Previous experience

As I face a second stay in hospital, at least I have previous experience to go on.  My first ever episode of hospitalisation, back in January, was both reassuring and disturbing. I had complications following a simple biopsy. Everyone loves to feel special, but to be the one person in 100 chosen to have a particular problem is a privilege I'd rather avoid!

At the same time, I know that I shall meet with kindness and courtesy and much practical love, help and support. As a resident of a friendly locality and pastor of a caring church, you may be reasonably confident of this both in hospital and in convalescence afterwards. The period of recovery will probably be rather lengthy and I may be quite dependent on others. I don't look forward to being a burden, but I know everyone will reassure me that I'm not one. There are also things which I shall handle differently because I have been through it all before. Perhaps I shall make a better fist of it this time, even though last time didn't go too badly.

Thinking about this experience question brings to mind those job adverts which flag up that previous experience of the work is "desirable" or "essential". Of course this is the bane of many a job-seeker's life. Employers don't seem to understand that you've got to start somewhere. An applicant longs for a sympathetic employer willing to look at his or her potential rather than a proven track record. Many, though, are hard-headed business people who don't see it that way and won't give a youngster a chance. It's a hard world.

The job market is all about life, however, and life can be hard. Sometimes doing things with no previous experience can bring disastrous results with lifelong bad consequences. Yet there is great comfort for the Christian. As a wise believing lady told me one day, "God never punishes anyone for making a mistake".

Old Job, in the Bible book of that name, found himself on the end of a torrent of challenging questions from God. He had experienced heavy losses for maybe the first time in his life, and had taken it all very hard. Somehow he managed to retain his integrity through it all, and did not curse God. When confronted, he was desperately sorry that he had been so bitter: "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). God praised Job up in the presence of Job's false comforters and blessed him more than he had been blessed before.

Thank God, coming to Him through the cross of Jesus is not a question of building up experience and getting it unfailingly right.

Turning round

It doubtless happens many times each day, though I had never remarked on it until this particular occasion. A car heading one way up our road came through the entrance into the church car park, turned round and left again, moving off in the opposite direction. The driver was, quite understandably, using our premises as a turning place.

We have no problem with that. There are no plans to put up "No Turning" notices. In fact this car turning round gave me pause for thought. Our church is a place where, we hope, lives will be turned round. This is what “repentance” means.

The word in the original Bible language means literally that – to turn your life around 180 degrees. (Not like the fashion photographer who told his model to turn round 360 degrees – which would mean she ended up facing the same way again!)

This radical turnaround implies that a person’s stubborn set of mind is broken down and they allow themselves to be guided into a different way. We all need to examine which way we are taking. Proverbs reminds us twice over, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (14:12 and 16:25). The most frequent advice the earliest Christians gave to those who wanted to join them was “Repent!”

Today that word “repent” is associated with glum Puritan preachers wagging a finger at those they reckoned to be sinners and warning them harshly to change their ways. Originally, though, it was a warm-hearted plea to men and women who were heedlessly heading fast in the opposite direction from God. Let them turn round and take the same route Jesus took, the way of life – through a cross to a crown. It was also a timely instruction to some who were already Christians. They had somehow lost their way and gone cold (Revelation 2:5; 2:16; 2:21; 2:22; 3:3 and 3:19).

Yes, long may our church serve as a place where lives are turned around. We trust that our week of outreach to Leigh in August (5-12) will be a time when people consider the claims of Jesus on their lives, perhaps for the first time. And may it be a place where even experienced Christians keep humbly realising they have some turning round left to do.