Arise and Be Doing

Over the years, I have kept a journal in several exercises books. 

Somewhere in storage there must be a carton full of tatty exercise books.

(Thinks: someday I really need to compile them into something.) 

The current one I started exactly one year ago, first entry May 2nd 2021.

I happened to glance at what I wrote then. 

That first entry was full of the excitement of our first Easter in Athens:

 

 -  The wonderful drama of a Greek Orthodox Easter, with fireworks and candles at midnight on Saturday

-   Meeting up with our Greek friends through the day

-  Sharing in an Easter service with Iranian refugees, and later 

-  Discovering I was still able to preach in Urdu for the first time in years to a gathering of South Asians in central Athens.

I wrote then about all the possibilities that were opening up ahead. 

What else will God show us about his plans for us in this city?

Yet, barely one month later we were thinking very differently.

Such a lot has happened since then! 

Such a different outlook.

Now in a new season of our lives. 

Unexpected and uncharted territory. 

And a very different pace of life for us. 

But the same God who gave us that richly lived year in Athens is still the same God. I headed that exercise book with a word from the Bible

        "Arise and Let us be Doing!"  

That call to action still stands.

The context and the circumstances may have drastically changed.

But God is still saying to us “Arise and be Doing”. 

** 1 Chronicles 22:16