This Lent, please join Bishop David for a series of 40 daily reflections in Nehemiah. The Diocese will be sharing a short film every day from Ash Wednesday 17 February, to Palm Sunday 28 March. In this introduction, Bishop David explains why he has named the series, “Hand me a trowel”.
“My father was a farmer and not a builder, but as a young boy I remember him rolling up his sleeves and doing a lot of building around the farm. I would be hanging around at the foot of a ladder as my Dad was building, and he would shout down the ladder to me, ‘Hand me a trowel.’
That’s the sort of picture we have in the Book of Nehemiah. Everybody’s involved in the work of building. They may not actually be builders, but they roll up their sleeves and they’re involved in this important work of building a people for God. ’Hand me a trowel.’ I think God is saying this to us in the Church today. God wants us to be those who have an open hand and open hearts to work for his kingdom and to build a Church that is strong and healthy for these days. We need to be getting ready for a season of building and rebuilding.
As we all get vaccinated and, hopefully, emerge back out into our churches and into the world to live for Christ, our prayer to God should be, ‘Lord, hand me a trowel. I want to be one of your workers, help me to be one of your builders.’”