[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, August 2018]
My wife and I decided to go for a walk down the path behind our house. We’ve been in Smallfield for 4 years now and we both wondered why this was the first time that we had walked down this path. It wound past houses, then open fields, then through an industrial estate, then down to Burstow Manor past some rather angry guard dogs (thank God for fences) and then down a country road and back to the main road. Some of the scenery looked so different to our neighbourhood and we noted that if we’d been shown photos of the path we’d walked, we would have said they were photos of somewhere else, but certainly not Smallfield.
It got me thinking that we have been attending Horley Baptist church since we moved here 4 years ago. In that time, we have met quite a few people in church, but I must confess that there are some I have only seen, but never had a chance (or gone out of my way to make the effort) to talk to. There might be all sorts of reasons (excuses) for this, but perhaps none that a determined effort on my part wouldn’t address.
Paul wrote to the Galatians and asked them to ‘Carry each other’s burdens’ and later on in the letter, he says ‘Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers’ (Galatians 6:2). It is unlikely that I will do either of these things if I don’t get to know the people around me.
There are many within our congregation and our neighbourhoods who could do with a listening ear, an encouraging word, or perhaps just a hug. I’d like to encourage you in the week ahead to make an effort to introduce yourself to that person you haven’t talked to yet and not just in church. You might be the one through whom God decides to pass His blessings on to them, or perhaps that they might be the one through whom God blesses you.
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Contributed by David Makanjuola; © the Author
