Wrong turns

WE were aware of the road closures for the Wokingham half marathon and that the road from our house was on the route. Naively we thought it wouldn’t affect us - how wrong we were.

Thanks to the very helpful stewarding staff we eventually managed to return home. But not before finding our way blocked in multiple places and needing to turn round.

The instructions were helpful, but the listening was suspect.

Instead of finding the process frustrating, which given my impatience behind the wheel was a marvel, it caused me to reflect on how much those 20 minutes around Cantley Park are a microcosm of my life.

How often I find the need to say sorry for something I’ve got wrong, look back on past mistakes and cringe or find cause to regret some of the ways I’ve behaved.

I suspect all of us know the heaviness of this baggage. So how grateful I was to be (attempting) to return home from the church where I’m minister.

A church where we’d just sung and proclaimed and rejoiced in a God who is a fountain overflowing with undeserved favour and unmerited kindness. Instead of treating me as I deserve, he has showered me with loving kindness and merciful forgiveness.

This powerfully changes how I understand my own baggage and past, for while I often hold it over my own head, and while sadly we often hold each other’s mistakes over each other, the LORD has ‘put them behind his back’.

Such grace helps me to lift my head each day and begin to show the same grace to others.

In a world that increasingly seems reluctant to offer forgiveness how very precious this is.