The same but different

I've probably read somewhere that your 20's and early 30's are the time of the biggest change in your life. You leave school, go to university perhaps, get frustrated about not knowing what you are going to do next when everybody is asking you what next... The expectation, particularly in Christian circles of finding a husband or wife and beginning a family is huge and totally over-emphasised in too many places and if you are not one of the ones who gets married off quickly you become unusual and people feel sorry for you (when there is nothing to feel sorry about). 

Ten years ago I was finishing my time working with UCCF (Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship) as a relay worker with the CU at York St John's College. It was a strange year, a year when lots of stuff happened, but a year that I really valued and came out a stronger and more determined follower of Jesus. 

Life has changed abundantly since then. I've grown up, a lot. I've become more confident. I am more outspoken (in a quiet, Claire like way) and I'm totally sure of my identity in Christ. 

Last week I went to Keswick Convention for the first time, just for a couple of nights... don't want to push it! We went to a question and answer session, I didn't really want to go. I was reminded of a question and answer session in a Biblical Evangelism Conference before I went on to be a relay worker where we were told that of course, male headship was a given even if we do let women speak..... 

I was expecting it to be like that. But it wasn't. Although the views of the panel on the issues they were asked about were generally clear, and I didn't necessarily agree with them all the time, there was a huge amount of grace and understanding that real people were involved and that people need to discover the way forward for themselves and we need to support them as part of Christ's family. 

When we are listening and answering one another we should never make assumptions about where anyone is coming from, perhaps we should always expect to be surprised. 

Would I go to Keswick again? Probably. I was disappointed that it was very male dominated, but I was only there for two days. I disagreed with almost everything one of the speakers said, but that's OK. I loved the commitment to Young Adults and being part of something bigger, the commitment to Scripture and the focus on the cross. In some ways it was like going back to the stuff I used to do ten years ago, but I've gone back with a different attitude and a more thoughtful mind..... so that makes it very different to what I was doing ten years ago. 

So yes, I've changed a lot. I'm doing my second degree, embarking on a totally different way of working, living in the smallest place I've ever lived in on the rainy side of the Pennines where life is very different. God is changing me, transforming me, but he stays the same - unchanging, awesome, loving, gracious, creator God.