麻豆约拍

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Canon Steve Williams.

Good morning.

A good walk can change lives. I think of two twentieth century writers of enormous influence in the realm of imagination and myth - J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, fellow academics at Oxford University. It was on an early morning walk together in 1931 that Tolkien famously introduced Lewis to the insight that would open the door of Christian faith to him. Lewis was fascinated by myths. They moved him deeply. But they disappointed him in the end, because they were clearly untrue - they didn't happen. Tolkien pointed him to a story that exercised the same power of a myth and yet actually did take place in space and time - the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This was to change Lewis's life - and to open a generation of young minds many years later to the world of Narnia.

Today is the 130th birthday of J.R.R. Tolkien. And a good way to mark it this Bank Holiday is to seek out the many walks he made his own as a young man, contemplating the worlds that would become Middle Earth. There are Tolkien Ways in Lancashire, around the Ribble Valley; Staffordshire, in Cannock Chase; and Birmingham, around Moseley, as well as Oxford.

When I walk with someone, I'm off duty, I'm relaxing, the guard comes down. One of the most important walks in the Christian story took place between Jerusalem and Emmaus when Jesus, risen from the dead, drew alongside two of his followers trying to make sense of his death. They don't recognise him at first - and the decisive moments that change their lives come gently as they walk together.

God, walk with us today that we may learn to walk with you.

Amen.