This week's thought is from Rev Stephen Woodcock from the Five Valleys Christian Fellowship.

During my late teens the circumstances of my life took a turn for the worst and my mental health went into free fall. I tried a number of things to ease the pain, some of them worked but never for long.

At the time I had a close friend who underwent a remarkable - almost unbelievable transformation. We were working as trainee chefs at the Bear of Rodborough Hotel. As friends we spent a lot of time together doing teenage stuff (use your imagination - you won’t be far wrong!)

My friend had gone home to his parents for a couple for a couple of days and this is where the transformation occurred. He returned to work as a ‘Born Again’ Christian who couldn’t stop talking about Jesus! Some colleagues had other names for him; ‘lunatic’, ‘weirdo’, ‘freak’ just to mention a few of the more polite ones.

But I was intrigued. He was my friend, still the same great guy but something was fundamentally different. We talked often about his new found faith, how he’d ‘met’ Jesus, turned away from his sin (yep that was probably a wise move anyway) and asked Jesus to be Lord of his life. He was compelling and I actually believed him - however I wasn’t ready for such a personal transformation so Jesus stayed on the back-burner (an apt metaphor for a trainee chef)

Sadly I lost touch with my friend. My life continued to lurch from crisis to crisis and having exhausted all my personal resources I found myself needing to meet Jesus. So I prayed. Along the lines of; “sorry for my reckless life, it can’t go on like this, Jesus I think I need you to take charge”

The result? Transformation! An immediate sense of peace and wellbeing. I’d moved Jesus from the back-burner of ‘belief about God’ to the front-burner of ‘belief and trust in God’. I was now a ‘weirdo, freak’ in my own right and it was amazing!

If you’re at the point of needing personal transformation Jesus is there waiting. Just ask.