Tag: IMPORTANT

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For I know the plans…

There are times when God astounds and amazes in ways that you just can’t imagine.

As readers of this blog know, it’s been a year of major change and upheaval. It’s also been a year of huge promise and faith. The full fruition is yet to be realised, but I can honestly sit here and say to you that, with the exception of 1 thing, everything that God has told us has happened. That one thing is not ruled out by any means yet, we’re still believing it will come about at the right time, so we’re watching this space and keeping ears open.

To give you a taster of what we have experienced, both me and Mrs H felt at the beginning of the year (independently of each other may I just say!) that we were going to be shaken up and that I would be changing jobs. We were also, along with others, told that we would be moving out of the area – that one is the one thing we are awaiting but are prepared for when we get the nod.

When I lost my job through redundancy we both knew, independently of each other once again, that the following would occur:

  • The redundancy would be longer than I have ever known (we’ve always been blessed in that any unemployment has been no longer than 6 weeks or so in the past)
  • I would get my operation to remove the discs at C5/C6 & C6/C7
  • I would get time to recover
  • I would then get a job

Since being made redundant in July I have applied for over 100 jobs – and never even got a polite “thanks, but no thanks”. I’ve knocked on doors, sent off CVs and called in the hope of a position. Nada, nothing, nowt. It just wasn’t happening. I didn’t slack off I pushed *HARD* even applying for jobs the minute I got the email alert through (the weirdest one was at 2:30 in the morning!) – but the doors were not opening even a small bit.

I had my operation only just over 3 weeks ago (wow, it seems ages ago) and have fully recovered from it – even the scar tissue is healing in an amazing manner.

Now I have a job 🙂

Yup, you read that right. Just at the point I am able to drive again, feeling fully recovered and everything is sorted – I have been given a job. It’s at the only place to have offered me an interview and meets all that we have been looking for in a job. It’s a shorter commute (15 minutes), better pay and is a job that will allow me to grow in new areas professionally. With the decrease in travel we will also see a financial benefit as petrol costs will be more than halved, and insurance costs should come down as well.

I start my new job on Monday. It’s a crazy rollercoaster as we were expecting a situation where I would start in the new year, but this works out brilliantly for us as it allows me to re-integrate back into a working environment with the benefit of having bank holidays to enjoy as well.

All that God has told us would happen, has happened. My oft-quoted favourite bible passage, Jeremiah 29:11-13 (New Living Translation) says it all really:

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

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Fast Food Friendship

There I was, idly browsing facebook and twitter – enjoying reading about friends lives, or getting nuggets of creativity, pearls of wisdom, motor sports news/humour and tech headlines – when a tweet popped up from Tony Stewart, a “Husband & Father – Student at Fuller Theological Seminary – Creative Projects & Consulting – Online Community Pastor at LifeChurch.tv” to quote his Twitter Bio. The tweet simply said:

“Theory: It is more valuable to have someone’s Facebook home page then their email. Thoughts?”

Theory: It is more valuable to have someone's Facebook home page then their email. Thoughts?

I started pondering. My initial reaction was that it’s probably an accurate theory. Facebook allows you to keep up with peoples everyday lives and thoughts. It allows you to play games with them, to interact and to share life in a way that email doesn’t allow. The downside of facebook is that people don’t always use it to communicate – we feed off the information that’s there but don’t necessarily spend time talking to each other in the same way that we would in an email (or as we would in that ancient of mediums – the letter)

We absorb peoples status updates, browse their photo galleries, challenge them to games of word twist and share goodies in Farmville (of that’s your thing) and that can become the friendship. We don’t necessarily use it to converse with people. Communication is a two-way thing of sharing and responding and how many of us actually spend time doing that on facebook?

Throw Twitter into the mix and you get even more down the route of snacking on friendships – those 140 character updates become irresistible as you find out who’s doing what, where and what they are wearing or what the weather is like or what’s on their plates.

Our friendships can easily become a fast food activity – we rush in, grab our bit, rush out again and think that’s friendship.

Now you may read this and think “He’s missing the point” or come to the conclusion I’m against social networking etc, you may even be sitting there screaming that you don’t do that so allow me to present the other side of the coin. Continue reading “Fast Food Friendship”

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Obedience : The Sequel

The most spiritual place of the house.

The place where more close encounters of the God kind seem to occur.

The room that seems to resound with the call of The Spirit and where the clearest insights are received.

I do, of course, mean the bathroom!

Don’t ask me why but the bathroom seems to be the place where God will often grab me and where I will hear His voice clearer that anywhere else. Don’t think I’m insane in this either as I know I’m not the only one who finds this… it seems to be pretty well documented! Continue reading “Obedience : The Sequel”

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Obedience

Oh-beeeeee-deeee-ents

No matter how you try to say it it’s not a pleasant word – or rather, the implications of the word can often be unpleasant.

So why the focus on that 4 syllable word you may ask? Those of you who follow me on twitter or on facebook will know that I received a phone call last Thursday whilst on holiday with my family (more of that in another post!) – the subject of that call was to notify me that due to a failure to get funding the company were making a bunch of us redundant with immediate effect, and that included me.

Not really the most pleasant of calls to receive on holiday but I can honestly say that we still managed to enjoy the rest of the break without letting it cast a shadow on our enjoyment – but that’s a sideline…

Obedience… that’s the reason I’m blogging.

Continue reading “Obedience”

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A right pain in the neck

Before any of you think I’m talking about myself, my kids or even Mrs H – I’m not! (although the title could apply to any and all of us at different points in time)

Going back over 10 years, I started to experience weakness in my arms and pain in my neck/back – in fact the pain in my arms could build to such a level that I blacked out because of it. Over the years I’ve had to stand my ground and fight my corner to get various Doctors and elements of the NHS to believe me and to act upon it.

6 years ago I went into the horrendous MRI machine (even if you don’t suffer claustrophobia, you’ll be surprised at the panic these things can induce) and the results indicated problems on the C5/C6 vertebrae, with one doctor notably saying that I had the spine of an 80 year-old. That comment was later denounced by several other doctors and also the Neurosurgeon I ended up having to visit at Addenbrookes.

Because the issues are on my Cervical Spine area, and therefore a potentially dangerous location, I was indeed referred to visit a Neurosurgeon – who declined to comment on my mental state thankfully but did describe that I was developing bone spurs on my vertebra called osteophytes. These in themselves are fairly normal and most of us develop them from our early 30s onwards, the issue was that mine were starting to pinch on the nerves and would, in his words, require surgery “within 10 to 20 years”.

Continue reading “A right pain in the neck”