A change for the better

It’s the time of the year for change. A few weeks ago, the time changed, giving us brighter mornings and darker nights. The routine and the pattern of work on the farm also changes, the clothes we wear on the farm changes. Gone are the short sleeves of summer, replaced with the boilersuit, a body warmer, woolly hat and welly boots (for me anyway).

Over the years, life and work on the farm has changed repeatedly. Gone are the days of milking cows by hand, or milking them in biers - now we have computerised milking parlours, or robots that do the milking. The little grey Fergie, the tractor that brought such a revolution to farming, moving farms away from horses, has itself been replaced long ago, with larger and more powerful machines.

The truth is, life brings change and if you are not sure about that, here are a couple of very simple things that will confirm it. If you are married, and are brave enough, take a look at the photographs in your wedding album, or if you can’t find it, just look in the mirror – you will see some change!

Since my last column there have been changes in my life. Exciting change, as during the spring months I was approached to take on the part-time role as ministry co-ordinator in Portavogie Presbyterian Church. After much prayer and seeking of God’s guidance, I accepted and started in September.

As many will know, Portavogie is a fishing village on the Ards Peninsula, and as I visit people there, many speak of the changes they have seen in the village. The fishing fleet is much smaller today, with fewer people employed as fishermen which, they say, has changed the place.

Change is part of life, sometimes it is unwelcome, changing our lives through illness, bereavement, unemployment, or circumstances that we have just no control over. What a wonderful assurance we have in the familiar words of the famous old hymn ‘Abide with me’ which says, ‘Change and decay in all around I see, O thou who changest not, abide with me…’

The ‘thou’, referred to in the hymn is an archaic way of saying ‘you’, and is, of course, Jesus, who “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He never changes. How wonderful that He, and the gospel message of forgiveness of sin though His death on the cross, never changes either. It is the same message preached today, as it was in the days of the apostles. That same invitation to come to Jesus to be saved from sin, and have the hope and assurance of eternal life, is still open – as we read in Mark 1:15, “‘Repent and believe in the good news!’”

The Bible also teaches that trusting in Jesus, as our personal saviour, brings about an eternal change. In Acts 3:19 we read, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.” I wonder…have you…will you?

Repent simply means to turn around and change direction. That’s the change that is required of us all, and takes place when we come to Jesus. And when that happens, as we are told in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “…if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Now, that’s real and amazing change!

Robin Fairbairn is part-time ministry co-ordinator with Portavogie Presbyterian Church in the Ards Peninsula in County Down and also works as ministry development officer with The Good Book Company. He lives in the country and has been farming every Saturday for more years than he cares to admit. If you would like to talk to someone about any of the issues raised in this article, please email Rev Kenny Hanna, PCI’s Rural Chaplain at [email protected] or call him on 07938 488 372.