They're Cheering. Can You Hear Them?

Sunday at church we celebrated All Saints. It strikes me that All Saints is an excellent opportunity to remind ourselves that we are not alone, that we are surrounded – both from the past and today – by countless others who chose a faith in Christ, to run the race that we call Christianity.

If you watch the marathon on the television you will see the streets lined by people who are there to cheer the runners on. You will not be surprised to hear that I have never run the marathon (!) but I would imagine that for many of the runners the existence of people cheering them on is what helps them to finish the race.

I am confident that I am not alone finding Christianity difficult at times. In fact I am confident that I am not alone in finding life a little difficult at times. And so knowing that I am “cheered on” in my faith and in being who I am by others is vitally important to me. I want to challenge us all therefore in two areas. Firstly, can we remember that we are cheered on by others - we have our own individual cheerleaders! And secondly can we commit to being a cheerleader for someone else? Someone we can pick up the phone to, someone we see regularly or someone we pray for.

I am inspired by this extract from Bob Hartman's poem based on Hebrews 11 and 12. May we be inspired to hear the cheering and do the cheering as well.