Today is the anniversary of my Mum dying. We are two years to the day since she went to be with the Lord. It feels so much longer. I feel as though it is years more than that, in fact. Time, grief and many other things have attached themselves to the days, like unwelcome or obscure pop ups on a laptop screen.

It has been a tearful week for me with the death last week and funeral yesterday of a close family friend, Alan Thwaite. It was amazing to relive some happy memories with his wonderful sons and spend some time chatting to old friends at the church where I grew up. But I cried so much too. Bitter sweet tears.

Nostalgia was given to me in hearty heaped doses as I looked around the room where I first led worship – if playing three chords on the piano whilst singing in a very loud and strident voice counts as such. I was reminded of my past and made to analyse my present. If I am honest, it was sobering. I wondered what I was doing. Who was I blessing? Who was I bringing to Jesus? How was my life measuring up to the standards set for me in Scripture?

It is healthy for us to have days when we reflect like this isn’t it? I wouldn’t want to advocate it every day”¦ but now and again, we are meant to sit and question what we are doing and why. To check we are on track.

I think in recent days I have wondered where my track is, not just whether I am on it! It has been a barren season with not much, outwardly at least to show for my efforts. But obedience is not always about seeing fruit or understanding the nature of calling. It is doing it anyway. Which is what I have been doing. As best I can.

During tea tonight I did a short quiet time with the kids based on Mark 2 and the Healing of the Paralytic. One verse particularly struck me. It was verse 5, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

He didn’t commend the friends on their faith out loud. He didn’t speak to them at all. But it was because of THEIR faith that he forgave the sins of their friend. I have never read the passage and that verse in this way before.

Can you think of somone in your life who you would love to bring to Jesus in this way? Perhaps a family member or a work colleague? Jesus may not commend you ‘out loud’ for your faith in doing so, but He may answer your prayer in transforming your friend and allowing them to get more than they bargained for.

We communicate Jesus to people all the time whether in word, deed or lack of those things. Asking someone what we can pray for is such a great start. But there are many people around us who are exhausted or out of ideas. They simply need TAKING to Jesus and being lowered in front of His feet. They can’t get there on their own and they wouldn’t feel there was room for them if they did.

Our role is to go to them, take them out, think outside the roof space of their imagination and their past and break through the barriers of their existence.

This week I am taking some people to Jesus who can’t get there on their own. What about you?