One of the things I am learning is flexibility – not the stretchy physical kind to which Djokovic and my son aspire, alas, but generally letting go of my desire to be in control. Quite often, flexibility is forced on me – this morning being a case in point, when my 25-minute train journey to Sheffield became vastly more complicated because of a train strike – but that is probably because it’s the only way God can train me out of bad habits…
The reason I was venturing to Sheffield was to talk about the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival on Radio Sheffield, something I never expected to be doing in itself. The arts’ festival, which began as a germ of an idea at the end of last year, is blossoming into a beautiful flower more quickly than I can quite comprehend. There is something about the dreams and ideas God plants in us which flourish beyond our wildest dreams! The mere fact people wanted me to talk about this on BBC radio was pretty mind-blowing to me in the first place, but God’s stretchiness certainly exceeds my expectations.
You can listen to the interview online if you’re interested (it starts at 1h 08 and continues after the Ed Sheeran song until 1h 25), but what was so surprising to me was the way the interviewer wanted to know much more than mere facts about the festival. I ended up with the opportunity to talk about the local churches and all we do to help our local community, about God calling me out of teaching into working in the church in the first place and about our mission trip to India – all in the space of 15 minutes! Such unexpected opportunities to me highlight the prayer we looked at last night when we asked God to give us the words to fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel. God is able to open doors for us in unexpected ways and we have to be flexible enough to walk through those doors with gratitude and awe.
