Archives article 43

“Born on the wrong side of the tracks”

The first time I heard this phrase was when it was used by a very successful Pastor. He was a known and respected leader in the town where his church had grown to large numbers and every Sunday the morning service was televised live. And yet he began to tell us his life story using this phrase: “born on the wrong side of the tracks”.

Although a new phrase for me (I was born in London), it wasn’t hard to figure out what it meant, especially as he gave us the details of his early life. It meant being born in poverty which inevitably meant without a good education. It meant a hard life where things don’t come easily – where there’s very little money, the home is small and simple, and the food on the table is not always abundant! It also meant that the social circumstances weren’t favourable either. Life was plain hard with very few helps! And yet here he was, now in his fifties, a renown public figure, known nationally and internationally. What had happened?

His life-story was one of determination. He was a man who would not let the external circumstances define and determine his future. Above all He had become a Christian. Although capricious and naturally adventurous God had touched his life and he no longer felt a prisoner to his circumstances. He may well have been “born on the wrong side of the tracks” but he realised that all of us, without God, are in a sense born in difficult circumstances. He had learned that the Bible is not being wilfully negative when it speaks of sin and the devastation it causes to everyone. When the Gospel speaks of men being chained by sin, being bound by evil and wrong-doing, he knew it was true. He had been there. He had known what the wrong side of life is like – but he had also seen the loving hand of God save him and lead Him to a new future.

Prosperity never became his goal. His life was not an attempt to prove that where you are born doesn’t determine what you will become. It was simply a life lived out of a new birth. If his old one had been socially down-trodden, his new one was that of growing up into a destiny filled with hope and joy. I have rarely known a man so upbeat and joy-filled – even when massive storms crashed down on his public life. Threatened on every side, he chose to look upwards to God and to trust God’s unique help.

No matter where we are born, we are not consigned to an unthinking destiny. No matter how tough the times or the circumstances of our life, we are invited to turn to God and seek His loving grace. It will be a new beginning. It doesn’t mean that no problems will ever come our way – but it does mean that we have understood that it’s not the tracks which make the difference. It’s God Himself!

Don’t hesitate to seek Him. And if I, or our church, can be of any help – please don’t hesitate to give us a call.

Paul Finch, Pastor