Sometimes “I get to thinking on the past” so begins a well
known Leonard Cohen song “Tonight will be fine”( I am not sure it is in the
Baptist hymnbook!)
I have been encouraged in that process of reminiscing
by a whole series of photos that have been posted on Facebook that were
taken during college days ,long, long ago.
The truth is while I (mostly) enjoyed my time at college, I
haven’t thought a great deal about it since. That is probably my loss for I certainly learned a lot and met some very good people,but maybe
by nature I like to move forward, (indeed one of the reasons I started this
blog was to encourage me to reflect more)
There is though something about photographs of
the past, and of people that you once knew very well indeed, that is absolutely
fascinating. I wondered how they were doing ,whether their lives had been
fulfilled ,and of course whether their faith had grown or dissipated, matured
or stagnated .
Wondering about others ,of course encouraged me to look into
my own heart and to reflect on some of the many mistakes I made then, and have
made since then.
I remember my very first night at BTI there was a welcome
service ,we started with” O for a thousand tongues to sing “ Since that day I
have heard louder singing sometimes, and better singing frequently, but never
such passionate singing. These were people who in some cases had sacrificed a
lot to get to college, people who were committed to doing God’s will for their
lives. Many of them went to serve in foreign mission fields ,some are still
there decades later. These were not perfect people(though probably a bit more
perfect than me) but they were people with big characters who took their
Christian faith seriously –who allowed it so shape their lives that they were
changed.
Our excellent lecturers are either very old and frail or
have gone to their reward, some of our fellow students have also died but well
into my fifties and looking at the photos, my prayer for myself and for them is
that we finish well; that we display the same passion for Jesus in our later
years that we did when we walked up Bothwell St and climbed the steps into
number 64 one autumn long ago.
what an inspiring post - I love old photos - and it is also a thoughtful process to 'look back' and a 'thankful' one too when we realize how the Lord has led us and continues to lead and minister to us on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteagreed Judith
ReplyDelete