I’m A Believer

I’ve enjoyed reading about last weekend’s hunt for the Loch Ness monster. Two hundred people with hi-tech gear, around the Scottish loch near Inverness… The biggest hunt in decades ended in failure.

Christie McLeod, who travelled from Toronto, Canada said: ‘There are two types of people in this world, Nessie believers and non-believers, and I’m not interested in the latter.’

Alan McKenna, of Loch Ness Exploration said: ‘…we’ve all had lots of fun and proven the mystery lives on.’   

From an early age church taught me that the world was divided into believers and non-believers. We sung from a little black book called ‘The Believers Hymn Book’. I understood the simplicity of the two types of people… but I was also captivated by the element of mystery in phrases like ‘Man of Sorrows… Lamb of God… Word made Flesh…’

Then, when I was a teenager, the Monkees singing Neil Diamond’s ‘I’m a Believer’ gave a fresh perspective. ‘I’m a believer’ is about love…

Then I saw her face, now I’m a believer
Not a trace of doubt in my mind
I’m in love
I’m a believer, I couldn’t leave her if I tried.

On yesterday’s news I saw the sad sight of rows of Ukrainian graves. There were interviews with men and women who believed in fighting for their country and dared to believe that one day there could be peace and freedom again…

I read in a gardening magazine: ‘I believe that no plant is a weed. It’s really just a wildflower growing in an unintended place.’

This morning I read John chapter 8. Where Jesus says that if you’re a believer ‘…then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…’

Musing on ‘I’m a believer’… that involves simple belief, yet profound mystery. I believe in love, peace, truth and freedom… I believe that those who feel like useless weeds – the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time – are still valuable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiQUnxNEDqk