Walking and talking ...

Some of the most memorable features of my teens were our church youth group weekends away. One of our youth leaders at the time was an army officer, and as a consequence, youth group trips away were always major outdoor expeditions. No bowling and cinema trips for us; we did the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia. Today we might question the wisdom of taking a band of inexperienced teenagers up Snowdon via Crib Goch, a long knife-edge ridge, in February, in gale-force winds ... the risk assessment would, quite rightly, conclude that was madness! But this was the 1990s, so off we went, consuming a vast quanity of Mars bars along the way, and fortunately we all made it back again.
 
Some rather hairy moments aside, what I most remember is the sheer joy of walking for hours on end with people that I loved. Of course had my parents suggested such an expedition, I would have moaned and grumbled no end, as would have been my duty as a teenager. But somehow a youth group trip was different, and we all embraced it. And to this day I remember the depth of conversation that we had as we walked and talked.
 
I was recently struck by the sheer amount of time that Jesus and his disciples must have spent walking and talking together. Of course the four gospels focus in on the most notable moments along the way - Jesus' teaching, his miracles, the times he caused a stir or got into trouble. They concentrate on the occasions that best show us who Jesus was and why he had come, that was the purpose of their being written after all. When we read the gospels we're reading the highlights, the Match of The Day snippets that capture two goals and a few close moments.
 
But so much of Jesus' relationship with his disciples, and their relationships with each other, would have been shaped by the times in-between as they walked the dusty roads from one village to another. No jumping on the train, laptop out, airpods in for them. It's estimated that Jesus and his disciples would have walked over 3,000 miles together during the three years of his public ministry! And stinky, dusty feet aside, what a gift it must have been, to share all that in-between time, walking and talking with Jesus and with each other.
 
As we enter a new academic year here at HTR, we'd love to encourage everyone who feels part of the church to make space for sharing life in the "times in-between" with others who also follow Jesus - walking alongside each other through the everyday challenges of life as well as celebrating the joyous moments. That might mean joining a Life Group if you're not already part of one; or creating a WhatsApp group with a few trusted friends, to keep each other updated and to continue to remember to pray for each other. It might mean starting a prayer triplet and meeting on an occasional basis with others to share and pray for each other in more depth. It may or may not involve going for an actual walk! But I do pray that in all we do to encourage each other along life's journey, we might know Jesus walking and talking with us through it all - the highs, lows and the ordinary "times in-between".