remember

Remembrance Day.

The secondary school always has a brief act of remembrance on an 11th November school day.

The number of former pupils who served in the two world wars and who lost their lives is a sobering, solemn statistic. And it does these present day pupils no harm to have time to be still and reflect.

In fact, it does none of us any harm to have such times!

It's always a good and moving occasion and today was no exception.

I give them the reading from Scripture and I close the thing in prayer. It's not a lengthy occasion. And we try and keep it simple.

Remembrance. The past serves to shape the present. As the present shapes the future.

It's as well to reflect on that.

And I guess that's why the Lord himself exhorts us in the Scriptures to ... well, remember.

To remember who and what we were. To remember what he's done for us. And to remember what he's promised us.

It's easy to lose our sense of perspective. To forget some pretty basic realities about our world.

Like, it belongs to him and is loved by him. Like, he knows the smallest details of our lives and cares for us. Like, there isn't any problem that he's not well able to resolve. Like, he's always hard at work, intent on wonderful things.

And includes us in his purposes, so that we get to share in what he's doing. His co-workers.

I was out to see folk this afternoon.

I don't really visit 'routinely'. As in visiting just for the sake of visiting. Kind of ticking the box of things a minister does.

That isn't me at all. And I don't really think it's the Lord either.

Where do you want me to go and to be, Lord?

That's the sort of question that I'm asking day by day.

I had this sense for the afternoon that I was meant to call on some folk in a certain part of the community. The first door I tried there was no-one there.

Which narrowed it down a bit. I figured the Lord meant me elsewhere and I knew where that would be. I was glad I'd gone.

And as I left that house, I bumped into a neighbour who was out to walk the dog. This neighbour was bereaved a few months back, so I joined him on his walk.

And I began to think that maybe it was really him the Lord had all along been meaning me to see. Kind of touching base with him again. Not in the formal setting of his home, but out on the street, relaxed and walking his dog.

It's a life of continual surprises, this living 'by faith' and learning to heed his direction. I never quite know just where it's going to lead or whom I'm going to meet.

The same was true at night.

Two separate sets of circumstances through the day had laid upon my heart the clear and settled conviction that I should be off out to Kirkliston once again. There were folk to be seen.

I wasn't sure quite why, of course. But I went.

And sure enough, when I called at the home of the couple I thought I should see, their welcome was with open arms.

I mean, it always is. They're a lovely, warm, hospitable couple, who'd make anyone feel at home. So it's always a pleasure to call on them. And there's always a sense of the presence of God himself.

There were questions they wanted to ask, though, tonight. And I think, had I not called by, they'd have actually been in touch with me themselves.

It was like the Lord himself again just brought about this time we shared together.

The man had just got back from an Alpha weekend away. Where they'd been thinking about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

I think it's this sort of thing the Spirit often does. Causing our paths to cross as they did tonight. Laying upon their hearts and my own the need to meet. And then bringing it all about.

It was great! I could easily have been there all night it was just that good and there was just that much to share.

Remember how he told you ..."He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you."

Remember.

Too often and too easily we forget that this is what he's promised. Day by day he goes ahead of us. And as we go, wherever it is that he directs us by his Spirit, there we get to see him.

That's what today and tonight has been like!