What Seasons of life are you in now?

            It has been two years since the last entries in this blog.  The previous two entries in 2018 were because of the death of a cousin, having the responsibility of winding up his estate and the things that were learnt through that experience.  We have also moved back to Newent after five years in Chippenham helping with a new church plant there.

            As we look back on those five years we see the Lord graciously giving us an important period of transition back into British life and culture.  The Lord knew that we needed this time for renewal and adjusting.  We see that time as a good season in our lives, a time to appreciate the Lord in new ways, a time to just be, a time to experience life together with a group of younger people, examples of growing in grace and a greater freedom in the Lord and being available for the Lord to use us in the ways He chose.  We give thanks for those many experiences in Chippenham.

            We are back in Newent and grateful that we moved and were settled before the Corona Virus lock-down crisis.  Living in lock-down has been a strange experience.  Although used to working from home, having to keep our physical distance between people, only being allowed out for basic shopping and a daily walk, and not being able to interact with family and friends in the way that we would have liked, has been more difficult.  How long this will continue for, we don’t know.  Life will be different when restrictions are lifted and a new ‘normal’ whatever that is, will be another change to adjust to. 

            This new ‘normal’ will be the beginning of a new season in our lives.  Already, God has opened unexpected doors that may well be pointers of the way the Lord is leading us into new opportunities here in the church.  One of those opportunities was being asked to write some articles for a weekly church news letter during this lock-down.  How this will develop is unknown at the moment.  When in Chippenham, I didn’t have the desire to do much writing.  That was part of that season in my life.  It may be that this new season will see writing as a bigger part of my ministry here.  The plan is to post these articles in the days and weeks ahead and after that to write further blogs as the opportunity presents itself.  There is an excitement as to how this new season will develop in the weeks and months ahead.

           

Why Wait

            It has been quite a long time since I last contributed to this blog page, but we have been in transition from working in Japan back to living full time in the UK.  It has surprised me how difficult change can be particularly with reverse culture shock.  It has taken longer than I had anticipated feeling anywhere near settled. In fact I still do not feel that I have acclimatized yet.  British culture has moved on, and there have been changes in the life of the church and society since we left for Japan back in 2003 that have taken some getting used to. 

            The unsettledness of life, moving to a new area, and adjusting to life in this ‘foreign’ culture has had its effect on our involvement in the life and community around.  I have quite surprised myself in that I, who am a ‘doer’, always on the go, should be quite happy just ‘being’.  In fact that has been quite hard because the general thinking of most people is that doing is what gives us our identity.  It came across to me quite forcefully when I finished a little cleaning job I had at a local school.  The inevitable question was, “What are you going to do now?”  as though I couldn’t just ‘be’.  It is almost as though that would equate to laziness. 

            When we arrived back in the UK this time we were made aware of the advisability of not getting involved too quickly in ministry/responsibilities.  The Cor Deo 6 month course was helpful in that regard because it meant that I was not so available.  However, as time has gone on I still have found it necessary to continue to ‘be’ while I waited for God to open doors for ministry/responsibilities.  It has been a time to think, to read God’s word and pray, a time to hear God speak.  It is very possible to jump at the first opportunity that comes along and then find that wasn’t really what God was wanting me to be filling my time with.  We can fill our time with all kinds of activities and miss the opportunities that God has for us because we are too busily engrossed in other very good and legitimate things and so miss his voice.

            Now that we are feeling more settled and God has begun to open some doors of opportunity, I feel that I am in a position to begin writing again.  So with God’s help and enabling I will seek to post more blogs as he prompts me with ideas for these blogs.  Life is full of experiences, and they can be opportunities to learn from God. May these blogs give us opportunities to share our experiences of the Lord and of what he is doing in our lives.