Neil's blog

100 years ago on 14th April 1912 the unthinkable happened when the ‘Unsinkable Titanic’ struck ice & went down in tragic-history. Blockbuster films, books & TV series seek to shine light into that dark icy night of panic. But have you heard the story of ‘John Harper’?

Harper, a widowed preacher, took his 6 year old darling daughter ‘Nana’ with him on the ‘trip of a lifetime.’ When the alarm sounded Harper managed to get Nana to a lifeboat & assured her they would meet again some day; then he helped ‘women, children & those who didn’t yet know Christ’s saving power’ to get into lifeboats.

When the ship split Harper jumped into the chilled, choppy seas and swam around urging others to trust in Jesus for eternal life, thus he helped numerous people to drown ‘with hope in Jesus’. One man resisted his attempts to share faith and said a loud “No!” So Harper took his own life belt off, handed it to him & told him that ‘he’ clearly had more need of it than he! Later he returned to this same man and helped him into a much longer lasting salvation when he changed tune & trusted Jesus as his Saviour & Lord.

John Harper perished that fateful night, but not before he helped many dying souls into The Kingdom of Heaven. And the man he gave his lifebelt to survived, one of very few picked up by lifeboats. Understandably he was keen to tell of John Harper’s heroism & the new life & fresh start he himself had now found in the Jesus who died to save him.

Throughout this past Lent, Holy Week & Easter weekend, millions in Irvine & around the world have been remembering & celebrating the unbelievable suffering & sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Photo – Irvine’s Good Friday Walk of Witness). We worship one who died to erase the sting of sin & death and give us spiritual strength to live sacrificial lives of service. The Spirit, who inspired John Harper to spend his last hour in selfless sacrifice, is the same Spirit available to each of us who learn to daily walk step by step with Jesus.

Long before Michael Jackson had his first ‘Moon Walk’, the American astronaut Neil Armstrong actually walked on the moon (July 20th 1969). Something once considered wildly impossible became a reality! A few Apollo missions later Alan B Shepard played golf on the moon, crazy!

I sincerely believe that nearly 2,000 years ago God completed two crazy impossible missions. The first Christmas God personally stepped into our world, planet earth, & about 33 years later took a giant leap for humankind by dying & rising for us all. Stepping onto the moon, Neil Armstrong’s famous words echoed around the world, “One small step for man, One giant leap for mankind!” However Jesus’ small step for God & giant leap for humankind (Us) still rings proud & loud around the world and is our Easter banner’s message (see attached).

I’m aware that many of us find these days, with fewer jobs & less money to go round, difficult. Indeed, coupled with the stress of losing loved ones or/& our health, these raw realities can easily push us under. Yet this Easter I hope you are able to take time to be with family, friends & neighbours, to celebrate the holidays and ‘impossible made possible.’ I pray we find in ‘Jesus Christ’ the one to lead us into fullness of life here on earth & onto bright shores beyond death. This doesn’t involve a ‘leap of faith’, Jesus took the leap on our behalf, rather it takes small steps of trust one day at a time.

‘Walk on with Hope in your heart!’

Happy Easter!
Neil

20 degrees centigrade in March! Might we be calling March the ‘new summer’ & August the ‘new autumn’? Lately things have been equally topsy-turvy in the world of football! In a sport renowned for cutthroat combative competition & bringing out the worst in human nature, we’ve seen a ground swell of community care & concern, cutting through race, religion, & rabid rivalry, to offer prayerful support for a sportsman who nearly lost his life & a sportsman who lost his dad. Miraculously one was spared (though he has a long road to go), while the other was taken, but both the saving & losing of life have enhanced our world in the overflowing of human compassion.

At Rugby Park on Saturday the large travelling Motherwell support joined Killie (& other clubs around the country) in marking a minute’s silence in memory of Jack Kelly, who died tragically on the final whistle of the League Cup final. Jack himself had played for Celtic as a schoolboy & supported them all his life, but for all the cups Celtic lifted none compared to the excitement, pride & delight of seeing his own son win the Cup with Killie. What a way to go! But loved ones left behind now feel the pain.

I know that Liam Kelly & his family are very grateful for the amazing support they’ve received from all quarters. It is hard to fathom what God is up to some times, but he is in the business of recycling evil into good, sin into salvation & sorrow into joy, as his own son’s death demonstrates. At Killie & Bolton Football Clubs we are experiencing a remarkable movement of human kindness brought on by human frailty & vulnerability. Personally I have been moved by such gestures as the one unfurled in the attached photo by our opposition on Saturday & encouraged by how the events of recent weeks have made people more willing to openly express emotion, discuss feelings & earnestly ask questions like, “What’s life all about anyway!?”

In Scotland we can have all 4 seasons confused in the one same day, so I’ll end with Mattheson’s well weathered verse,

“O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.”

It took 143 years to get there, but on the 18th March 2012 Killie lifted the Scottish Football League Cup, much to the astonishment of almost everyone except those closely involved with the team. Their manager Kenny Shiels helped them ‘believe to achieve’ and they overcame outlandish odds to halt the Celtic juggernaut. Celtic’s first stepping-stone to a ‘trophy treble’ sank without trace when a ‘Belgian’s head butt’ bulged the net & sent Killie supporters into delirium.

A nerve wracking last few minutes saw ‘man of the match’ Cammy Bell (photographed with his coach & No. 2 goalie) pull off more outstanding saves & a penalty claim waived away, but Killie held on for (in my unbiased opinion) a well deserved & historic win. Kilmarnock has been rocked by factory closures & much gloom in recent years & so to see John Finnie Street awash with blue, white & 1,000’s of beaming faces, hailing their heroes home on an open-top bus, will stick in many minds for ‘as long as they live’.

But that brings me to the agony, for the ‘final whistle’, which had me bouncing up & down, hugging my son, daughter & nearby strangers, was the whistle, which brought on the heart attack, which cut short Jackie Kelly’s life. While Killie players & supporters sang & danced with delight medical staff worked frantically to try & save Jackie’s life, but tragically to no avail. I noticed that Kells (Liam) had been told some bad news and managed to cut through security to be at the side of Liam & his stunned family. I followed them to the hospital where they learned the horrible truth.

Life can be cruel & seem so unfair! When the Killie players learned of Jackie’s likely death they returned to their dressing room & sat stunned, unsure how to react, their exuberant joy muted by mortality. Celebrations continued, but tinged with sorrow. The Kelly family have the comfort & consolation of knowing that Liam’s dad died tremendously happy & proud of his son’s achievement, but it is really only a crumb of comfort faced with such loss. The famous manager who said that ‘football’ is more important than ‘life & death’ was indisputably WRONG!

I felt like a ‘piece of popcorn in a microwave’ riding the Megabus Sleeper to London last week. My ‘Dick Whitington’ trip was for a golden day of preparation for the London Olympics & Paralympics. The dear folk of Fullarton Church are giving me 2 ½ weeks off & I’m taking 2 weeks annual leave to serve as a volunteer Gamesmaker Chaplain in both Games. However it does involve a few whistle-stop day visits to the Big Smoke to prime & prepare.

I’m rarely able to sleep on planes, trains or automobiles, but due to being rather ‘cream crackered’ (tired) from recent exertions I was hopeful that this new ‘Megabus’ experience might buck the trend & grant me some much needed shuteye. How wrong could I be, for it was I (not the trend), who got bucked in the bus’s back berth (the photo shows me optimistically settling down for the night), confirming to me that ‘bus & sleep’ are a contradiction in terms! Thus ,at 7 a.m. I emerged from the Underground like a zombie from ‘Sean of The Dead’, 2 hours early for my powwow.

But it was a good day and brought home something of the excitement of being involved in such a mammoth & historic event. Over 204 countries are bringing teams to the Olympics & over 160 to the Paralympics, 16,500 beds for athletes & their support staff in the Athletes’ Village alone (satellite villages swell the numbers), over 200,000 Gamesmaker volunteers, plus millions of spectators, will congregate to celebrate the ‘Greatest Show On Earth’, joined by billions worldwide watching on the telly. Volunteers like myself won’t get tickets to watch the games, rather we’ll be working hard to serve & support the athletes, staff, volunteers & spectators of London 2012. But don’t feel sorry for us, okay the Megabus didn’t live up to my dreams but I’m confident the ‘Megabuzz’ of serving in London 2012 will!