“Thank God It’s Friday” (TGIF) is a common adage we hear as people look forward to getting some rest from the busyness of the week. It seems that this sentiment is the same for many Christians, etched in the fourth commandment, where work days appear to be nothing more than toil and necessary evil. Sermons usually focus on what we need to do on the Sabbath but never quite teach what we need to do on the other six days. How do we get this notion?

You see, it was not too long ago that I embarked on a bold endeavour that might be described as ‘a mission on the far side of the sea.’ But that fire was quite quickly doused by the fearsome prospect of a long and arduous journey ahead. For who would embark on such an endeavour at the late age of forty-nine, even if the mission was to learn the ropes of spiritual formation in order to make a contribution in the pastoral enterprise.

That fateful night of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, Peter was on fire … on a mission for Him! A mission wrought with danger as he infiltrated the courtyard and possibly thought of rescuing Jesus (after all he had probably kept one of the swords!) Peter’s desire to showcase his love and loyalty rang out loud! Yet, a small courtyard fire – set up for warmth and light – unexpectedly and quickly extinguished Peter’s fiery and passionate bravado.

Jesus’ ultimate motivation in this context is simply φίλους (philous), the beloved friendship that He longed to have with His disciples. ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.’ (John 15:12) ESV. When I love my fellow mankind, the required commitment is the same as Jesus’ motive.

Like many others, my time at college was a “make or break” time in my journey. Often in our youth, we want a taste of the world and find that there’s still nothing better than God. God mercifully used a crisis of faith to challenge me and I remember telling God that if He showed Himself to be real, I would give my entire life to Him, but if not, I would never enter a church again.

Since young, my mother would lead all nine of us children in prayer every night. But I was not a believer and I thought the Christian faith was just another religion. I admired science a lot and thought that only science and technology could save humankind. I loved to ask difficult questions and enjoyed embarrassing my Sunday School teacher when she failed to answer my questions.