St Andrews Street Baptist Church
November
Those of you who regularly cycle in
One of my worst moments on a bike took place about a year ago. I was cycling home from church in an empty cycle lane but inside a lot of stationary traffic. Suddenly, without warning a kindly bus driver decided to let off some of his passengers, although he wasn’t beside a bus stop.
So, there I was cycling along when suddenly a young women stepped into my path. I put my breaks on very hard, the front wheel stopped turning, the back of the bike rose in the air and I found myself gently floating towards the head of one of the girls. She looked extremely startled, as well she might, as I landed in a crumpled heap at her feet. Meanwhile the bus had blithely moved on.
Now, every time I cycle up
One of the outcomes of that incident was that it reminded me of the importance of every member of my body.
As a result of that accident I was fortunate in that I did not do any serious damage to myself or to my bicycle. However, I did land rather heavily on my wrist, which was then quite painful for a few days. Again, it was a good job that it wasn’t my right wrist, but even so, it limited what I felt able to do and made me value again this one particular, but small, part of my whole body.
However, the thing which really impressed me about that whole incident was the way in which so many parts of my body were involved in the decision I made to stop my bike.
I am not sure whether my eyes first saw the danger or my ears picked up the gentle hiss of the bus doors opening. Either way, eyes and ears worked together to alert me to the problem.
Then something happened inside my body and it was the sudden production of adrenalin, which caused everything around me to appear to slow down, as my reactions speeded up in an absolutely extraordinary way.
Having picked up the message from eyes and ears, my brain sent a message to both hands at once as my fingers tightened around the brake levers on my handle-bars.
Then, as the back of the bike rose in the air, my arms and legs worked together to try and maintain my balance, so that I did not fall into or under the bus, my mouth shouted a warning to the girls, my eyes looked for a way of avoiding crashing into them and that good old left wrist put itself on the line to stop the rest of my body from landing too hard.
In barely a fraction of a second, so many different parts of the body had enabled me to make a decision that led to my safety.
When Paul described the church as a “body”, I do not think that he was only thinking about mutual care and helping each other. It is a description, which also has a great deal to say to us about the way in which we make decisions as a church.
Decision making is at its most effective when all the members of the body make it together and this is particularly so for us at
Many good and helpful things came out of the Away Day, but it would be impossible to do them all. Therefore, the time has come to prioritise and this is where November 23rd comes in.
On that Sunday,
What should be our top priorities over the next couple of years?
How are we going to implement them?
These are decisions which we need to make together, as a body, so please make this day a priority even if you were not able to come on the Away Day. Pick up one of the resumes of that day and prayerfully consider the what? and the how? and come along and help us decide together.
My life was protected because ears, eyes, hands, brain, arms, adrenalin, legs and mouth all worked together. May we move forward as we move forward together with every member involved.
with love,
David
Office Address:
41 St Andrews Street
Cambridge
Cambs
CB2 3AR