The Crossroads | Day 18 | Dec 15

I want, today, to ask you to reflect on a little verse which seems to me, to be a challenge to our two churches built at crossroads.

The verses is Jeremiah 6.16. It could be a call to arms for the people of Killaney and Carryduff – but not to battle; a call for us to arm ourselves with deep and true repentance.

Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.

My first memories of roads was as a four year old living briefly off the Newtownards Road. I went for a walk on my own, and found myself at the entrance to Stormont. I have never worked out how I got there, it was a mile or two away. Did I mention I was on my own? And, no, I don’t know how I got home. There are so many questions that I sometimes wonder: “Did it really happen?” I have no-one to ask now. I lived there in January 1962, fifty years ago next month.

But I do remember various crossroads in life, as I am sure we all have done, where decisions have to be made.

What is the good path that you have to find and then choose to follow? Walk in it?

There is, I reckon, a first time of repentance as we face up to God’s call to become a follower of Jesus. But we meet many crossroads after that first time, and it may be that each of us, and all of us together, have to look again for the right way, and turn to walk in it.