I want to let you know some of our news. The last 6 months has been the most emotionally challenging of my life. I won’t go into the details here, suffice to say that during Holy Week we moved from Pimlico in Central London to a peninsula on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides just off the North West Coast of Scotland.
We spent nearly 5 years in Central London, planting and nurturing a congregation called The Sanctuary at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster and it was truly a wonder to watch what God was doing among us. It was a busy and rewarding time in so many ways and that season for us is now over and the congregation is in good hands as it continues to evolve.
Today, I find myself writing from a very different place. We live in a detached house with sea views on 3 sides. Our lounge, bedroom and recording studio look out to the most extraordinary panoramic views with the ocean and the mountains of the main land to my left, a rocky coast line and the mountains of Harris directly in front of me and more sea to the right just past the isthmus. 150 yards beyond our house are sheer cliffs — it’s dramatic! The sunsets are totally amazing and I spend most nights here gazing out of my studio watching the sun set and the stars rising. Venus shining brightly over the silhouette of the mountains is simply breathtaking as is the moon through a telescope. It is a wonderful place to be still, silent and to practice solitude. There is a clarity here and a perspective that London too easily obscured.
We are not totally alone here though, there is a thriving community and over the next few weeks we will be having a number of house warming parties as we invite our neighbours and people from our new church community over. We are also looking forward to having our first set of guests to stay in May.
So this is a time out from ‘doing’ and is an in depth lesson in ‘being’. We are not sure how long this season will last, that is in God’s hands. However, it will probably last as long as it takes for healing, wholeness, strength and total integration to work its course in us — so probably a fair while!
I drove up here on 1st April in the snow, leaving London behind and moving steadily north. From the nation’s capital to the ‘Outdoor Capital of the UK’ as the sign reads as you enter the Scottish Highlands. Spring is here, the lambs are leaping (we are surrounded by sheep and lambs and pretty much every other farm animal you can mention as well as eagles and seals and otters and whales!) and just when you think spring has come at last, there is a hail storm or a snow blizzard! The winds are strong here, but you never know whether it will be a winter blizzard or a spring wind greeting you. I think that it is the nature of the Island’s weather!
I was reading from the Prophet Isaiah this morning. I love chapter 51 verse 11. In many ways it speaks of my hope for our time here, to come to a place where sorrow and sighing flee away. It’s a promise that I am holding out for.
The ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Isaiah 51:11 The NIV Bible
My work here will be mostly song writing, recording and study. Learning to let silence have its way as I learn to hear and interpret the music that comes from that place.
I hope to be posting new songs more regularly as well as working on an instrumental album for release next year.
Today I am releasing the song Fragile Case. It is a very special song for me at this moment in my life and the first song I wanted to release during this new season. I hope it speaks to you and enables you to encounter God’s mystery – that God dwells within fragile and broken people.