Richard talked to us about vocation: every person has a vocation, he said, and when they find it everywhere becomes home. But he also said that looking back over his life he could see that his own ideas about where he was called had not worked out, and instead he could see a thread of divine providence. His conclusion: if you are seeking your calling you will find it, but it might not turn out to be quite what you expected.

I love to hear a good story, a good talk, a good argument. But considering vocation it was very much the case that the story and the argument only rang true because it was being told by a person who seems supremely happy in his own skin. He looks and sounds like someone who not only knows theory about calling, but really is living out his gifts and is happy doing so. Why else would he say that there is no-where else on earth he’d rather be than Lewisham? It’s not everyone’s idea of paradise.

It was my privilege to spend two days at Trinity School just before it opened in January, working with the staff on some theological ideas about Trinity that affect the way we think about community and relationships. Today the boot is on the other foot: I’m absorbing some thoughts about calling, and – still wondering how on earth I ended up working in a University – pondering divine providence once again.

Ministry is sometimes intense and sometimes drudgery, sometimes hugely fulfilling and sometimes just leaves you dog tired and wondering what you’re about. It’s difficult to put boundaries round it, and to describe a typical day is nearly impossible, as one day can be so different from the next.

All of which reminded me of this marvellous quote from Kim Fabricius, who describes ministry as “that wonderful vocation provided by
the good Lord for displaced Christian intellectuals who are useless at
proper work.”