My thought for this week comes not from a particular activity, but from the journey which took me there.

I recently travelled to Snowdonia to observe a group walk on Snowdon. On my drive to Wales I had a thought provoking experience in the most spiritual of locations – the M6.

As I drove I was presented with spectacularly different weather on each side of the motorway, to my left was heavy black cloud and to my right clear blue skies. These two different environments were separated by the motorway for the best part of an hour.

This experience made me think back to the story of the Good Samaritan.  In this parable told in the book of Luke the people walking down the road (in this case not the M6) had a choice, to stay in the darkness of self worth and personal gain or to take a risk and step into the light of helping their neighbour. Two men decided to stay in the comfort of their own side, the Samaritan had other ideas.

As a human being we all walk this journey every day. For some reason the dark path is often the easier direction to take, the journey into light a little more strenuous.  Perhaps we should all think back to the example of the Samaritan who took a risk heading across into the lighter yet more difficult side of the road for the benefit of his fellow man, not himself.

Graham Simpson