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Day 17<br />
The longest journey starts with a simple step...<br />
The Journey...<br />
<strong>Have</strong> you ever started a journey on to have<br />
something happen on route that changes everything?<br />
All too often on our roads, lives are<br />
permanently changed in tragic circumstances<br />
but it doesn't have to be bad<br />
changes we consider. Imagine bumping into<br />
a long lost friend on the way to the shops<br />
only to rekindle that friendship, your friendship<br />
turns to dating, dating turns to relationship,<br />
relationship turns to marriage - life<br />
changed all because you took a journey to<br />
the shops. It's quite amazing to think that if<br />
our imaginary person didn't run out of milk<br />
that day, her two children may not have been<br />
born. Who knows what will happen on life's<br />
road. I think this has happened to all of us at<br />
some point. I know its happened to me more<br />
times than I can count. Some of it good,<br />
some bad but I do know that everything that<br />
has happened and every one of life's roads I<br />
have walked down has brought me to the<br />
point where I am now. When I look at what I<br />
have I do feel blessed. Being in the position<br />
I am to be able to help veterans is truly fantastic<br />
and rewarding. The journey I took has<br />
sometimes been uncomfortable, sometimes<br />
joyful, regrettably to get where I am, people<br />
have been hurt, I have been hurt but to be in<br />
the position where I am now I can call on all<br />
of these experiences to help others. Without<br />
them I'd have no way of knowing how to help.<br />
But I'm not the only one to have walked a<br />
road like this. I believe we all hold this qualification<br />
in one way or another. Saul of Tarsus<br />
Isaiah 30: 21<br />
was one of these people. Saul’s anti-Christian<br />
zeal motivated him not only to arrest and<br />
imprison male Christians but to lock up female<br />
believers as well. Saul was present for<br />
the trial of Stephen, one of the disciples, a<br />
trial that resulted in Stephen becoming the<br />
first Christian martyr . The historian Luke tells<br />
us that Stephen’s executioners laid their garments<br />
at the feet of Saul, who was in full approval<br />
of the mob’s murderous actions. Saul<br />
later ravaged the church, entering the homes<br />
of believers and committing them to prison.<br />
Then a journey changed all that. While on his<br />
way to Damascus to arrest and extradite<br />
Christians back to Jerusalem, Saul was confronted<br />
by the very One whom he was persecuting.<br />
What followed was one of the most<br />
dramatic conversions in church history. Saul<br />
of Tarsus became the apostle Paul, an ardent<br />
missionary to an unbelieving world and a fine<br />
example of faithful service in the face of<br />
fierce persecution. Later, becoming the most<br />
revered Saint in history and writer of much of<br />
the New Testament. St Paul became St Paul<br />
because of a journey. Just imagine, that<br />
morning when he set off on his journey he<br />
had no idea that his life was about to change<br />
so dramatically. How amazing is that? I wonder<br />
where your journey will take you. What is<br />
round the next corner or over the next summit<br />
you need to climb? Only God knows, but<br />
he is guiding you. Trust in your spiritual Sat-<br />
Nav, It's got the right route plotted into it by<br />
the ultimate navigator. Just trust him.<br />
| 16 www.sandbagtimes.co.uk/havefaith
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