What a journey!

It’s amazing how a photograph can bring back a flood of memories.  I recently came across a photograph of me and Sue and our three children, taken around 27 years ago.  It was quite a traumatic time for us as a family.  We had spent five very happy years in the beautiful city of Norwich.  During our time there we had developed some very close friendships and had become part of a great church, in which we felt very much at home.  We loved the house in which we lived, and I was finding a lot of fulfilment in my life as a Chartered Accountant.  Sue, especially, loved living in Norwich, and our children were enjoying life, being happy at school and very much part of the local church.  In many ways our lives at that time were just about everything we could have wanted.  But we left it all behind!

Sometime earlier, God had spoken to me in a very clear way and I knew that he was calling me to the life of a Methodist Minister: quite a change of direction from the life of a Chartered Accountant!  In many ways I felt totally ill-equipped to be a church leader (I still do!)  I believed that I had few of the gifts and abilities which would be required (thank God that when he calls us he also equips us).  I also recognised the tremendous cost of following the way God was calling.  The main cost was not a financial one, it was the great cost, particularly to my family, of leaving behind a place and people we knew and loved, for an unknown future.  We understood that in following God’s call we were entering into a way of life which would mean we could never be settled in one place for too long; that in each different place, we would live with the knowledge that in due course we would once again have to pack up, leave friends, and move to somewhere new.  I thank God for the love and support which Sue and the children have given me over the years; I cannot understate the cost which they have paid.

After spending three years at theological college in Bristol, we spent five years in Stoke-on-Trent, another five years in Sheffield, twelve years in Doncaster, and the past two years we have lived here in Leicester.  What a journey!  Over those years I have experienced some absolute low times, when I hardly knew how I would carry on, and the only thing which kept me going was the knowledge that God had called me and was with me.  I have also lived through many wonderful experiences and met some truly amazing people.  Many times I have felt totally out of my depth, and it has only been through God’s grace and strength that I have been able to cope.  Most of the time I love what I do, and can hardly put into words the tremendous privilege I feel in my life as a Methodist Minister.   

Despite the fact that there have been times, over the years, when I’ve cried out to God “Get me out of here!” I wouldn’t change it for the world.  The grass may sometimes seem greener on the other side, but I have no doubt that the best place to be is in the centre of God’s will, whatever the cost.  The journey continues...