James’s Blog: Ten Years Ago…

Ruth reminded me that this is not just any old New Year. This is the end of the 2010s and we’re about to embark on the roaring 20s. I actually found this encouraging. You see, when I reach the end of a year I tend to find myself reflecting on what I’ve achieved over the past twelve months, and generally I get a bit depressed. I’m never satisfied, you see. I always feel like I could have done more. However, at the end of a decade I can ask myself, “What have I achieved in the past ten years?” and you know what, that’s much better. I’ve got quite a lot done over the past ten years and I feel good about how I’ve spent them.

What’s even better is that Ruth also reminded me of the old blog I started to write when we moved to Australia. In my memory, I only wrote it for a year or two before I stopped, but I’ve looked it up and I actually managed about four years. Here’s something I wrote in January 2010 – ten years ago:

I’m not doing too well with the updating of the blog, am I?

We’ve started the new year, which means that the old students have all said goodbye and gone (except for those that haven’t) and some new ones have arrived. It’s an interesting time of year because it involves change. Change can be good, but I’m the sort of person who finds it fairly stressful 99% of the time. Maybe that should be 100%? I’m trying to think of a time when I wasn’t stressed out by something changing. When I last changed Parker’s nappy that wasn’t too stressful. Maybe I’ll keep it at 99%.

I was talking to Dave (a fellow staff member) last year and he was telling me about a book he’d read by M Scott Peck (I think it was The Road Less Travelled). One of the things that he got from the book was the realisation that change and problems are an inevitable part of life. There is nothing that you can do to escape them. They are going to come your way. If you view change and problems as causes for stress; bad things that should be avoided, then you will spend a fair amount of your life depressed because you are destined to run headlong into them. Now, if you view change and problems as potential areas for growth and benefit then you can totally take the sting out of them, as well as increase your mental health.

Which of these two perspectives (fear vs. potential) best fits the message of the Christian gospel? Which of the two, for the child of God, is what God promises for us?

I’m becoming more and more convinced that most of the things that deny us joy in life are about internal matters – our perspective – rather than actual external modifications to our lifestyle. If this is true, then our biggest problem in life is the fact that we tend to listen to and believe the voices of others, the world, our experiences, the enemy and ourselves more than we listen to and trust the voice of the Holy Spirit whispering the promises of God to our soul.

In theory, that makes transformation a lot easier than we might fear it to be.

That’s not bad. Maybe I haven’t changed much in the past decade, except for the fact that I’m better at updating my blog. Of course, the additional benefit of revisiting old material is that I can recycle some of it for this site. If there’s some good thoughts in there, I’ll find them.

And so now I have to start thinking about the next ten years. After all, I want to be able to give myself something positive to look back on when I get to 2029.