Thank you for being a subscriber.
Paid subscribers can continue with the full reflection. If you would like to receive these weekday reflections in full, I would love to welcome you as a paid subscriber.
You may also be interested in my new book, Sacred & Secular: Find God in the Ordinary, which brings together some of the most popular and thought-provoking reflections from this journey so far.
When Rachel and I first met, neither of us could have imagined how much our lives were about to change.
At the time, I was a widower and full-time father to a baby girl while also working for the church as a parish administrator. My life was busy, but reasonably settled. I certainly wasn’t looking for a dramatic change of direction, and becoming a Church of England vicar was definitely nowhere on my list of possible futures.
Then something started to bug me.
It was difficult to describe at first. There was no booming voice from heaven or sudden revelation about what I should do with the rest of my life. Instead, it began as a nagging feeling that simply would not go away. I felt drawn to something, although I had absolutely no idea what that something might be.
As the months passed, the feeling became stronger. I began to sense that it involved some kind of leadership, but even that did not help very much. Leadership where? Doing what? I had tons of questions but very few answers.
Then one evening, Rachel and I went to a prayer meeting.
While we were there, something happened that I still find difficult to explain. In my mind, I saw a Church of England church just down the road from where we lived. I could see it glowing yellow with the love of God, and with the image came an overwhelming sense that I was supposed to be there.
It seemed completely random.
I had not attended a Church of England church since I was a young boy. I knew very little about Anglicanism and had certainly never imagined myself becoming part of it. So I did what any sensible person might do when presented with something that makes absolutely no sense.
I dismissed it.
Then, as Rachel and I were leaving the meeting, she told me she had experienced something during our prayer.
She described her vision.
It was exactly the same as mine.
At that point, ignoring it became considerably more difficult.
