| Safe Into harbour |
|
Kieran Banks was a young sailor without a thought of God when his life changed  I left from the dockside in Belfast at the age of 16, desperate to realise an ambition I’d nourished all through High School – to join Her Majesty’s Royal Navy! Looking back now at the age of 50, I consider the five years I spent in the RN to be among the best in my life. My first ship was HMS Ark Royal, an aircraft carrier, which I joined by helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth in 1975. The ship had recently starred in the BBC documentary, Sailing. Although I joined the ship too late to appear in that series, I did take part in the making of the ship’s only record release, We are Sailing – which Rod Stewart had slightly more success with. On the Ark I got to see the delights of the Mediterranean. My second ship was HMS Blake, a helicopter cruiser. It was on this ship that I got to visit locations in Canada, USA and Mexico. The visits were all truly memorable and yet nothing compared to an experience during my last weeks on Blake that changed my life forever. As you can imagine, life in the Navy was one of working hard, but playing hard too. Many nights were spent with other mates clubbing, drinking, and a lot more. It was on one of these nights out in Plymouth that, having enjoyed a fair amount of beer, I decided I would walk the three miles or so, back to the ship and leave my friends to hit the clubs alone. Feeling hungry, I went into the Royal Sailors’ Rest in Devonport to get a sandwich and cup of coffee. As I sat eating a young man came and sat down at the same table. He seemed friendly enough and so we chatted; needless to say he was a lot more coherent than I was. He began to talk about Jesus Christ. At the time I felt that he had chosen the wrong person to talk religion to. My previous experience as a teenager, growing up in Ulster, had turned me off religion completely, and I couldn’t wait to ‘slam him down’ with my carefully considered rebuttals. What I didn’t expect was a question he asked which completely unsettled me. He asked: “If there was a God, would you want to meet him?” I agreed that if there was God (which I was sure there wasn’t) I would want to meet him. Then my new friend asked if I would mind if he prayed for me. I agreed, but then he asked if after he prayed, I would pray and ask God to make himself known to me. Trapped! I thought; but I agreed. He prayed, and while he did I prayed that he wouldn’t stop, for I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say. He did stop, and as I struggled to articulate a few incoherent thoughts, I became deeply conscious that he and I were not the only persons present. Whoever was with us, he made me feel decidedly ashamed of the life I was living. I became quite overwhelmed and within seconds was reduced to an unexpected and uncomfortable sobbing; able only to repeat the words, “I’m sorry; I’m sorry; I’m sorry.” I was so embarrassed at the spectacle I was making of myself, I got up, walked out, and lit up another cigarette. I didn’t dare tell anyone on board ship what had happened; they’d think I’d gone mad. Mad or not, God spoke to me profoundly that night. I came to understand later, from the New Testament, that when God’s Spirit touches us at first, it is always to convict us of our sin.  I came to realise that the conviction I felt over the life I was living was God’s way of leading me to the one who could do something about it. Having suffered for sin, he was able and willing to forgive me; and having risen from the dead he was able and willing to empower my forgiven life with his Spirit. Let me leave you with a challenge. Jesus said, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3 verse 20). The words, however, are simply an invitation by the timeless Jesus to hear him as he knocks upon the door of your life, requesting an entrance. Where one feels able to invite him in, says Jesus, they can know an intimacy with himself comparable to that of family members as they sit down together to eat. This is what I came to discover real Christianity to be all about, a living relationship with Jesus that transforms everything in life, not least ourselves. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
