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| The sunset on the way home from Wagga Wagga |
Sometimes what God wants for us can be very easy to discern - he very clearly tugs on our heart strings, giving us that 'gut instinct' that what we are choosing is the right thing to do. But other times... I don't know... he seems to withhold from us, like a wise parent, knowing that the process of deciding will be more beneficial for us than the outcome of the decision itself. That's what God seems to have been doing for us lately. And while it is completely frustrating in the short-term, coming out of the other side I can see His hand at work.
To keep it concise, Marty has been in a very stressful work situation for the past 9-10 months, and a move to regional NSW has sounded very appealing. He was offered a great job in Wagga Wagga, and was due to go to a final interview today at 11.30am. We went down on the weekend to have a look around, get a feel for the area and see if it's somewhere we could see ourselves living. By the world's standards, everything was fitting into place and it was a very simple decision to make. We could have bought a 3 bedroom house on a half-acre block; he would've had a 25 minute commute to work through beautiful countryside; and we would've had a much more relaxed pace of life. Just what everyone wants, right?
But having this all laid out in front of us meant that we were also given the opportunity to refine and crystalise what our core priorities are. I like lists. And so I found it most helpful to make one of what our top priorities are, and we came up with this:
1) God, and serving him with our lives
2) Our marriage
3) Our family
4) Our friends
Once we had done this, I realised that they are all people-centred priorities. Owning a house and living a comfortable life don't even make the list! And God never commanded us to do either of them. But he does command us time and time again to love people, and I think that's a love-in-action kind of love. God has given us so many excellent opportunities at this point in our lives to minister to individuals around us, and to move now - for us - I think would be to throw them back in God's face, saying that we'd rather the kinds of opportunities that fit in with what we think ministry should look like.
Marty came at it from a different angle. He felt that it was important to ask what our situation would look like from an outsider's perspective (Christian, of course). What - in our situation - would faithfulness to God look like; faithfulness in work, in relationships, in finances, in home life, in our marriage..? If we were able to remove ourselves from our circumstances and look at it objectively, what path would be most God-glorifying? [I love how God guides each of us differently, but brings us both to the same conclusion. I guess that's one of the joys of marriage under Christ. He unites two different people by his Spirit, and uses us to shape and refine one another through times like these.]
Marty came at it from a different angle. He felt that it was important to ask what our situation would look like from an outsider's perspective (Christian, of course). What - in our situation - would faithfulness to God look like; faithfulness in work, in relationships, in finances, in home life, in our marriage..? If we were able to remove ourselves from our circumstances and look at it objectively, what path would be most God-glorifying? [I love how God guides each of us differently, but brings us both to the same conclusion. I guess that's one of the joys of marriage under Christ. He unites two different people by his Spirit, and uses us to shape and refine one another through times like these.]
Don't get me wrong. We've had lots of friends move away who are very godly, wise and mature people, and I am confident that God is using them to influence people where they are. But for us I know that God wouldn't want us to cut short the relationships we have been cultivating with particular people who need to know him, for the sake of meeting our own selfish desires. It has been one of those big life-decisions that could have gone either way, and yes, God will use us wherever we are, but he has also blessed us immeasurably in so many ways. We are trusting that he has been guiding us this far and that He will continue to guide us as long as we seek after him.
Marty showed me this passage on Saturday, and it was when I read it that I was completely at rest with what we had decided to do.
"Do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man,
the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does -
comes not from the Father but from the world.
The world and its desires pass away,
but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
1 John 2:15-17
