Rector's Thoughts

              May Thought

A letter from the Rector

Do you believe in coincidence or do you believe in Divine Providence? Someone, I cannot remember who, said – The more I pray then the more I encounter coincidence. I think what he was saying is that the more we are in tune with God through our prayer life, the more our relationship with him deepens and we see His hand in people and situations and even places.

One example is when I was at seminary and I couldn’t afford a text book or something else needed for the course, suddenly a £10 gift would be posted to me by someone I didn’t know, someone who couldn’t know that I was in need of anything. That was years ago but I often remember these gifts, the widow’s mite in so many cases, such kindness and generosity.

Just as vital, I remember those people who would drop me a line saying that they were praying for me. There seemed to be a Divine Providence of people being guided by the Holy Spirit.

Now, you may think I’m just being pious, but if you look at your own lives have you had times where the footsteps of Christ seem to be walking with you? When has Christ walked with you in your life? Think about these times, in this post Eastertide, when Christ who suffered and died for us, who knows our humanity, calls us into His Divinity. Providence is being open to God. We hear so much noise and fractious events in our daily lives that sometimes we miss the promptings of the Lord.

In Holy Week I had a revival of my understanding of how things are connected in Christ. We were taking one of my sons to the dentist and we thought we would do the shopping at the same time. I sat in the car and looked up and there was a 10-inch crack in the windscreen!! At first, I said more than my prayers but then we got the jobs done and went to a windscreen repair place. It said email and me, being a technophobe, kept making mistakes. We arrived in Chesterfield and the business on the industrial estate had three offices. I went into one and the lady on reception was great. She called their repairs dept and they set a date for the repair. She then took my details and email address and said, “Rev. Stephen. Are you a priest?” Then before I answered she burst out crying! She’d just lost her mum, who had died suddenly, and she just wanted to know that things were ok, that she could believe her Mum was with her heavenly Father.

She told me about her mum and her mum’s faith etc. She said it was providence we came in just when she was on duty and that we came to this windscreen repairer instead of other garages. Small events led us to the place where a lady needed a simple prayer and reassurance. God uses every one if we let Him in. He walks with us and he wants what is best for us and for each other. So please, if you’ve not prayed for a while, do try now; and keep your eyes open for God working in our world and in your life.

In the power of the Holy Spirit amazing things can happen if we just keep our eyes open and fixed on Christ.

God bless you and your loved ones; and let’s remember to pray for all our young people who are in their examination season

With love and prayers

Stephen Monk