. We all have a part to play. The world needs Christians who can bring hope and life to those struggling with unemployment, debt, sickness and despair. There is a harvest out there and the Lord of the Harvest needs his harvesters ready with scythes and fishing nets. 

I never realised 2020 was going to be like this and none of us knows what 2021 might be like but even if the virus is still challenging our lives, still bringing unexpected and unwanted change, still confining us and making our relationships challenging, God is faithful and trustworthy. God is in control. 

Please leave a comment about what you might have done 'If I'd known ..."

Get ready! It's harvest time.

When my arthritic joints complained loud and long about jogging, I took up swimming. After several months of enjoying the space of a large open-air pool, with a change of season to chillier weather, I have now started swimming at our indoor pool.

Recently I went down early to swim my lengths and found the whole pool fairly full with people intent on swimming their own lengths. There were no lane markers, just a free-for-all.  Everyone had their own space which they were relentlessly occupying and I struggled to fit in. I only really got a space to swim, instead of dodging round everyone else, when some people finished their swim. It reminded me of how church can be.

There is much talk of our being on the edge of breakthrough, that there is a sound of harvest in the air and my concern is how we are going to make room for a harvest or a significant influx of new people into our midst.

Unfortunately too many churches are like the swimming pool. Everyone is busy in their own space and no one is prepared to move over to make room for anyone else especially newcomers. It is a well-known fact that in all churches, traditional and new, everyone has their favourite place to sit. It may no longer be my pew but it is my row or my seat. How will we react if someone else sits there? How will we feel if instead of having a spare seat next to us, someone new and dare I say it, maybe not smelling so good, sits next to us?

However it is a lot more than just where people sit.

Harvest and great moves of God mean new Christians, lots of them, people who have no idea how things are done in church. Will we be the people who welcome them, not just with a superficial greeting but with a genuine invitation to join us? Will we talk to people and help them feel at home?  I loved going to a church in New York who not only welcomed visitors but also explained what was happening and why. It was very refreshing.

Harvest may also mean we are going to have to dust off our discipling skills both individually and as churches. Jesus said “go into the world and make disciples …’ He didn’t ask us to just make converts.  Discipling is a messy, time consuming process. New Christians need a lot of attention and I have always been very grateful to the people who discipled us in our early days.

In previous years, most people in Britain had a basic understanding of Christianity and the church. Our British culture was based on it. Most people would go to church once or twice a year – it wasn’t a complete unknown. Nowadays though many people, even those brought up in UK, have no idea at all about Christianity and the Church. Many may become believers from other cultures and even from other faiths.  Churches, no matter their worship or service style, have a very definite culture.  An awful lot of people in Britain today will have no idea about that culture and will need help feeling at home.

Newcomers to church need to feel they have friends, people who like them. If we are too busy in our own friendship circle with our own ministry to speak and live lives with others, people will slide out the back door as quickly as they came in the front.

At our prayer meeting this week, we were challenged about how harvest will impact us as a church and as individuals. My feeling is that now is the time to start thinking about this topic and change our own mind-sets and heart attitudes. How are we as individuals and churches going to build a welcoming attitude of openness and help people feel at home? We can also, as churches, start considering how we are going to disciple people and with what resources. This will need to be across the ages not just for adults.

This is not the first time this topic has come up in my Christian lifetime and I suspect the Church missed something previously. We just did not get ready. I really do not want to have to walk this circuit again so my prayer is that I, my church and the Church will prepare both our hearts and our programmes for the breakthrough and harvest we have been praying for for years.

The harvest is plentiful

Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into his harvest field. Matthew 9: 37 – 38

We all know that we are not saved by works but by grace, through faith, and even this is a gift from God (Ephesians 2: 8). There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation for which we are all very pleased I hope. It is not down to us, but it is all about God’s wonderful gift to each one of us.

However there is a wonderful harvest waiting to be reaped out there and that does require ‘work’. Jesus said to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers and workers work.  It is true that the work may be prayer or giving to missions but it is also work that each one of us needs to get involved in.

I am currently in South Africa and every week we have a team of people visiting the homes of visitors and attendees to our church. Every week people are getting saved but every week we have to go out and work for the harvest. It will not happen whilst we think happy thoughts or even stay home and pray. People have to be told the good news. Paul says that people have to be told in order for them to call upon the Lord Jesus and be saved (Romans 10: 14 – 15).

I have to confess that I never thought I was an evangelist. I never thought I could do that work. I could pray for others and I could witness about Jesus but I was not much good at sharing the Gospel. I have now been bitten by the bug! 

To bring in the harvest requires some work. In Luke 5: 4 – 11 we read how Jesus had been teaching the crowd and afterwards he told Simon to go out fishing, to put down his nets into deep water. They had been out fishing all night and were tired. To go out to the deep water would require rowing or putting up the sail but because Jesus said it, they did it.

They caught such a large number of fish that the nets began to break. Even when they called their partners to help, there were so many fish that the boats began to sink. This was hard and dangerous work. They could have lost their boats but instead they were commissioned to be fishers of men. To bring in that harvest required some effort but it was worth it on every level. They may have had to repair their nets, sort out their boats but the harvest was plentiful.

Today the harvest of souls is as plentiful as in Jesus’ time and we not only need to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers as Jesus did but to be willing to be a worker. If the thought of sharing the Gospel frightens you, ask God to give you courage to talk about Jesus whenever there is an opportunity.  Take some time to learn a clear Gospel presentation and be ready. It does take work but the rewards of plundering hell when souls are saved is worth every bit of effort that it takes.