I have been thinking a lot about journeys recently. Tomorrow morning I leave early to be in taunton for 10 am before travelling back later in the day after meeting up with some YFC friends.

I have often heard the Christian life described as a journey and I think it is. Alongside this description, however, I also hear arguments over ‘brands’ of worship, particular beliefs, and so on. This frustrates me. People talk of journeys but expect everyone to follow the exact same path.

Why can’t we understand that if we are on a journey that means exactly what it says. People on journey’s are all at different places. The Christian journey reminds me so much of a Hash.

If you don’t know what a Hash is then you need to look here. When I visited my step father in Qatar every chance I got when on holiday we would hash weekly. Tjos of you that know me well that a drinking club with a running problem is probably the club I am best suited for – far more than ordained ministry in the CofE! (in fact maybe a good alternative is to find a good hash in the south east!)

In the hash some loved to run off, investigate all the trails, run back, share their info and then rush off again. Others were happy to run far enough behind the leaders so they did the journey, but no unnecessary extras – in fact I used to hang back far enough so I could work out short cuts! Others walked. Others drove the 4WD’s to the end of the race to set up the BBQ and ensure the beers were cold. The point was this was a community all travelling in the same direction. The over-riding aim was that we moved forward together, not that we all get there at the same time.

If we are going to say the Christian life is a journey we need to take on board what that actually means – people travelling in the same direction, but using a massive variety of routes to get there. If we can do that the experience will be incredibly richer!