Uphill

So I had a break form writing this blog, but now I’m back. In a strange sort of way I’ve missed writing them. And perhaps you’ve missed reading them. Who knows? Anyway, here I am again. I had a break. Well a break from church. There have been lots of things to do since I wrote the last blog. We celebrated a wedding which was great. And it was great to see some of you lining the road to welcome Meg and Justin home from the church. It was lovely to see them so happy to be married. Since then we’ve been beginning the process of dealing with mum’s estate. We’ve been beginning to deal the truth that she’s not with us anymore. We’ve been coming to terms with the emotions of weddings and dying. We got post on the wedding day. There were some lovey condolence cards from some of you kind people mixed in with cards of congratulations for Meg and Justin. And then there was one envelope that was neither of these things. It was an envelope with mum’s death certificate! That’s life though isn’t it? It’s a mixture of the lovely and the wonderful, and the difficult and challenging all rolled into one. During our week in Wimborne we went biking. The New Forest is the most beautiful part of the UK. Cycling through it with it’s ups and downs can be challenging. But the views and the peace and the beauty are extraordinary. There aren’t many hills, and not many big hills, but there are enough to make you work hard on a bike. Enough to take your breath away. Enough to require you to pace yourself if you want to make it to the top. And as I reflected on these hills while cycling up them, it struck me that the next weeks and probably months are going to be uphill. There’s going to be a lot to do. There’ll be a lot to do with sorting out mum’s estate. There’ll be a lot to do to figure out how and when we begin using the church building again. And, if I look at it all at once, it appears as a very big hill. A hill I’m not sure I’ll get up. So I need to pace myself. I need to do what I’d do on the bike. You can pedal too fast at the bottom of a hill you know. If you do, you get so far up and then you body screams: “Stop!” But if you take a different approach and use the gears properly, you can make steady progress towards the top. And you get there! I know. I’ve done it. Many times. That’s why, when they were in the wilderness, God only gave the Israelites enough manna for one day. What, I hear you cry? What’s that got to do with cycling uphill? Well, nothing really. But its’ got a lot to do with pacing yourself through difficult times. The Israelites had to learn to take one day at a time. Literally. They had to trust God for that day. They had to learn to live one day at a time. And to trust God in the process. Planning ahead is really important. Mum had a will, which is a really good thing for her and us. Especially now. But sometimes, we have to live one day at a time. And mostly we do that when life is difficult and challenging. For me, that’s now. I can’t see my way to the top of this hill. So I’m going to have to do it one day at a time. And to trust God. It’s uphill you see.