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Good morning. In May of this year Terry Waite and John McCarthy met - Waite to receive an award and McCarthy to support him. We are told they joked about how they had met 30 years before in the boot of a car when both were hostages in Lebanon.
McCarthy was taken hostage in 1986 by Islamic Jihad and was to be the longest held hostage in the Lebanese hostage crisis.  It is hard to imagine what it must have been like - chains, guards, shocking living conditions, heat, mosquitos, cold, illness, intermittent news from the outside world. And finally, bundled into another car boot, a journey to freedom.
McCarthy was released on this day in 1991 after more than five years and in captivity. He says that he will always be the former Beirut hostage but he also describes himself as ‘being at ease with it.’ 
Sometimes when I listen to preachers talking about new life in Jesus Christ that sets us free, they speak as if that new life in Christ will suddenly make the past experiences of our lives go away. I think the good news is about courage and strength from God to integrate the pasts we have in a way that allows us to become new, not without those experiences but because of them and not on our own but with the compassion and grace of God at work in our lives. 
Lord God, today we give thanks for the power of your love which transforms us and transforms the influence past trauma and hurt has on us. Thank you for making us new and bringing out new talents, new hopes and new passion to change the world. Amen.