Forty years ago, just weeks before Ordination, my class concluded our seminary days with a retreat. The retreat master asked what seemed a very strange question at the time. He said: The important thing to ask yourself at this stage is not are you ready and capable of making this huge step in your life; not even if you are strong enough for the task, but rather are you weak enough? This was really an invitation to a profound level of trust that was both humbling and reassuring. It was like being offered a lantern for the journey ahead that has lit my path for forty years and continues to shine as bright as ever. It meant never to despise my inadequacy, my littleness or my brokenness, but to use them as essential tools in the service of the Gospel. Closely allied to that piece of advice came another, from somewhere I can’t remember; never see yourself as a pillar in Gods temple, but as a drainpipe instead. This too was very humbling leaving no room for self-importance or hiding behind clerical collars. It was just to be open to the Spirit at work and not to think everything depended on me.