….is a house. Time is creeping up on our wedding and people are asking us what we want for our Christmas presents; whether we would want stuff for our house or personal items. Yes, we have a wedding registry with household items on, like kitchen appliances, crockery etc. But what’s the use of having all the stuff, if you don’t have a house to put it in!
Chris has changed jobs. He’s doing seasonal work at Curry’s a store similar to Best Buy in the States. It makes a welcomed changed from being a newspaper delivery person, working 6 days a week regardless of the weather. But it’s not how he wants to utilise his IT skills for the long term. He went for a job interview recently for an IT technician post in a call centre. He didn’t think he did very well. He has struggled with sleeping well for years and he was not in top form when he went there. He stopped by after the interview, and it was lowest that I’ve seen him for a while.
Chris and I want to live our lives by faith - not by whom we know, but who we serve – God Almighty. But, to tell you the truth, it is hard. His frustration is that employers aren’t prepared to give you a chance, even though you can demonstrate all the skills that they want…and then some, without a degree paper. Chris has his qualifications, and he is very good at IT, but because of having OCD, he couldn’t go to a university to get a degree after A-levels. He was just too sick to do it. I feel helpless in the whole situation, because, I want to be able to help him in some way. Sometimes I don’t even know how to pray. We’re not sure what God is doing with us at the moment. We definitely, feel like we’re going through refiner’s fire, I tell you that much. There are times when I want to blame someone for the situation that we’re in. But who do I blame? God? I wouldn’t dare. The employers of
Prayer changes things. That was the motto of my late pastor Revd Cleve Grant. And I have to believe in the power of prayer, because there is nothing else more that I can do. I wish I could pluck the job out of the air and hand it to Chris. I wish we could have £100,000 to pay for a house or £6000 to take care of our first year’s rent! I wish that I could answer people with a definite answer of where we’re going to live – but I can’t. All I can do is hold on to the promise that God is faithful. That He will bring us through it and oh, what a testimony it will be! Someone told me recently that when you live by faith, you have to lower your expectations. I chuckled and agreed with the statement. But now that I think about it, when you live by faith in a God that created the universe and owns everything in it, you should the highest expectations! I should expect £160,000 to pay for the house that we want up front, with no mortgage. I should expect Chris getting a good job. I should expect that I get a good job. I should expect that all our provisions should be met. Because I serve a powerful and living God, who wants to be bless me and Chris until we’re saturated by it! So, I reject that statement and hold on to the fact that when I walk in faith I expect great things to happen – but it is all in the will of God. If God doesn’t want me to have it, I don’t want to get it. So yes, all we want for Christmas is a house….the house that God wants for us.
