On Reflection

From the manse window

HOW are your New Year resolutions going?

Are you still managing to keep any for 2023?

I have to admit to being rather unsuccessful when it comes to New Year resolutions.

Perhaps I have been too ambitious in my targetsetting, or just too weak-willed!

Starting over takes will power. Some of us seem to have been blessed with more than others in this area.

This last year my niece, Ailish, a very keen cyclist, took on the challenge of the Gbduro.

The Gbduro is a 2,000 km, no frills, self-supported cycle race from Land’s End to John O’ Groats.

The route is almost all off road, on gravel tracks, forest paths, up and down hill and dale, especially through Wales and Scotland.

The four stages are each approximately 500 km in length and riders are expected to average about 200 km or 125 miles a day.

Riders receive no form of support. They carry their own food supply, water, tent and sleeping bag, fix their own bikes, and must sleep outside for the duration of the ride.

This race is not for the amateur.

This was my niece’s first attempt and she eagerly set off with 48 other riders while I followed her dot on the map tracker.

Ailish made it to John O’ Groats. I knew she would.

She had cycled for eight days and she finished 13th out of 19 finishers.

She had slept outside on exposed hillsides in pouring rain with only a sleeping bag for warmth, she had been up and off at four a.m., too cold to lie any longer, she had pushed through exhaustion and aching limbs and she had kept going. What a star!

I admired her guts, her stamina and her perseverance.

“Why would anyone want to do that?” I had asked.

But I did so wish I had even a fraction of that grit and determination.

The will, I have decided, is a muscle which needs exercising.

Choosing between what we know to be right, over what we feel like doing, is a choice we will all have faced many times.

God gave us a will with which to make daily decisions, big and small.

To choose to follow him would be, he promised, a source of eternal peace and joy, but the road would not be easy.

We would often be required to go against our own desires for comfort.

Jesus not only told us that, but showed us, that Easter.

To follow him would mean often having to set aside our own wants in order to put the interests of others first.

“Not my will but thine be done,” he said on the cross.

As we approach the Easter season, let us take inspiration and courage from his example, his understanding and his power. ■

Next week: Rev Ian W.F. Hamilton advocates doing things with all our might.