'Consider what God has done;
Who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider:
God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore you cannot discover anything about your future'
(Ecclesiastes 7:13-14)
It's like I've seen the light! I have come to the understanding that in actual fact, I cannot predict my future, and reflecting on the past few months of my life most certainly confirms this.
After what seemed like months of waiting, I moved to Watford from Croydon at the end of October to begin a new job and new life in a new home, with new friends, new responsibilities and new challenges. I have loved it, and all that it has brought and will continue to bring.
But the past two months obviously have not been without their challenges, including:
1. Learning to cook on a budget, which we seem to have cracked by discovering the 'reduced yellow label' trick and shopping at ASDA. We have also discovered that someone from our church lives less than 100m up the road, and she brings round quite alot of food...
2. Learning to live with a whole new set of people. I love my housemates, and it has been a real gift from God that we have gelled together so well.
3. Being geographically challenged in a completely alien place. I have succeeded to terrify my passengers with my 'london driving' on several occasions. It's not how they do it in Watford, apparently.
4. Learning to survive the pressures of working for a brand new, even more hectic church than my last one in Croydon. This church is even bigger, even busier and completely exhausting at times! It's also got alot of 'Christian fame' and dealing with that is harder than I expected.
If you were to have asked me five years ago what I'd be doing right now, it wouldn't have been this. I could never have planned this in a million years - which is poignant really because I didn't plan it. God did. If it was left to me, I would be slogging my way through law books right now, probably being very miserable.
It is humbling to think that whilst I fumble through life worrying and making plans, God has it sussed. My ambition for the year is to remain humble, faithful and reaching for Jesus. It's not to get 'famous' or walk into a job, or to avoid making proper decisions. I believe that I love Watford so much because God called me to Watford, and it's exciting to be seeking Him to see where he's going to call me next. I plan to remain humble, and keep my faith held high (and I thank Dan Blackburn for that gem of a quote). And funnily enough, I have a good idea that this probably fits into God's plans too.....
