We are really being blessed with great weather in Guernsey at this time, and the island is showing off in all it's Spring-time beauty. It seems as though nature has just come alive with colour, scent and activity. The sea is spectacularly blue and inspiring, both in the good weather but also when the wind blows - as it often does with great energy.
I can't help thinking, though, about the amount of human need there is here, despite all the wonders around us. The calling I follow gives me insight into what goes on, not just behind people's curtains, but even deep within their hearts and homes. What exists there is just the same as the world over. Wherever you have people you have problems, and heartbreak, and sorrow and pain. One of the earliest memories that I have of the period that I have worked here is of walking on the beach early in the morning on the east of the island, where the sun rises gloriously over the outlying islands of Sark and Herm, and suddenly I came across the body of a young woman lying dead on the beach. She had taken her own life (it later turned out) in that place of incredible beauty and peace. So much outer calm, yet such inner turmoil.
From that day I have determined not be too charmed by the quaintness and beauty of island life, but to work hard at sharing with others the good news that Jesus offers an inner peace, a spiritual calm, that is not dependent on our outward conditions. I am grateful for the place in which I live and work, but I know that what really matters is my relationship with God and all that flows from that.
'You will keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is steadfast because he is trusting You'.
