Thought for the week: There is no need to walk alone - the Lord is always with us

​While Liverpool Football Club has been an incredibly successful team, their history is marred by tragedy. Yet it’s the club’s song that stirs the emotions.
​Rev Jim Rea, MBE, Methodist Church​Rev Jim Rea, MBE, Methodist Church
​Rev Jim Rea, MBE, Methodist Church
By ​Rev Jim Rea
Published 6th Apr 2024, 00:00 BST

​Originally from the musical 'Carousel,' it was popularised by Merseyside pop group Gerry and the Pacemakers, and in the1960s it became a number one hit with its stirring refrain: 'Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart, And you'll never walk alone'.

This great song doesn't specify where the hope in the heart comes from. For many years, it has been adopted as Liverpool’s Football Club anthem and is sung with great emotion, even more so since that awful day in April 1989 when 96 fans were crushed to death in the Hillsborough disaster.

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Christians worldwide have just celebrated the greatest event since the creation of the world, when almost 2,000 years ago the Son of God after His crucifixion was raised from the dead, offering the same hope to those who become His followers.

The promise to those who completely trust Christ is that after death, heaven awaits.

When Jesus ascended to heaven, He told His disciples that He would be with them until the end of the age.

His followers now claim to know Him and eventually will experience what St Paul writes: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” (First Corinthians 2:9)

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Without giving away my football loyalties, I do like the Liverpool anthem, but would take the liberty to change one word:

Place below in italics

“Walk on, walk on

With Christ in your heart

And you'll never walk alone.”

Even if our “dreams be tossed and blown” as the song suggests, our ultimate hope is that even when we walk through the darkest of valleys, the Lord is with us (Psalm 23:4).