If there was ever a thing to lead you to writing on your blog after an absence anything involving a train journey is usually it.
Its that extra time to contemplate with very little distraction as your mind wonders away from the book/newspaper/work you could or should have been reading as the country side rolls past your window. Furthermore for those of us whose daily commute doesn't involve trains it means that there is a purpose behind the distraction of the train we are traversing on.
I am not a train traveller in slightest, the mere thoughts of catching one train no changes drives fear in to the very core of my being.... I sound like I'm being dramatic but often me catching one train no changes drives fear into the hearts of many people. I can count the number of train journeys (excluding returns and not taking into account number of trains mind as I have now discovered how to change trains) on my lovely two hands.
There was the first time I ever caught a train... which believe it or not is not the disaster story most people will think of if they know me. Apparently I have been on a steam engine in my early childhood. I actually dont remember. I do remember going to stare at the flying scotsmen as it came into a local station but thats it.
So the first journey I ever took on the train (by myself and that I remember) was to be a disaster from start to finish. In fact the epic failure of this journey is to long to repeat the story for those of you still reading.
Since that time my outlook on travelling by train has been grim. I had no car over the Christmas of my first term at Uni, therefore I had to take the train home - I was lucky this was the last train home before snow halted most service.
Then there was the incident with my declined Indian Visa in Manchester (because I came from Norfolk) meaning a train journey to Birmingham was required.
And the time I was on Crutches and couldnt drive so visit Norfolk (via the National Gun Show in Newark) on a train.
You can see why trains still hold this negative element.
However this last 30 days I have travelled on many trains. I went to Faith and Order Network Conference (on which my thought can be found on a previous posts entitled
Faith and Order or
Reflections on #fando.) I caught all the train succesfully (with much help from Paul Parker and a new local presbyter.
I caught all the train successfully (with much help from Paul Parker and a new local presbyter. Then I travelled to Cliff by train for a brief visit to find a parachute and to chat with many people.
My last train journey was probably the most epic I have ever taken with six trains over two days three of which had Manchester Piccadilly and Euston in the title! I went for a new workers introduction day with the methodist church. This was an exciting day that helped me to be on the only new one working.
But whilst I was sat upon my last train home from London I was thinking about the Lost Prophets song Last Train Home with the lyrics:
"But there's still tomorrow
Forget the sorrow
And I can be on the last train home"
I can honestly say there are very few people or reasons that I would probably ever catch the last train home. But the first two lines are a different matter. Whilst starting in my new job and every other new thing there are always ups and downs from the beginning. Sometimes you get the really bad days and think maybe I should give up, but tomorrow is a new day and I am daily comforted by the anchor of Hope I find in Christ. By the time I had caught four of the five trains to London and home again the hope that I would get home was the very thing that kept me going. I make that my daily prayer that one day I will go home to Christ but not until the journey is done. I rejoice in the hope that I shall know Christ now and forever. I have Hope.
'Hope anchors the soul' - Hebrews 6:19
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
