GOING BACK HOME

Have you ever been back to the place you were born?

A few weeks ago I took Kerry back to the place where she was born. The RAF Hospital near Ely in Cambridgeshire. It was a surprise trip for her birthday, she had never been back there since being born there…… (I’m not going to give away a lady’s age!), enough said….in all her life. It was clear that the hospital had changed a lot since the year Kerry was last there, but it was still the place where her life began. It had changed its name, added new buildings, in fact it was hard to see what was left of the old building, but it was still the place.

I was born in Ickenham, Middlesex and as much as I have seen the name on signposts as I have travelled on roads near to it at times, I have never actually been back to where I was born – perhaps that will be my next surprise trip. But I am reminded of it every time I have to fill in certain forms like Passport, CRB forms and more. Yet it is only a name, I don’t remember the place, I wouldn’t recognise the house I was born in, but I know that life began for me there.

It’s like knowing the place where my spiritual birth took place. It was at The Salvation Army, George Street, Uxbridge and I can easily replay the video in my mind of the moment I got out of my chair and knelt at what in Salvation Army speak was the ‘penitent form’ or ‘mercy seat’, and there, with the help of an adult who came to pray with me, I gave my life to follow Jesus. The building was knocked down long ago, but I can recreate the moment at a moment’s notice.

And that is important to me, to be able to go back to the first call of God on my life or rather, my first response to His call. I knew a few weeks earlier that I should have got off my chair and done something about it, but even at 6 years old I knew how to resist God’s voice. And since that first time there have been many more. Times when I have ‘got off my chair’ and times when I have resisted and just sat still.

Every time I hear God’s voice it is the same and it is different. Not because God has changed or the call has changed – it’s always the same, ‘Follow me!’ – but because I have changed. The same words take on a different meaning and a fresh understanding as I get older, I have slowly realised what they really mean and what getting off my chair will cost me . Unlike an eager 6 year olds response, as adults we begin to count the cost and weigh it up and want to choose comfort and don’t like change and want to settle.

And that is the problem. I’m so concerned to count up what it will cost me that I lose sight of what it cost Jesus to invite me to follow Him. Too often I’m expecting Jesus to follow me but it isn’t meant to be like that.

Have you been back to where you were born? Is there a time and a place when you first got up and followed Jesus? Are you too busy counting the cost now and end up staying in the chair? Jesus calls you to get up and follow – 6 year olds and 86 year olds – don’t avoid it, keep taking the risk and remember where it all started. It’s worth the trip next time you want a surprise.