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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker.

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

Good morning.

I come to you today recovering from some difficult news. I knew it was coming for a while but it hasn’t made it any easier to process. I am of course talking about the fact that my 26-30 railcard has now expired. I had managed to eke it out for as long as possible, renewing the day before my 31st birthday for one final year, but reality has now caught up with me. Even my distant hopes that they would introduce a 31-35 railcard just in time have not come to fruition, so I am instead forced to play the long game for the next 28 years before I can claim the senior discount.

I love travelling by train. My friend Erin remarked that everyone is a poet when looking out of the window in the quiet carriage, and I love that it can be a space for reading, writing, reflecting, or just a particularly effective power nap before you arrive at your destination. Indeed on the rare occasion that I have had to drive to a schools performance in morning traffic I have vowed to never venture off the rails again. And while I have filled out more delay repay forms that I would have liked, one of the appeals for me of travelling by train is the waiting. However you choose to spend that time, you are getting from A to B regardless.

On Easter Saturday it can feel like we are halfway through a journey. Jesus died on the Friday and rose again on the Sunday, and we are currently travelling between the departure and the arrival. We cannot do anything to make it come about quicker, but we can at least choose how we act in the meantime.

God, thank you for our ability to travel. Thank you for the privilege of getting older. Of gaining more experience and more responsibilities, even if it does mean paying full price for a train ticket. We pray that today you would help us to be grateful for what is ahead of us as well as what it behind us, and to make the most of all the stops we get to take along the way.

Amen

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Last on

Sat 30 Mar 2024 05:43

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  • Sat 30 Mar 2024 05:43

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