Co-Chair, Brigade Executive
I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”
John 10:10
There are two Greek words for life. Firstly there is ‘bios’ from which we get our word ‘biological’. Here, we’re talking about the condition of being alive rather than dead. This is about whether we exist, or not. Then there’s the word ‘zoe’ meaning the full, abundant, spacious, open-hearted, richness of life that Jesus invites us in to. A life of fulfilment and purpose. A life in high definition.
Life in all its fullness was what Bartimaeus found in Jesus. He was ‘a blind beggar’ and Jesus gifted him his sight (Mark 10).
Spiritually, the great hymnwriter John Newton found himself born to fullness of life when turning himself over to Jesus. He had been living but something much less than that which allowed him to write:
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
But such happenings aren’t restricted to Bible times or to days gone by.
Gareth was still at primary school when his family started using him in their drug distribution network. They figured that the police would never suspect a young boy. By the time he was into his teens, his involvement had intensified and after starting out with alcohol binging, he was now using drugs himself. Before leaving his teens, he was a full-blown heroin addict and mired in a criminal underworld which for him involved the use of violence and intimidation as he sought to enforce ‘the law’ upon those who didn’t pay their debts. From that point until being in his mid-30s, Gareth spent much of his time behind the bars of HMP Perth.
Then he walked into a Christian addiction support service in his hometown and there he found people who cared for him and who, unlike everyone else he met, weren’t ready to judge him. Over the next couple of years Gareth got clean and got his life back on track. He now manages a half-way house for young men who find themselves in similar places to the one he once knew.
Gareth had been existing. Through Jesus, he is now living life in all its fullness.
We don’t need to be in the mess that Gareth was in; the switch from ‘existing’ to ‘living’ is for all and is still the most important switch we can make. The Boys’ Brigade has its part to play in opening life up to all who walk through our doors.
Raised in Glasgow, Martin studied at both Strathclyde and Glasgow Universities and later at Princeton Theological Seminary. His 31 years of parish ministry were spent in Arbroath during which time his focus was on transforming the congregation into an outward-looking family, committed to serving and addressing needs in the wider community. Martin served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (2020-2021) and now works in a national Church role focusing on recruiting and training the leaders of tomorrow. He was co-opted last year as the Co-Chair of our Trustee Board, the Brigade Executive.