Wakefield Cathedral – Catch-Up Article
Friday, 13th August 2021
New challenges or ‘how things were’?
Let’s just do it the same… or try it a different way?
Keep my life as it is now…. or…. a new direction?
Earlier this year an aspirational idea turned real when an apparently rare, part-time lay-chaplain post, in the NHS was advertised at Fieldhead, where I was already a volunteer!
I should probably apply, I thought…. although…
Surely, I am now unemployable?
Mid fifties’ and self-employed for over twenty years. I chose when to work and when to …. not work.
I have no issue with learning new skills, but…. do I ‘need’ to be doing that?
Surely, I am happy where I am. There is no need step out of this comfort zone that’s taken so long to build.
This is God’s work and I have said ‘no’ before.
Let’s see how faith plays its part…. and moves me to respond.
Applied. Interviewed. Successful. Started. Happier.
It’s part-time and fits alongside my other work. I can do what is asked of me, and more, and feel engaged with where it will take me.
There will be days when I might have second thought about taking on such a bold challenge.
I will deal with that as it arises.
What about you?
New job. No job. Move house. Relationship change. Pass or fail. Next steps….
Or not.
Do you trust God with all of this…?
I imagine we are all facing a near-future filled with some uncertainty. Adding new challenges might make it seem more hopeful or could make everything seem impossible!
A question then, for when we find ourselves settled and acceptant, maybe even comfortable, with how life has become:
How might we respond to God’s unexpected call to discipleship? How can God literally ‘break in’ to our lives if we say ’no thanks’?
In the words of Thomas Merton:
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact
that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you. And I hope I have
that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart
from that desire. And I know that if I do
this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore I will trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Amen.
Image: The Labyrinth in the gardens at Fieldhead Hospital. Peaceful on a warm, sunny afternoon. SB 2021