A Good Friday Testimony

I was supposed to be going out on a works do tonight - as my supervisor, Jude, has recently left the organisation to take up a post with another employer. Now I'm sure I'm not the easiest person to employ as I require various 'reasonable adjustments' to be made, including extra support; but Jude has been wonderful with me, and I really wanted to be part of her send-off party...

It is however Good Friday - which for me has long been the most emotive, and one of the most significant dates in the church calendar - and, aware that I'd have a church meeting to attend this evening, I had already said I'd be late...

If I'm honest, these were two events I really wasn't keen to combine! However, armed with an Easter Egg for Jude, I set out for Edinburgh City Corps (of The Salvation Army) where the church meeting was taking place and did my best to resign myself to undertake popping into the pub they were all at for half an hour or so, after the meeting.

To begin with, I just couldn't get into it at all - and reflected on how unlike this was to the enthusiasm I had for such events during my earlier years in the Salvation Army at Gosport - wondering as I did whether the lack of any meeting on Maundy Thursday, and on Good Friday morning here in Edinburgh, had anything to do with that.

But the fact was, my mind kept wandering to how on earth I might make a reasonably discreet entrance into a crowded pub full of rowdy Leith revellers on a Friday night - dressed in a Salvation Army uniform - complete with the word 'Gorgie' on the shoulder epaulettes (Gorgie being the home of the Hearts football club - complete sacrilige to many Leithers, whose allegiance is mostly towards Hibernian, Edinburgh's other main club...!!

Then the meeting turned to a song that I'd heard only rarely since it was sung at my enrolment (as a soldier of the 'Army) back in May 2003, If crosses come, if it should cost me dearly.

Now let me explain. Sometimes, people being enrolled are allowed to choose their own songs to help illustrate their journeys towards their decisons to commit themselves in that way - but, as I was a group of four such individuals being done together, the officer chose this song on our behalf - and at that time, I only barely knew and really didn't much care for it...!

But tonight was different, and as I joined in with the singing, I realised just how close its words are to my own story. In particular, I'd not be sitting here in Edinburgh at all were it not true that, if doors should close, then other doors shall open; for in the intervening years I had tried to gain access to the Army's Officer Training College and failed almost at the final hurdle and, only as part of my eventual recovery from that terrible disappointment did I even consider a move back to Scotland, let alone enlist God's help in the process, as I eventually did - which was rewarded with the home in which I now live, and the new life that I now enjoy.

And, were it not true that, the Word of God can never be contained - nor that his love cannot be finally frustrated by narrow minds or prison bars restrained; I'd probably not be sitting anywhere by now as it was - some 27 years ago, behind the bars of what was then Polmont Borstal, where I made my first serious exploration of part of God's Word and - as the very lost soul I then was, woke up one day and felt sure that Jesus, the love of God, had found me there!

Good Friday is a time to consider the ultimate sacrifice made by Jesus, the love of God and, again as the song lyrics relate, If tears should fall, if I am called to suffer, If all I love men should deface, defame; I'll not deny the One that I have folllowed, nor be ashamed to bear my master's name; it surely is also a time to reconsider our responses.

Therefore, I'll not turn back, whatever it may cost, for I'm called to love and save, the lost. The very least I could do tonight was pay the 'cost' that was not going out to that pub and therefore preserving myself in the attitude that God requires me, for the remainder of this Easter weekend, and beyond.

I thank all who have taken the trouble to read this and pray that you too, will feel prompted to make a special response to God's gentle touch, this Easter.