(Photo by Phil Hearing on Unsplash)
Back in the 1980s I was fascinated to read a book called ‘The Lost Villages of Britain’ by Richard Muir and the greatest honour I can pay it is to say that it remains on my shelves to this day when many other books have gone. It whetted my interest in the history of our UK villages.
Given this introduction, you won’t be surprised to learn that I was delighted to come across a BBC series called Pubs, Ponds, and Power: The Story of the Village. I’m a little late to the party as the series first aired in 2018 but that hasn’t stopped my enjoyment. One of the episodes looked at our Suffolk village of Lavenham, which is, I’m ashamed to say, a place I’m yet to visit in my time here although I hope to put that right soon.
You may well know far more about Lavenham and its history than I do but one thing I did learn from the programme is why it is Britain’s best preserved medieval village. That is all to do with boom and bust. Lavenham very rapidly found its place in the limelight on the back of the wool trade, rising to become one of the foremost towns in the country only to fall back into the shadows due to the poor decision making and strategising of its merchants. That meant there wasn’t the money for ongoing development of the town as you would normally expect to happen. Time stood still for want of funds and many buildings fell into disrepair before being restored in more recent times to produce the gorgeous, picturesque village that tourists flock to see today. What is now a major point of attraction is only so because it failed in the past.
There’s a message in there for our lives. We hate to fail at anything – well, I do anyway – yet the irony is that those failures have shaped us and made us who we are today. Just like Lavenham.
If you want any more encouragement, look at the Apostle Peter. He failed to continue trusting Jesus when he was walking on the water. He outright confronted Jesus when he spoke about going to Jerusalem to die. He famously denied Jesus three times. Even in the post-reurrection period, Paul called him out for being swayed by the Jewish lobby over the question of what to do about Gentile believers. Yet, his failures shaped him and strengthened him for the role of first leader of the Christian Church.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I don’t like failing – none of us do – but help me to see that, like Peter, in your hands my failures can be learning experiences that lead me to deeper faith and wisdom. Amen.