Valuable lessons from 2011

Lesson 4: Everything Has a Reason and a Season


Most of us have seen (copiously!) the email that 'people come into our lives for a reason, for a season, or for a lifetime.' (Please don't send it to me again if I've misquoted it - really, I got the message when I read it the first 20 times).

But the fun part for me this year has been working out the reasons as I go through different seasons. And the reasons have been surprising.

The lessons haven't always been easy.  I've dealt with some people in this year, who, easygoing as I am, have really managed to push all my buttons.  I will not mention who, or where, or what the circumstances, but they just seem to have that uncanny knack of causing me grief, wittingly and unwittingly. Eventually, after much contemplation (too much, actually) and a night of praying, I felt (rather than heard) a voice say "Every pearl needs some irritation in order to be made perfect."  It may not have been what I wanted to hear, but it made a lot of sense.  My reaction now is to reach out to those people, and learn to love them, however difficult it is.

I often think back to things that happen in the past and try to understand their reason.  I had a really terrible job a couple of years back, from which I walked away after 7 weeks, after realising that my new boss's sole aim was to belittle me to the point of brokenness.  However, in that office, I had one person that I got on really well with.  I have often wondered why I had to go through those 7 weeks of hell - till this year that same office ally employed both my teens (without interviewing them first!) to work in her holiday business.  It may not be the only reason for me going through the pain that I did, but when I see my son come in after 6 hours of work, tired but happy, with stories of the weird and wonderful people who were walking along the beach, it finally seems worth it.

Two seasons came to an abrupt and violent end this year. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was shot dead on 20th October by Libyan rebel forces. He had been in control of Libya for 42 years, and during his reign, had sanctioned the bombing of an American airliner, thus enabling the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21st December, causing debris to rain from the sky on a small, unsuspecting Scottish market town.

In Pakistan, on 1st May, Osama Bin Laden was assassinated by a crack American force.  He was the leader of Al Qaeda, who claimed responsibility for all the aircraft that flew into buildings on 11th September, 2001, destroying the World Trade Centre, severely damaging the Pentagon and forever changing the security levels in airports.

Why did atrocities such as "The Lockerbie Disaster" and "9/11" happen? Because evil men plotted it. Pure and simple.  But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.  In New York, people turned to God in a way unparallelled in previous years.  In New York, as in Lockerbie 13 years before, people came together in a defiant sense of community.  In New York, as in Lockerbie, firemen, policemen and paramedics, who risked danger of further building collapse or fires to save others, were the people's heroes instead of shallow, self-seeking sports stars, musicians and actors.

21st December 1988, the longest night in Lockerbie's history

Lockerbie, last week, said goodbye to the man who'd been its leading fireman at the time of the air disaster. His final struggle had been against his own body, and it had been a long, hard-fought three-year battle. Ronnie Robertson was my best friend's dad, his brother Brian had been my driving instructor.  I knew Ronnie as the most humble, jovial, self-sacrificing man in the town.  On the night of 21st December, he worked through the night (along with all the other firemen from Lockerbie), came home at 4 am, showered, put on his postman's uniform, did his postal round, came home and changed and went back to rescue work.  He did that until there was nothing left for the fire service to do.  He was one of my heroes.

The epitome of true heroism

In New York, children realised that Spiderman, Superman or Batman didn't have a patch on their firefighting fathers, brothers, uncles, who risked (and in some tragic cases gave) everything to save as many people as they could, or the real life heroes in the skies over Pennsylvania on United Flight 93 who made a stand and stopped a destructive mission.

Inspector George Stobbs, QPM

No, God didn't "make it happen" or even "let it happen", but He knew that man's evil choices would lead to these moments, and he had the very people in place that would thwart the full force of evil and restore immediately faith in humanity.  There's not one person I know from Lockerbie who isn't proud of its people and what they achieved when they stood together.  Unsung heroes who spent hours and hours with relatives from America - Inspector George Stobbs gave up days to be with all kinds of investigation bureaus and with relatives, and Alex Traill who after taking relatives to where their loved ones were found, to the memorial, allowing them to grieve and then offering a kind word of comfort, would take them home for a three course meal.  These are the people and plans God had in place, ready and waiting.  As the World Trade Centre is being rebuilt, it's a symbol of a spirit of community.  Evil happened, and a tiny town, and a massive metropolis, were ushered into new seasons.

John F Kennedy once said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." You may be in a difficult season.  You may not think you have any reason to be here.  I can tell you, you have no idea what plans God has for you.  It may be a timely word to someone, which makes them change their mind, or it may be to become a part-time paramedic to save someone's life.  I can't say.  But always look for life's lessons, even in the hardest of times realise that there is a reason for it, and always look for heroes in the unlikeliest of people.  Lockerbie and New York will tell you that there are literally hundreds, and you wouldn't be able to spot them.  They never will claim to be heroes - they will always  be "just doing their job".  Those are people worth knowing.