Wednesday 25 November 2015

Number 10

I don’t often post on this blog anymore, but lastnight something fairly noteworthy happened. I became the 10th Elder of Everyday Church – a fairly sizeable group of people who gather across London, and who put their lives and hopes into the hands of Jesus.
   
What took place last night was humbling, exciting and overwhelming.

When I became a Christian, over a decade ago, with an air of laziness and the after-effects of a good night out still lingering, I had no idea just how far the plans God had for me would stretch. I was (and still very much am) a regular Joe – as ordinary and normal as anyone. And yet, when someone surrenders their life to God and give Him control of the steering wheel, so begins the most incredible journey. He never leaves us in the same place, as on the day we first found Him. He begins building, molding, refining. Some of the lessons along the way are utterly amazing and delightful. Some of them are confusing and easily misunderstood.

But as I stood in the middle of a crowd of people who were praying for me and my wife and saying ‘Amen!’ to this new position I’ve been called into, all I could feel was an awe-inspiring sense that God, my Father, really, really loves me, and has a huge plan to use my ordinary life to reveal more of His Kingdom to a broken world around me.

Putting my trust in the fact that Jesus lived and died for me, is the biggest, sturdiest platform I could live life on – and I will never fully fathom the grace that is at work in that. But that He would also put me in a place of great responsibility, where I get to shepherd people in their walk with their Shepherd, is quite overwhelming. A privilege that I am so thankful for. 

What a remarkable adventure this life really is, for all who put their hope in Him.