Looking back, and forward, at 50

(a short talk given at the Lighthouse Baptist Church, 2 October 2010)

What's it like being 50? Ask me on Monday, assuming I make it!

I've been to lots of places, done various things; I got a job, got married, had a child; and I'm very thankful for all of these. But what's the most important thing that happened to me? Something else.

I wasn't brought up to go to church. Some of my friends at school did – and they were the clever ones! That made no sense to me, so one lunchtime I went to a discussion meeting.

To my surprise they weren't talking about some dead religion, but about God being a person, someone they knew like a friend. I started reading, asking questions, sometimes praying. There was no sudden experience for me, but a gradual change over the months that followed. Then one day in 1976 my friend Simon asked me where I stood, and I realised that I had moved from where I used to be; I was a Christian.

People and interests come and go. Friends change, family members move on; I take up different things for a while, and drop some of them again. But God has been a solid rock, my security. My parents divorced, and I was upset over that, partly because that was where I came from. Then I clearly remember a train journey when I realised that my identity is given by God, and is safe in his hands, and no-one and nothing can take that away.

What about my goals, intentions, expectations? Some were fulfilled, straight there. Others too, in the end, with a lot more effort, twists & turns along the way. Still others were left behind. I didn't have it all mapped out. But God is working his purpose out in my life. The Bible says that when we come to him, we fnd that he has prepared in advance good things for us to do.

Not everybody makes it to 50. We never know when our time is up, and I have no idea how much longer I'll be here. But this I know, that God will take us home at the end, if we have come to him in the time we had on earth. How dare I say that? It's not that I'm a good man. I didn't need 50 years to work that out! Not yet good, but forgiven. Back in 1975-76, a transaction was done. When the day comes for me to be called to account I would be found wanting. My life deserves the judgment of God, but that life was exchanged, and Jesus paid the penalty for me, and I trust in his goodness to cover me instead.

So here it is, 50 years so far. So much in life is uncertain. But God is my security, he is working his purposes out even in me, and he will take me home at the end.

Neville Reid