Crumlin Road Presbyterian location Thursday 13th July 2006 and we can all rise after a very successful and peaceful 12th. “No tidy up and no inquisition” was the report from the BBC. The quietist 12th for many years without the help of the army. Like other congregations our prayer last Sunday was for a peaceful day. Thanks to the grace of God and the good work of many people at political, community and church level we are able to enjoy the 12th as well as the 13th.
As a child the 13th of July was always one of my highlights of the year. The reason for this was that it was one of the days of the year when our shop was closed and we went away for the day as a family – that included my mum and dad and my aunt and uncle and my sister and cousin- and we usually went to Donegal. That meant making the mysterious and magical journey “across the border” as if it was like a bridge connecting two separate islands. We children got really excited in the anticipation of that “exciting” event and going to another country complete with trip tick and customs officers
Sometimes life is great but sometimes it is anything but great. Life can go sour without any warning when the sunshine turns to rain. Because of this we need to be equipped to face the difficulties as well as the joy. When Jesus tells us we can have “life to the full” and be friends of God He intends that friendship to be more than fair weather camaraderie. His desire is that we remain his friends forever.
The other week we went to visit our daughter who lives in Dublin and we took the opportunity to visit the Guinness factory, a vast complex of 55 acres which tells the story of how the drink is made and of the great success that has\resulted in Guinness being a trade mark recognized world-wide. The process of manufacture requires that the barley is milled so that the flavour can be released – it’s from this process that we get the phrase, “grist to the mill” and it brings to mind the crushing of the barley into a grist. Its all too evident that there are people among us who seem to be crushed by life’s experiences. I have met inspiring people who have gone through so many tough situations and come through as better people but there are also others who just seem crushed.
There is a popular myth around which tells us that if you take the decision to follow Christ your life will be full of joy and success without a cloud in the sky. Nowhere, absolutely nowhere does the bible make this promise. In fact Jesus tells the disciples to take up theirs and follow after him. We do no one any favours by telling half truths or by spinning them a line to get them into the kingdom, what we need to understand is that he has promised us is that he will never leave us.
