This is the first guest blog post, written by Luke Furlong. Luke and I have been together for nearly a year, and first bonded over a shared sense of calling and mission. He is sharing some reflections below about markers in our lives.
If you were asked to look back on your life’s journey so far, what would you say are the key moments that stand out to you? Perhaps it was day that you finished school, or maybe the day you received that first pay-packet from your very first job. Your wedding day, the birth of your first child? How about the day you gave your life to Christ?
As someone who enjoys walking and being in the countryside, I often look out for markers to ensure that I’m still on the right path; cairns are one such marker that I look out for. For those of you who do not consider yourselves to be outdoors enthusiasts let me briefly explain what a cairn is. Put simply, rock cairns are human-made stacks, mounds or piles of rocks that are used as navigational aids, monuments and burial sites amongst other uses.
Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people have built cairns and stone alters as a way to mark important moments in their walk with God. Whilst in Luz, (later called Bethel – House of God) God confirms upon Jacob this promise.
“I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (Genesis 28: 13-15)
Jacob marks this significant moment by setting up the stone on which he laid his head as a pillar and anointing it with oil, declaring “…The Lord will be my God.” The cairn that Jacob builds to Lord serves as a wonderful reminder of the goodness of God. The covenant that God made with Abraham is a living covenant, a covenant inherited and accepted by Jacob, who honours God by building this cairn as a place of remembrance, a marker on the road of his life, a moment when his life changed forever.
Now think again about your life journey so far, but this time think about your faith journey. Maybe you’re at the start of that journey and you are yet to place any cairns of your own. Or perhaps you’ve been on the journey of faith all your life and are well travelled on that road and the path behind is full of markers you’ve placed along the way. No matter where you find yourself in that journey, I invite you, to put down a marker and declare like Jacob “…The Lord will be my God.”
“Through each perplexing path of life
Our wandering footsteps guide;
Give us each day our daily bread,
And raiment fit provide.
Such blessings from thy gracious hand
Our humble prayers implore:
And thou shalt be our chosen God
And portion, evermore.”
Philip Doddridge (1702-1751)