I recently had the displeasure
of finishing the last erring episode of a T.V. show I had been following for
quite some time. It was a show that loved plot twists the first season ended
with the hero finally destroying the main villain, but in doing so released an
even greater one sending him on another quest to save the earth. So when the
second season ended I shouldn’t have been surprised when just on the brink of
finishing this epic quest they had been on for 6 months to save the world that *poof*…
huge plot twist and everything is in jeopardy again and… “to be continued” comes across the otherwise black screen. Of course
they never made a third season so I will never know whether the world was destroyed
or not, oh well.
At times I feel like the adventure of life is similarly full
of plot twists. Thankfully my show won’t be discontinued before the story is finished
as He intended. But sometimes I feel a similar frustration in life just as I finish
one chapter feeling that I barely survived it my life gets shaken like a classic
boggle game and there is an all new quest on which to embark.
This is my life now, a page turn. Standing on this side of my bachelors looking
back at my schooling journey: being swept off white knuckled by the reigns of
first year from my home, to trudging through the swamps of language acquisition
and at times despair in Argentina, followed by two years of juggling far too
many things whilst walking the tightrope of ministry over the pit of burn out,
and all the way barely escaping the grasp of debt disillusionment and doubt. Looking
at the mountains crossed, I know there must have been many times I was carried solely
on the wings of miracles of grace.
Yet I am here, more aware of my inadequacies than ever
before, yet all the more confident in His ability. But now as that page of life
lands firmly in the past and more plot is revealed on this new page, here I
stand on the brink of another journey I don’t yet fully understand… Adulthood.
What does it look like to be a Christian man in the St. Joseph
County Michigan? How does one not digress to the life known before in such a familiar
atmosphere? Life? Love? Work? Taxes? How does it all work? This is what my life
consists of now, learning in the classroom of life. I invite you to join me again.
I am dusting off the old blog (that is if blogs can collect dust… I suppose
just about anything collects dust by sitting unused for 11 months). I do this, I
hope, to be a help or encouragement to someone, but honestly I know this blog
will probably never go viral, but it’s more for my sake I think. I like to
write, it’s good for my soul. It helps me to refine my world view. To make sure
I’m still thinking. I hope to write monthly. It seems more probable this chapter
than the last but who knows what life will allow. However it would encourage me
greatly if in some way these musings could be of use to someone. So please read,
comment (it makes me feel good) and learn to live with me… or if you could
teach me that would be great too!
After I read your blog, these verses came to mind. "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2nd Corinthians 12:9-11). I have had to learn, again and again, that His power is made perfect in my weakness. It's been incredibly humbling. After making stupid mistakes, I finally learned to go to the Bible and read what God says He expects of me in the classroom of life in the different roles that I have (father, husband, worker, etc.). -- Gavin
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