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Jo came home a few weeks ago from the St Peter’s book room, a Christian book shop attached to St Peter’s Eastern Hill. She bought me two Henri Nouwen devotionals which she found in the bargain bin. In one of the books Out of Solitude I came across an argument which has stuck with me around the merits of being useless. Nouwen tells a story borrowed from the Taoist tradition. A carpenter and his apprentice are walking through a forest when they come across an enormous old tree

You might have heard of confirmation, but do you know what it actually is? Perhaps you think it’s the ceremony to become a legitimate Anglican? Or graduation from Sunday School? Or a second go at baptism for people who were too young to remember the first one? The short answer is that confirmation is an opportunity for a baptised Christian to publicly affirm their faith in Jesus, and for the bishop to pray for them, with the laying on of hands, that God would strengthen them

God uses surprising people God can use anybody. Throughout the Bible God repeatedly calls people the world might overlook. Moses protests that he has never been eloquent (Exodus 4:10–13). Rahab is a Canaanite outsider (Joshua 2). Gideon insists his clan is the weakest in Manasseh and he is the least in his family (Judges 6:15). Deborah is raised up to lead Israel (Judges 4–5). Mary is an obscure young woman from Nazareth (Luke 1:26–38). Jesus chooses fishermen, sends a Samari