For those who missed it, our colleagues in the Defence Christian Network put on a beautiful Service of Prayer and Remembrance for the Armed Services.
This years’ Remembrance Service takes place in challenging times. It is an opportunity to remember colleagues who have given their lives, but also look forward with hope. In his role as Honorary Colonel Royal Marines, Bear Grylls shared his personal approach to challenge at the service:
‘We all face our time of testing, our Everest, whether it is an actual mountain, a hospital, or simply holding down a job and raising a family. Maybe it’s even battling through the bottom field on the Commando test.
Because really, Everest is just a state of mind. I was lucky many years ago to stand on the summit of the world’s highest peak. And it was extraordinary. You see the curvature of the earth at the edges. And you are aware you are truly somewhere special. On that mountain, I experienced my own doubts being silenced, drowned out by something better, something stronger, by a presence that is sometimes hard to describe.
What I do know, is that I have leant on my Christian faith in the grimmest of moments. The universal present of the Almighty, empowering, quiet, strong, personal. Even when I feel truly broken. A secret strength and an eternal love. For me, faith is like a point of awareness, and a starting place of true adventure. As I once saw written on an old wooden cross in a small mountain chapel, these words:
Christ beside me, Christ within me, Christ to shield me, Christ to win me;’.
To see the full service, and be inspired by stories of Christians who work in defence, click here.