Walking Along Life’S Pathways

By Kathleen Johnston

In putting together this anthology in Walking along Lifes Pathways, Kathleen Johnston provides the reader with an inspirational collection of true stories in which she relates actual life experiences of her own, her family and friends, and also of some famous people. She reflects on the Christian message that these parables contain, and the book provides encouragement for people to open their eyes to see that God is in everythingeven the rough times of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Nov 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524665746

Kathleen Johnston

Kathleen Johnston lived for many years on the borders of the Welsh Marches. She now lives with her husband in Pembrokeshire, in the beautiful seaside town of Tenby. She is a Reader in the Church in Wales within the Diocese of St. Davids and is a member of Tenby Arts Club. Kathy is a countrywoman, and for many years, she rode her Arab mare around the hills in the Welsh Marches and along Offa’s Dyke.

Book preview

Paradox

It has been said many times that Christianity is full of paradox – life through death, glory through shame. In apparent weakness Jesus conquers sin and death. It is the opposite of all our wordly values where success is strength and power, where being first, and at the top is what matters. But I wonder how many of us can look back and see that the turning point in our lives was when we were at our most helpless – maybe thro’ illness, bereavement, accident, when our hopes or dreams were shattered.

I had a friend, outwardly she had everything, nice home, husband, children, successful career, talented musician. She became ill with cancer, and yet she could say: I don’t want this illness. I don’t want to die, but I would not have missed this experience for anything. It has taught me so much. It has enabled me to get my priorities right. Facing death, incredibly she found life, because she found the only thing that really matters – God.

Brother Taizé writes: Do not be afraid of suffering, for it is often in the depths of the abyss that we discover the perfection of joy in communion with Jesus. This is movingly expressed in the Book of Common Prayer’s translation of Psalm 84: Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee; in whose heart are Thy ways, who going through the vale of misery uses it for a well; and the pools are filled with water, they will go from strength to strength.

Sometimes, when we look back on our life and see all the worldly pursuits it has involved and then we come to know our Lord, we recognise that all along we are meant to be a participant in our Creator’s purposes for His creation, and that those purposes are loving, creative, healing and reconciling. Suddenly we are full of joy and hope because we have a confident knowledge that nothing can befall us because we cannot be separated from God and the radiance of His universal love.

As St Paul said in his letter to the Romans (8:38-end), For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creations will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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A prayer:

Dear Father, only in You is our quality of life. In trouble we may learn new strengths. Sustain us when we are weak, and bring us to new victories through the promises of Christ our Saviour, who overcame all things for our sake.

Out of the mouths………

With a colleague I shared teaching a three year course on basic theology. One evening the dining room table became littered with books and paper, as I struggled to get together a concise explanation of the teachings of the first church scholars – Origen and Tertullian. They wrestled with the various heresies of their day, and how they could answer people genuinely seeking the Christian way – but who were confounded by Christians firmly asserting monotheism (that only the one true God was to be worshipped). How could they then proclaim one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ, without ending up with two Gods, or even three Gods with the inclusion of the Holy Spirit.

It was to try to answer these questions about the being and status of Jesus Christ in relation to God that over a period of hundreds of years the early Church Fathers were forced into an ever increasing precision of doctrinal teaching – so that in the words of Bishop Hilary they could say: The errors of heretics and blasphemers force us to deal with unlawful matters, to scale perilous heights, to speak unutterable words, to trespass on forbidden ground. Faith ought, in silence to fulfil the commandments worshipping the Father, reverencing with him the Son, abounding in the Holy Spirit, but we must strain the poor resources of our language to express thoughts too great for words. The errors of others compels us to err in daring to embody in human terms truths which ought to be hidden in the silent veneration of the heart.

How true, I thought as I shut the books and cleared a space for supper. As G.K. Chesterton said: It is only the fool who tries to get the heavens inside his head, and not unnaturally his head bursts. The wise person is content to get their head inside the heavens or as Tertullian said, I believe because it is impossible! As I was eating and cogitating on the ‘Trinity’ the phone rang. It was my daughter who lives some 200 miles away wanting a chat. She wanted to tell me about our four year old grandson’s first morning at nursery school. Benjamin told me that he had a dream last night, Mum she said. "He