Reflection on my calling

I would like to share with you something I wrote a couple of years ago while staying on holy Island.

It’s a beautiful sunny afternoon with a bitterly cold wind blowing in off the sea. The sun is so bright I cant really see the laptop screen and the wind so cold I wont be able to feel my fingers or the keys on the keyboard by the end of this paragraph. I am sure the likes of Aiden and Cuthbert didn’t have these problems over a thousand years ago. However I am sure they did have the sun, the beach, the wind and the desire to come out here and ponder the world around them, Gods creation, laid out in it’s simple beauty. The Island I am currently marooned on is Lindisfarn or Holy Island. It’s a wonderful escape from the busy world  I live in. It’s a small Christian centred paradise to retreat into for a short time, to recharge and then emerge ready to meet the world head on again. But back when Aiden and Cuthbert were setting up their church and monastery this wasn’t a remote escape, it was a major trade route for shipping running up and down the coast. This place was picked not for it’s remote nature of today but precisely the reverse, their message could reach out from here to the rest of the country, and it did!

There is another island, a lot smaller, about 400yards in front of me. It’s St. Cuthberts island and there is a large wooden cross erected on it. When the tide goes out you can walk across to the island. Maybe there, Aiden, Cuthbert and the rest found the level of remoteness needed to refuel them for their mission.

You can see the main land from here also, a mile or two away. Today in the sun it is green, well many greens really, from yellow rape to black green woodland, with vibrant golden green grassland basking in the sunlight. I am not far from my world, in a few hours the tide will have retreated and we could, if we wanted, drive back there. I could right now, pay BT a few pounds and connect wirelessly to the internet. My email could be hear in milliseconds, but here now for this week I choice not too. 

I love the idea of this remote island, I can easily dream of living here even working here. But is that what I am being called to do? No, I don’t really think so, my place is in the middle of our business world, at least for now. I have a roll to play, one that pays the mortgage and puts food on the table for Gail and I and our family if they should ever need it. I am also lucky in the fact I have job which influences a small part of a large organisation. If I do my job well, my company makes better decisions and maybe where people and the environment are concerned things get improved. Am I taking my faith to the world like Aiden and Cuthbert, no not really, but am I living it in the world, yes absolutely. And that is what I am called to do.

As I said at the start of this, there is a cold wind blowing and I really cant feel anything but pain in my fingers right now so I am going to finish now.