The Minstrel's Wife

Just back from a gorgeous week away with my youngest and husband in the borders of Scotland, around the areas of the original Celtic Christianity. Always being there is amazing for me, learning more about St Cuthbert and St Aiden and the work they did to promote the Gospel in this whole area of North East England. Seeing St Cuthbert’s island where he went to live on his own looked very inviting and isolating at the same time.

No distractions and no internet was an interesting time for all of us. It made me more aware of how much time I spend on the internet or being distracted away from the Word or in prayer. Understanding what distracts us or takes our time can be very revealing. Sometimes the masks we put on to show what we think protects us or makes us look better to each other can take a lot of time and effort. Lowering masks and showing each other and more importantly, God, who we really are is a freeing of us. He knows who we are anyway, we just try to pretend we are someone else. The masks are not of Gods making. They are a protective response to something that has happened to us or said to us in the past that has hurt us. We raise a shield that pushes us further away from others and God every new mask we create out of pain or trauma.

Thinking back to Holy Island and how small the community is, and how the whole island is cut off from the mainland twice a day seems a world away from me here. Learning what masks we can use can make us feel vulnerable and open and naked. Holy Island feels a good place to move to at those points for us! Me in particular! Opening up to God brings us back to where we should be. God cant begin the work in us of freedom, until we are ready to start to walk towards Him and say that we want to be back with Him.