Boiler

I hope you had a lovely Christmas. Happy New Year! Our Christmas was a little different to the one we had anticipated. On Christmas Eve eve (that really is a thing), our boiler broke leaving us without heating or hot water. And, because everyone is on holiday over Christmas, it became two weeks without hearing or hot water! I could spend the rest of this blog bemoaning our misfortune. After all, no heating and not hot water for two weeks! But in truth, it’s a first world problem. Most of the world doesn’t ever have heating or hot water. And if they do, it is at best, intermittent. We have a daughter and son-in-law living a few minutes away with a lovely shower, so we visited them a little more often than we would have! We are members of the gym just round the corner, so sometimes we went there for our shower (after using the gym or the pool of course)! We have blankets and we borrowed heaters for the evenings. And, although we had to make alterative arrangements for the visit of my family (Meg and Justin hosted) and tell the folk coming round on Boxing Day to dress warm, it was at worst, inconvenient. We didn’t really suffer. And it got me thinking. Many people suffer in ways that I don’t often think about. It gave me cause to count my blessings. To recognise what I have, and not fuss about what I don’t have. I have to work hard at that. I’ve got used to the idea that I have a right to a certain standard of living. But, in truth, it is a gift. Everything I have is a gift. And I would well to remember that. And then I began to read Hosea. Hosea is a wonderful but challenging read. It begins with God asking Hosea to marry a prostitute (or at least a woman who is sexually promiscuous). He does so to symbolise the relationship of Israel and their God. But think about it for a minute: he asks a faithful prophet to marry a prostitute! Doesn’t that sound odd to you? And what if you had been Hosea? How would you respond the that call of God? I think I might have had some things to say to God, one being, “No!” But Hosea said “Yes” and married Gomer. That’s why we can read his prophecy today. It wasn’t convenient for Hosea to marry this kind of woman. Imagine the response he would have got from family and friends! It certainly wasn’t a call to an easy, convenient life. And that seems to be a thing in the Bible. I’m not sure I could point you to anyone who got called to an easy, convenient life by God. And yet, that’s what I want. I want to follow God, yes. But I’m not sure I really want an inconvenient life. Which leads me to wonder how much I really want to follow where God leads. I’m having to think about. Maybe you should too.