Yup, it's me plagiarising the Chris Idle hymn (Lord You Sometimes Speak in Wonders) yet again.

One effect the last year has had on me, is to erode my, never too great to start with, confidence, and increase my propensity to worry and over reflect.  I have also become a lot more irritable (that is probably a drug side effect, and will hopefully disappear in about four years time...) and way less tolerant of people 'sweating small stuff'.  All of which often leaves me questioning my abilities as a minister type person.  I never think I'm good enough, am always conscious of my shortcomings and over reflect on every criticism that comes my way.  Daft, but that's me.

Anyway, overnight an email arrived from someone I only know on line, and only vaguely, and in a very narrow context in which I am no longer active, but which gave me a real 'lift' with its kind words.

This kind of thing happens periodically, just when I need a little reassurance or encouragement, and it has to be God...

Lord, you sometimes speak in emails,

Or phones calls from a distant place:

Kindly words to life our spirits

When we doubt our own ability -

Oh Lord you sometimes speak in emails.

Thank you God for your mysterious ways!

PS This applies to other types of email (or phone call or letter) too - it's something about the unsolicited, unexpected nature, more than the content (it could equally be to challenge me or to confirm something I/we have been pondering) that is the God-ness.