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Remember why you started

‘Let’s begin at the very beginning – a very good place to start.’ (Sister Maria)

I recently joined a gym. (Pause for laughter…) It’s far from being the first time I have joined a gym – joining is the easy part… But it is the first time I have been to this particular gym. And emblazoned across one of the breeze block walls in large lettering is the message ‘Remember why you started.’ Other motivational statements are available, but this one – directly in my eyeline as I start a gentle walk on the treadmills – got me thinking. And because I’m an old hack of a preacher it wasn’t my general lack of physical health that first came to mind…

Remember why you started. If someone asks me when and where I became a Christian, in so far as there is a single time and place, I would usually refer back to the open-air youth meeting on the terrace at Cliff College in Derbyshire on Spring Bank Holiday Monday 1981. My parents’ faith, which I had been quietly moaning about for a few years, both became and began to become my own faith in response to what was said and sung that day. What Jesus had said and done 2,000 years earlier took on a new and personal reality. It began to make sense. 

In particular it was the idea that I was loved that began to take hold of me that day. I think it was a Cliff Student who gave her testimony that day and paraphrased and personalised the famous verse from John’s Gospel to say ‘God so loved you…’ Yes, the whole world, but yes that means you! God loves you. That’s where it all started, and how it started, and why it started. I even bought the badge – Jesus loves you!

In a famous anecdote Karl Barth was asked to summarise his whole life and work as a theologian in a sentence, and responded with the words of the old children’s song, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the BIble tells me so.’ 6 million words of Church Dogmatics compressed into a single thought – Jesus loves you. 

Remember why you started – excellent motivation at the gym but also good spiritual advice. I need to remember why I started this journey of faith, because Jesus loves me. In the midst of denominational debates and the angst of ministry I need to remember why I started – because God loves me. 

So what about you? Can you remember why you started? Not simply when and where, but why? And, just in case you are wondering, I want you to know that Jesus loves you too!

The thought this week was written by John Goddard, Minister of Saffron Walden Baptist Church, and EBA Trustee