Into the unknown

It is dark, it is cold and the last thing I want to do is get up and catch a train. Looking back through my posts I realised how much the unknown used to terrify me. Moving around, going new places and meeting new people used to fill me with dread. However despite my reluctance to go out into the cold so early in the morning I realised I was feeling adventurous. No longer absolutely petrified or frozen by fear I was actually looking forward to it.

We all go on journeys, we usually know what our destination is and although the road sometimes takes detours or suffers traffic jams we get there. Indeed this was true of our journey, a few hiccups and minor detours but we arrived and in one piece. Rather like our move to Ilkley, I knew where I was headed but the rest was unknown.

Moving to Ilkley I had a 101 questions floating in my head. I agonized, fretted and lacked the ability to just trust. The experience taught me to trust a bit more, to hold my hand out a bit wider in the of chance someone might catch me. I will not say the more stationary emotional journey since arriving has not been without it's detours and traffic jams but we seem to be making good progress on the road, so to speak.

When we stand at the beginning of something new, we look at all the things that we anticipate with fear. You look at them, you focus on them and they grow until they fill the road ahead and you can not see a way around. What I have learnt since coming here is these road blocks are often the points in our lives where we might have a minor (or indeed a major) clash with another driver but the results are often unexpected and more often than not the end up going down the road you were headed in the first place but now the road is clear.

Learning that these obstacles in the road are not going to stop you forever is a valuable lesson. It is about having faith. It is about putting those fishing nets down as the early disciples did and following the path into what many would see as impossible. Following Christ is not impossible. It is not an easy journey but it is a rewarding one.  Christ himself faced the impossible, he died for us. When you learn to accept the fact that God made possible the impossible and gave us life eternal, you know you can conquer the smaller impossibilities.

Then all of a sudden going into the unknown is no longer impossible, In fact something really quite wonderful might happen. We got up, we took the train and we had a fantastic weekend. Today in the face of impossibility put down your nets submit to Christ and his teachings and see where he takes you. You might be stopped temporarily, stuck in a traffic jam or maybe take a detour around but one thing is sure, we can and we will find ways around the impossible because Christ will helps us through it all.