One of the questions below from Rach, really made me think. Rachel asked "What event in your life has been the most profound and why is that? How did God speak to you through it?".
I thought about this question, and as I wrote in my previous post the three biggest things that God has used to shape my life are firstly, the move accross the ditch to Australia, secondly a MYC (Mid Year Conference) I attended during university, and finally the experience in 2001 of being a high school teacher.
Firstly the move to Australia moving countries is a pretty big thing. One of the many results of this move was that i began to go to the church that I have spent 13 years at in Bulli (St. Augustines Anglican church). I often think of the people of this church as the people who brought me to the faith. In the people of this "church" I met people who live out the gospel. I saw it in the love they showed me, and in the time and energy they invested in me.
I was also blessed in being able to watch some of the younger people grow in the knowledge and love of the Lord, be baptised, and confirmed - was, for me an amazing thing.
The second profound event in my life was MYC. For those of you who are reading and do not know what MYC is. MYC stands for "Mid Year Conference". Like the name suggests it is a conference held in the middle of each year, for christian university students. In 1998 I attended the conference, and I remember, i think it was the Thursday night talk. Pihlip Jensen, the preacher was challenging us with the call of the gospel - recognising him as LORD, meant living with Him as LORD. Which put simply means that our priorities must be His. Our plans, melded and shaped by His.
I think it was at this point that I learnt that I my life was to be lived in service to him. Ministry was not an option. My whole life needed to be a testimony to Jesus. What that would mean for me, I didn't know then, and I still don't know now. I may be in paid ministry, I may not. I may witness for Jesus, in Sydney or overseas. But whatever I ended up doing, I would be in Ministry, testifying to the work of Christ in the World, and more personally the marvellous work of redemption in my own life.
The final thing I wanted to mention was my time teaching. This was not a rosey experience. I learnt a lot in the first six months of 2001. I have found, and grown to accept, that I am not a high school teacher. I learnt that God made me the way he did for a reason. And that God brings both the good and the bad to us, and he teaches us through everything.
Though it was a hard experience realising that the career you trained for is not the one God has planned for you, I have learnt to rely and trust on Him for everything.
And if the last 13 years in Australia are anything to go by, I know that God has so much more in store for me, both good and bad, both laughter and tears. And through all of the laughter, pain, tears, and joy, He will slowly patiently shape me to become like His Son Jesus. And that is a beautiful thing.
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