My Bible: reasons to believe in the power of the Bible
'Both my parents were alcoholics and publicans. Church never featured at all. But I started singing at school when I was 11 and then was asked if I’d like to sing in the local church choir.
I spent so much time on the streets trying to avoid being at home, that I thought being at church would at least be warm, so I went. When I was 15 we went to Lee Abbey. It was a whole week when I had food, when nobody hit me, when nobody swore at me. That week blew my mind.
I got a bit upset at the thought of coming home, as I felt like I was in heaven. There was a matron of a prep school there. She saw that I was upset and read me Psalm 139. “When you go home, God is with you,” she said.
When I got back from Lee Abbey my dad was trying to get a rise out of me. I weren’t having any of it. He grabbed me by the hair and threw me across the room. I threw the knife I’d been washing up at him. I missed. But it scared me.
He locked me in my room and I climbed down three floors and ran away. I lived on the streets for three years, sleeping in cars. I was really vulnerable to the men who were there. But I could run really fast. I did things that I wasn’t proud of.
But I went back to Psalm 139 time and time again. Twenty years later I went forward for ordination. I’d felt the first stirrings of a calling when I was 15 at Lee Abbey. But I thought, “Nah, you’re having a laugh. It’s just because you’ve felt safe for the first time.”
When I was studying, I was so hypersensitive that the Bible resonated with me all the time. I’ve had cancer for 17 years. Last year I was on holiday with my family when I picked up an infection.
The doctors didn’t know whether I was going to survive. As the doctors gave me my medicine and I went to sleep, I went down into the darkness but I didn’t feel afraid of the darkness. I felt totally at peace. It was like Psalm 139 again. It’s one of those moments that I will cherish. The darkness didn’t overcome the light. That gave me comfort.'
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My wife and I were told we’d likely never have children
I was furious. I had just come back from being interviewed by a college
I became very ill when I was 20 years old and was hospitalised
I’m sometimes guilty of thinking I know better than everyone else
I was an executive in a company. A colleague had retired and died very suddenly.
I keep coming back to John 6.67–68
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