Getting home just in time to leave
I've just returned home from not-that-sunny Brighton to totally-not-sunny Bedford, and tomorrow morning I'll be off to the let's-face-it-you'll-be-lucky-if-it's-sunny Lake District.
I'll write at length about the Newfrontiers leadership conference at Brighton soon, (probably with a corny title like 'Brighton rocks', just to warn you) but suffice to say it was a wonderful week of God's incredible grace. I'm so blessed to be so blessed. I've been running pretty hard for a long while without a break which is incredibly dumb, so to be away from home and work, listening to God speak, seeing dear friends, and eating lots has been great. I'm looking forward to carrying that on into next week whilst I'm on holiday.
Quick point about holidays, to encourage myself if no-one else: they're about refreshment, not simply winding down. Winding down is totally part of it, but if that's all you do you'll have missed the opportunity to receive peace and healing and encouragement and stirring from God. You're not just escaping from something, you can try to escape into something that will send you back better than you were. For me this means going somewhere beautiful that I hope will stir my soul, spending some quiet time by myself (whilst not being antisocial to the friends I'm going with!), reading Psalms quite a bit, and a devotional book or two. And having fun with good friends, and eating good food and drinking good drink. I'll report on how that all goes next week.
I'll write at length about the Newfrontiers leadership conference at Brighton soon, (probably with a corny title like 'Brighton rocks', just to warn you) but suffice to say it was a wonderful week of God's incredible grace. I'm so blessed to be so blessed. I've been running pretty hard for a long while without a break which is incredibly dumb, so to be away from home and work, listening to God speak, seeing dear friends, and eating lots has been great. I'm looking forward to carrying that on into next week whilst I'm on holiday.
Quick point about holidays, to encourage myself if no-one else: they're about refreshment, not simply winding down. Winding down is totally part of it, but if that's all you do you'll have missed the opportunity to receive peace and healing and encouragement and stirring from God. You're not just escaping from something, you can try to escape into something that will send you back better than you were. For me this means going somewhere beautiful that I hope will stir my soul, spending some quiet time by myself (whilst not being antisocial to the friends I'm going with!), reading Psalms quite a bit, and a devotional book or two. And having fun with good friends, and eating good food and drinking good drink. I'll report on how that all goes next week.