On starting anew

One year ago, my wife and I moved from Manchester to Cumbria. We left a church community that we had been a part of for almost two years, and I left my job there. We moved for personal reasons, and although we knew it was the right decision, it was not easy, and for several months as I looked for full-time work, the future was even more uncertain than it usually is.

In reflecting on this experience one year later, I have been thinking of St Columba and his own move from Ireland to Scotland. A priest who lived in the 6th century, St Columba (also known as Columcille, or 'Dove of the Church') is most known for re-introducing Christianity to Scotland and northern England.

St Columba's Bay

St Columba's reasons for travelling to Scotland were not as dignified as his legacy there. For decades, he had successfully founded several monasteries in his native Ireland. But in around 560 AD, he became involved in a copyright dispute over a manuscript of the Psalms, which many believe was the cause of a battle in which thousands of people died. Feeling partly responsible, in 563 St Columba voluntarily exiled himself from Ireland, journeying by coracle with his disciples to eventually settle on the Isle of Iona, a point at which he could no longer see his homeland.

The spiritual heritage that St Columba established on Iona has endured through the ages. Today, the Iona Community runs two centres on the island, welcoming visitors to join in a communal life of worship, work and recreation, usually for a week at a time. One part of this programme is a weekly pilgrimage, in which pilgrims journey around the island, stopping at key historical or landscape marks for reflection and prayer.

The furthest point of the pilgrimage is St Columba's Bay, where St Columba is supposed to have first landed on Iona. Here the group reflects on turning points in their lives, in which they have left one place or season behind and started something new. 

For Christians, starting anew is not a foreign concept. Following Jesus means leaving behind one way of life to enter another. For this reason, at this point in the pilgrimage, the group leaders read
a passage from scripture of when Jesus calls the first disciples: 'As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea -- for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him' (Mark 1:16-18). 

Although this was the first time Jesus called Simon to follow him, it was not the only time. So it is with us: following Jesus is an ongoing choice, one we can make whenever we enter a new season in life.

St Columba, Enlightener of Scotland

As I look back over the past year, although I see how God has provided for us, it can also be easy to remember the challenges of starting over. However, thinking about how God worked through St Columba on the Isle of Iona reminds me of how this move has been an opportunity for God to do something new in me. 

I also can't help but think of the coronavirus pandemic and the changes it is bringing. To a small degree, the global lockdowns are an exile from our former ways of life.

We can learn from St Columba to look upon this time, or any time we are starting anew, as an opportunity to let go of our nets, our former identities and securities, and follow Christ.

'I will make you fish for people.' This is Jesus' promise to those who follow him: he will transform their identity, empowering them to bring people into the kingdom of God.

The future is always uncertain, but our Lord journeys with us wherever we are and wherever we go, offering to work through us to make all things new (Rev. 21:5).

A prayer of St Columba:

Be, Lord Jesus, a bright flame before me,
a guiding star above me,
a smooth path below me,
a kindly shepherd behind me:
today, tonight and forever.