The challenge of walking with the God who knows me
Names changed throughout except in some cases where the person involved has been or is in ministry.
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If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 2 Cor 5:17
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John 12:50
“I know that his command leads to eternal life.”
After a wedding and a honeymoon it was back to job hunting. In all it took two or three months to find a job. In this time, we concluded that having had my plan of a job in Southampton and Cardiff turned down by the Lord, there was no option but to look across the country. This decision was one of letting go of something very special to me. Student ministry was something that I had grown up with spiritually and it almost seemed a betrayal to not be involved. In reality it was a salvation to our marriage. It was good to have a years break learning to relate without the level of activity that comes with such a ministry. So, we began once more with agencies and newspapers.
This was a time in which Eva and I could get to know one another in a much deeper way. We had till marriage been relating largely through letters. In fact in the six months between deciding to go for the relationship and being married we had only been together for a total of five weeks. Job hunting could only take up about half my time at the most, so there was plenty of time to catch up. When there were interviews it was an opportunity to show her around and see Britain together.
The interviews came up, and the letters of regret continued. It was interesting to me later that the man who finally took me on, felt that he had been taking a risk with me; a risk that worked out well. I think the experience I had in El Paso was of such a varied nature that people could not believe that I the experience was in any depth.
In the end there came a situation where there were two companies who seemed interested. It was quite clear to me where I wanted to go - the small company. As with so many things, I have a hesitancy to go out of my experience and I had liked the atmosphere of a small company in the States. One of the man who interviewed me at the big company in London had seemed to be more concerned with filling in paper work and charts than designing and that was not something I was interested in.
In the end God gave his verdict. He gave me a verse while I was having a devotional one morning. “Go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four drachma coin.” (Matthew 17:27) It struck me that Peter could well have caught some pathetically small fish and thought – There is no way a four drachma coin will fit in there and thought to throw it back. With this insight, I sensed God asking me to take the first job that was offered to me, even if I did not like the way it looked.
The first job that came was with the big company. I sensed very much that in accepting it there was a denial of what I wanted and by faith, an acceptance that Jesus knew better. How glad I am for the company had a very different atmosphere than I had guessed from the interview. There was an incredible freedom to make the job what I wanted, and even to hire other people to do that paper work that I did not like. There was room in the company to be given new and better challenges. There is a sense in which some of life circumstances take life from us and other circumstances are life giving. The work at this company was very definitely life giving. Jesus’ choice was excellent.
FIRST FISH
