What do we achieve in life?

It will soon be 3 months since Sue and I made the journey down the M1 from Doncaster to begin our new life in Leicester.  Although the process of leaving Doncaster was a hard one (we had been there 12 years, and had made some very good friends), we were both convinced that the move to Leicester was part of God’s plan for our lives.  I shouldn’t have been surprised, therefore, at how quickly we felt at home in our new surroundings.  We are both convinced that we are in the right place, and feel truly blessed to be where we are.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that there aren’t aspects of Doncaster life which we miss very much; most of all the people we had come to know and love.  One of the many blessings of my time in Doncaster was to be part of the weekly church leaders’ prayer group.  At 7am each Wednesday morning, a group of church leaders met together to pray for each other and for our town (and still do!)  Being part of that group was an enormous blessing to me over the years, and I miss our Wednesday mornings together.

Last Saturday, Sue and I travelled up to Doncaster to attend a service of celebration and thanksgiving to mark the retirement of one of my former colleagues, and very good friend, Peter Amos.  Peter has just retired as pastor of Bentley Baptist Church in Doncaster.  It was a great privilege to be at the celebration service and to share with many others who had come to give thanks for Peter’s ministry (and that of his wife, Jean).  I found it a very moving and inspiring occasion; several people gave a personal tribute to the profound impact which Peter’s life and ministry had had on them.  I am sure that the vast majority of those people present (myself included) were there because they wanted to give thanks to God for Peter’s ministry.  Many people’s lives have been impacted by God through Peter.

As I have been reflecting on this wonderful occasion, and on the impact for good that one person’s life can have on others, I am reminded of the challenge which faces us all: what impact does my life have, for good or otherwise?  My mind goes back to a conversation which I had some time ago during a funeral visit.  I was visiting a person who had recently been bereaved, in order to make plans for the forthcoming funeral service for his relative.  In a reflective moment, the person I was visiting asked, “What do we achieve in life?  Aren’t we just like grains of sand on the seashore?”  I think that it was intended as a rhetorical question, but it certainly made me think!

As John Donne famously wrote,

“No man is an island,

entire of itself.
each is a piece of the continent,

a part of the main.”

We do not live our lives in isolation from the rest of humanity.  Whether we like or not, each human life affects and impacts many others, either for good or otherwise.  With God’s help, each one of us can make a real and positive difference in the lives of others.  God has blessed me in so many ways, and my prayer is that I can be a blessing to others. 

.