Dear Friends in Seven Towers,

I remember hating history at school and finding a quotation from Henry Ford (founder of the Ford Motor Company) who said, ‘History is more or less bunk’. As a boy without any real understanding of the world, or taking time to investigate the context of Ford’s comment, I took some comfort in his words, but they now sound very short-sighted, almost foolish (maybe you agree?).

We live in very turbulent times and I find myself regularly thinking about what’s going on in the world and asking ‘Why don’t we ever learn?!’ (I sense our King might have been thinking the same when he spoke to the US Congress). I realise that looking at the past, both the more recent past and long ago, enables us to be reminded of good (yes, there has always been, and is, so much good in the world and our communities). It also reminds us of evil, of justice and righteousness, and of God Himself. It can help us find our place in today’s world.

Major events throughout history have shaped and reshaped the course of human civilisation, but there is one chapter that billions of people believe stands above all the rest. A life so monumental that it did not just change a moment in time, but it changed everything forever. This is not merely an episode in history, it is the event that believers claim the entire history of humanity hinges upon. It is the arrival of Jesus Christ, and his subsequent death and resurrection, that was marked in churches across the world at Easter. Think about it, the years of AD point us back to Christ, and the years BC count down to His coming.

You could say that history is really God’s story of creating, maintaining, and redeeming the world. In every generation he has always been here, now. There is no place where God is not! So, when we watch the news and see reporters bring challenging situations right into our homes, God knows about it. He’s there already. For here is where He is – with the people who suffer, as well as in places of joy and gratitude.

In these troubled times then, let’s hold onto this truth. If we feel afraid, or are stressed out because of what’s going on in our own lives, or the lives of others or in the world, as William Barclay said, remember this … ‘Things happen to us and happen to others which baffle our understanding; life has its problems to which there seems to be no solution and its questions to which there seems to be no answer; life has its dark places where there seems to be nothing to do but to hold on. Faith is always a victory, the victory of the soul which tenaciously maintains its clutch on God.’

So, let’s not hide away from this troubled world, or turn our backs on what the past can teach us. Instead, whoever we are and wherever we are, let’s make the most of the life and breath and free will we have been given and make our own bit of history by being a positive and hopeful force, to also be ‘here’, now. Let’s move on in faith – Feeling Afraid I Trust in Him, confident that all the while we are being blessed by his grace – emboldened by Gods Riches At Christ’s Expense.

We are part of God’s history! Here and now.

Keep walking in faith!

Simon Trapnell, Benefice churchwarden