in

17-6-05

Thought For The Week

Have you ever won a prize? I don’t mean a lottery or a raffle, but something achieved by genuine physical or intellectual effort. Having the physique of a racing slug, my experience in this area has been confined to a few things at school, but even that gave me a lift so I am not surprised that Olympic gold medallist and Cup Final winners look so pleased.  There is nothing wrong with achievement by honest effort, using our God given talents.  There are many other magic moments. The birth of a child, passing an exam, getting that job, or seeing the achievements of your children.  However, important and memorable as these things are, there is something available to us which reduces them to the commonplace.  The prize beyond measure is the love of Jesus, the love that allowed him to be put to death for us.  As we sing the hymn ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’ do we just think of it as an old song with archaic words that we just wheel out in Lent, or do we look at the real meaning?  We don’t actually have to look at a cross, although for Christians it is an important symbol. What the writer sums up in six words is the entire process of the betrayal, show trial, torture and judicial murder of a man who was the Son of God, and what it means for us.  Jesus loved and loves us enough to suffer all that. That is beyond a magic moment, once you know Jesus it is a magic lifetime, such a joy that everything else is put into the shade.  ‘My richest gain I count but loss’. 

By Paul Goulden, Steward, Dewsbury Methodist Church. 

On behalf of the Churches Together in Dewsbury.