thought for the week

ACOUPLE of years ago I managed to write off my car. It was my fault. I was distracted by a young lad falling off his bike alongside the road and hit the back of the car in front whose driver had also seen the danger and slammed on the brakes. Financially the car wasn’t worth repairing.

Unfortunately there is a tendency in society to write off people who are seen as damaged beyond repair.

Perhaps they have committed a heinous crime or their life is trapped in a cycle of addiction or they have never worked (perhaps lacking the opportunity or encouragement).

In the first week of May Martin Salter is coming to Llandudno to address the Keswick Bible Week (watch out for details!) on the subject of faith for the flawed.

He will be looking at the life of

Jacob, a very flawed individual, who contrived, with his Mother’s help, to cheat his brother out of his birthright and his Father’s blessing. It would have been easy to write him off as no good but God saw the potential in him when he changed.

I love reading Bible stories about heroes like Moses, who murdered an Egyptian soldier but went on to lead a nation out of slavery – when he’d learned to do it God’s way instead of his own. David was an adulterer and murderer but God used him as a great King. Gideon was a timid man but went on to become a great warrior, Peter suffered from ‘foot in mouth’ but went on to lead the church.

God is in the business of forgiveness, restoration and change. No-one need be written off as useless, even me.