The strong pull of the south coast

Well, the decision's finally made - I will be heading back to Brighton, to be tormented by seagulls, in September. Woo! Its such a weird time at the moment, my emotions can swing wildly from being well excited about returning to the place I love, to being close to people I think are great, to having a challenging but brilliant job and being well upset about leaving a church I love, about leaving a community who love, value and support me (at the prayer meeting this morning, when one guy found out I was leaving he started gushing about me (which was very touching, but to be honest I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me, but thats only coz I can't take compliments!!)
So anyway, from September I will be working with the fab people at Christ Chruch Brighton (church in a pub? yes please!... check it out www.christchurchbrighton.org) I'm well up for being involved in this new(ish) church that seeks to be a church fo those who don't go to church, that is trying to connect with the culture without comproising on the gospel. My job will be to teach the bible to (hopefully) both Christians, and those who don't yet know Jesus - what a great job!
But that means more changes = not my favourite thing. But hooray for the truth of Hebrews 13:5-8:
God has said: Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence: 'the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?' Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of god to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate thier faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever.

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills -
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD
the Maker of heaven and earth
He will not let your foot slip -
He who watches over you will not slumber
Indeed he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep
The LORD watches over you
The LORD is your shade at your right hand;
The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night
The LORD will keep you from all harm
- he will watch over your life
the LORD will watch over your coming and going
bot now and for evermore

Green = who God is
Purple = the promises he has given us

What a great God - our LORD (Yahweh - I AM who I AM), the Maker of heaven and earth, yet he's our shade at our right hand, who has given us a load of amazing promises. Hooray for God!

Things I liked about today

1. Yesterday, I thought today would be rubbish as all I had to do was admin for our elderly ministry and go to a boring sunday school meeting - but it was actually a great day!

2. I met the youngest person I've ever met - little Adam Fox at jsut 7hrs old!!:

(ok newborn babies aren't very pretty but they are sooo small!!) I was amazed again at the perfection of small babies. They are tiny little human beings (thought they make noises like little puppies!). Weirdly, Jesus was like this once.... how does that work??!
3. Having the excitment of being the first person to tell people of the existance of a new person!!
4. I love thunderstorms and summer rain
5. Although Neighbours wasn't on, I watched the Railway Children at teatime instead, which gave the whole day a bank holiday type feel (even though I'd done a lot of work!)
6. Cambridge City Council at least gave the impression of being competant at booking out Lichfield Community Hall (we shall see how competant they actually are when we turn each time for Diamonds, if in the next 3 months no-one else is using the hall at the time we're booked from then I'll believe they are actually competant (or just lucky!!))
7. I love church community
8. I found out that tomorrow is not going to be as manic as I thought it would be

Decisions

Why are decisions so hard? I have two Good Things that I could do from September, and I'm struggling to choose between them. To be honest, I'm struggling to trust God with the decision. I'd find it a whole lot easier if He'd make it clear which He wants me to do, but I don't hink He will, I think He wants me to grow up and make the decision myself. And I'm scared to do that. Scared, because taking the deciison one way means another huge upheaveal, another time where everything changes, where I'm making new relationships all the time all over again, being completley out of my comfort zone and dependant on God, which I know in my head should be a good thing, but is really hard, and my sinful heart doubts that He'll be there for me this time. Taking the decision the other way, however, I'm scared that the second year will be much harder than the first, I'm scared that I'll get complacent and not depend on God as I should, that I'll get frustrated and wish that I'd made the other, or that I'll forget any lessons I've learnt in delibrating the decision in the first place. I'm scared to depend on God, and I'm even more scared to depend on myself. .... arggghh!! I hate making decisions! At least I know, that whatever decision I make, the God of Eternity will be with me - phew!