YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE!!!

What a night, what a game or was it two games? Perhaps it was all a dream, “Boys Own” stuff. At half time I thought they were going to get a hammering and then I thought that they could come out after the interval and give it a go and stem the tide, at least. I thought the manager would tell them to play for pride but what a complete change. I have supported Liverpool since the birth of my first two children who were both born in Liverpool. Those were the glory days when Liverpool dominated the league and Europe and then it all went badly wrong with the Heissel Stadium disaster and then the Hillsborough fire and it has not been the same since. With the coming of Gerard Houllier there was a suggestion of glory when they won that treble but this is something altogether greater. In this football match we had a game of two halves and in the history of the club there is the good, the bad and the ugly. The Champions League final 2005 was all about character in the midst of difficulty- the refusal to throw in the towel and to “hold your head up high” in the midst of a storm. What about the church of Christ? We have a much better story to tell. We have a divine commission to obey and we have been assured of the presence of God in the good, the bad and the ugly. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is a great song, with an inspiring theme but Bill Shankly was wrong, if I dare I say so. Football is not more important than life and death. Our story is about the coming of God into the world to bring us forgiveness and a new start and with the promise that we will “never walk alone” because Christ is with us, today, tomorrow and for ever and all we have to do is trust him.