Thanks for downloading the STC Sheffield podcast today.  Whether you’re listening whilst eating a bowl of cornflakes, or reading in a quiet moment before bed, I hope that these words will be an encouragement to you in your walk with Jesus.

REFLECTION:

In the 1840s, thousands of men, women and children deserted their homes in the Eastern United States, leaving everything they knew behind, and started on a dangerous journey across land that was totally unknown to them.  It was called ‘The Great Migration’ and in the space of just 11 years, approximately 55,000 people travelled west.

The most common route to take was the Oregon Trail.  It was popular but also infamous.  One traveller wrote, “You could not possibly mistake the trail because it was littered at intervals of only 30 yards or so with rusting wagon shafts, skeletons of mules and oxen, and the corpses of humans.”

It is hard to imagine what those pioneers must have felt as they slowly and treacherously pressed on along the track set before them.  I am sure many of them thought about the life they had left behind and whether this journey was worth it.

Those early trailblazers faced sandstorms, rain, hunger and thirst, quicksands, swollen rivers, stampeding buffalo and disease…….and yet still they strained on forward.  Their determination would be rewarded with the prize of new, rich farm lands, a fresh start, and the promise of a better life.

In around 62 AD, thousands of years before the Great Migration, the apostle Paul wrote these words to the church in Philippi:

“Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

These are verses 13 and 14 of Philippians Chapter 3, and there are two things I think that God wants us to reflect on from these verses today.

Firstly, knowing Christ or gaining Christ (as we looked at in yesterday’s podcast), does not mean that all the difficulties in our lives will suddenly stop or disappear.  If that were the case, Paul wouldn’t use phrases such as ‘straining forward’ or ‘press on.’  These words inherently imply that we will encounter things that cause us to struggle, and there will be occasions when we come up against resistance.

We may feel that since we made the decision to leave our old life behind and follow Christ, our journey resembles the Oregon Trail.  People we love have got sick and died, managing our finances is a bit like being in quicksand as we could go under at any moment, and the spiritual attack that we have faced feels like we are being stampeded by a herd of buffalo.

When the journey is difficult, it can be hard not to just sit down at the side of the road and give up.  But this is why it is so important to be part of a Christian community that can walk alongside us, help us to take the strain, encourage us to keep pressing on, and cheer every step forward that we make.

The American pioneers didn’t head out West alone in single wagons.  They travelled in great wagon trails – extended families, whole communities – on a mission together.  If we are going to complete the journey of faith, we need to do the same.

Secondly, all of us are called to be pioneers.

Now you may be thinking “Well she’s got that wrong.  I am definitely not a pioneer.  I know I could never just quit my job and leave everything behind.  And I have no desire to trek off in a wagon.”

But that’s not what I mean.

The dictionary says that a pioneer is “a person who begins or helps develop something new and prepares the way for others to follow.”

As Christians we are all called to begin something new – and that is to live a new life which has Jesus at the centre.  And we need to invest in, or develop, this new life.  As Paul says in verse 12, we are not to think that we are already perfect and have obtained all that Christ intends for us.