On Monday 23rd March 2020, as the nation fast approached lockdown due to the Covid 19 Coronavirus pandemic, I remember sitting at my desk and thinking “what do I do with myself now?” I had a load of meetings in my diary and services to conduct, and at a stroke of a pen, everything was cancelled, and I felt lost, I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was on that day over four years ago that I had a brilliant idea and I determined to write a “thought for the day” every day for the duration of the lockdown. I diligently sat down and wrote the first thought on that Monday and did the same the following day.
There are times when we commit ourselves to something and then think “I have bitten off more than I can chew here” and that occurred to me on the second day of lockdown. I still believed that this was an important piece of work, so fired an urgent e-mail to ministers and preachers in the circuit and explained the vision. Back on that first Monday, I expected the lockdown to last a few weeks and then we would be back to normal.
In the early stages we just published on our website, but then started using social media and it soon became apparent that we were reaching far more people through our “thought for the days” than we had been attracting to public worship on a Sunday.
Four years on, this has become an important part of our work and during that time we have had a string of volunteers who have contributed, meaning that my original idea of publishing every day has actually happened long after I would have run out of steam.
I would like to thank all those people who written creative and imaginative pieces day by day, and I would like to thank all the people who have read our pieces, “liked” them and commented on them. My commitment has been to write a thought on each Sunday, and I have had a load of fun observing life and sharing some of my thoughts.
After eleven years of living and working in Ipswich the time has come for Karen and I to move on, and I will take up a new appointment in Norfolk at the beginning of September. We are moving house and will be living in the town of Dereham.
This means that this could well be my final Sunday Thought for the Day. The leaders of the Ipswich Methodist Circuit are currently trying to think about where we go from here as there isn’t a direct replacement for me. I still believe that this is an important part of our work and I hope that it will continue. For it to remain successful it needs two things: –
Firstly, we need people to contribute. Some of our regular contributors have found the experience to be enjoyable and fulfilling, but with my absence we need fifty-two more “thoughts” per year.
Secondly,
- please keep reading, if you like what you read, please click “like”
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- And we always welcome comments if you have something to say, whether you agree or disagree with what has been said.
We live in a digital world and this is our 21st century pulpit!