If you are living in the UK, you might be confused as to whether it is Tuesday or Wednesday today.
When we have a bank holiday Monday and the working week begins on a Tuesday rather than a Monday, does it leave you confused?
One of the most confusing things during a bank holiday week for me used to be what day you should put your bins out for collection. Colchester council have got around this by never collecting on a Monday so that having a Bank holiday doesn’t affect the collection day. Clever, eh!
Today is the first day of June, but outside it looks fairly cold. It is supposed to be Summer time but it feels more like Autumn. The great British weather is a wonderful thing!
Sometimes life is confusing.
On Sunday, Jenny who was speaking at church used an illustration from the film the Karate kid (the original one). The background is that Mr Miyagi has agreed to train Daniel but when Daniel turns up to learn Karate Mr Miyagi gets him to wax his car then the next day to sand the floor of his decking. After a few days of these and other tasks, Daniel is frustrated! He thought he had come to learn karate but all he had done is work and this leads to him becoming so frustrated that he goes to confront Mr Miyagi to complain. You can see what happens next in this clip.
Daniel was frustrated! He thought he was wasting his time and being taken advantage of by Mr Miyagi but all the time he was being prepared by the master. The repetitive actions of waxing, sanding and painting were helping him to learn Karate moves.
A disciple is a follower of Jesus and part of this involves being trained by Jesus. I guess that most of us would just prefer watching Jesus but Jesus actually wants prepare us to share in his work.
Sometimes life feels confusing and hard and in those moments we can wonder what God is up to.
I was speaking with someone after church on Sunday who was saying that Jenny’s sermon had helped them to see that the hard time that they had been having had prepared them for something they were now involved in that was helping others. They had been frustrated with God through a tough time, but now they could see how God had been training and preparing them.
Sometimes life feels confusing and hard. In those moments, who will we look to?
Mr Miyagi repeatedly says to Daniel, ‘look, eyes’. He wants Daniel to watch his eyes and Jesus also wants us to look to him.
Peter walked on water until he looked away from Jesus and focused on the waves around him. As he began to sink, he looked to Jesus and shouted ‘save me’.
When we look to Jesus, his training of us will make more sense and it will be more effective.
How do you feel about the God who trains us in ways that we might not understand or appreciate?
I pray that we would be open to Jesus training and shaping us and that as we would look to him and see what he is doing that we would choose to work with him.
You can read more about how God trains us in The one about the race.
Honest about my faith 