Pilgrim's Progress - 5th February
I shall miss Back Lane, I thought, as I drove up it today – that bit of old Wakefield that neatly bypasses the city centre past the prison.
It has those cliff-like walls, the old Orangery, the brewery and funny little nooks around the station with a tunnel-like dark bridge beneath the tracks.
It will disappear, as it is, in the name of progress, and we will all join the queue up Westgate.
One of my teachers, years ago, told us never to believe in the myth of inevitable progress. It sounded like heresy in those days – things were going to get better, in the words of a song beloved of politicians.
Now we are uncertain. We look backwards to good old days, which probably weren't; we are trapped between the safety of selective sentimental memories, and unattainable hype about what is to come – instantly.
Christians have to think hard. We have a founder who told us to put our hands to the plough and never look back, someone with nowhere to lay his head, journeying on to build the kingdom of God, yet we become attached to the old, to our forms of service, to our buildings, even, dare I add, to our pews.
The truth is that a Christian is always on a pilgrimage through life. The important things like people, peace, society (oh yes, Mrs T), care and concern, life and death are always moving too, and the way we act over what matters is always provisional, never final, a tension which is our driving force.
Other things – buildings, appearances, tradition – can arouse our sentiment, but we must know which really matters.
I'll still miss Back Lane, though.
Nick Shields
Churches Together in Wakefield
Churches Together are at www.wdco.org/site/Churches-Together-in-
Wakefield
Pilgrim's Progress is edited by Nick Shields
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Weather for Wakefield
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
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