Count your blessings

"When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed....."

"His eye is on the sparrow......"

After an appointment in the area, I headed down to Mordialloc for a gentle walk. The wind was strong but there was a little two-sided shelter on the pier. A fisherman sat on one side, while I sat on the other. I tucked my legs up on the seat, trying to keep them out of the biting wind, and asked God, "Is there anything that you'd have me focus on right now?" Then the sparrow landed right in front of me - see the sparrow picture. I'd already been humming 'Count your blessings' as I admired the wild water. But then I added into my humming the song, 'His eye is on the sparrow' and was encouraged.

For a while now I've been intending to blog the way God has been so kind in this medical adventure, despite it not being what I'd have chosen at this stage of life. And so with the twin themes of 'Count your many blessings' and 'His eye is on the sparrow', here goes......  

• Returning to Australia: Late last year, I felt quite clearly, though unexpectedly, that it was time to return to Australia and make Melbourne 'home base' again. This was not related to health issues (which I had attributed to 'menopausal mayhem') but it just seemed 'right'. I'm so glad to have finished well, with all loose ends tied up nicely. Work - ministry - redistribution of 'stuff' - housing in China - housing in Australia - all the details fell into place extraordinarily well. 
• Divine touches: God has been very kind with special touches over and over just as I needed them. I was 'given' the 'passionate patience' verse after which this blog is named (Romans 5:3-5) quite clearly at the end of April this year and asked my prayer support team to pray along those lines with me. It's been just what I needed to focus on. The weekend before getting the diagnosis (tentative at that time), I went for a long walk in Frankston and was seeking God's direction for the coming months. I felt quite clearly that my 'call' for now was is to simply devoutly 'walk in the light' and be present in the moment (see picture). Again, this was perfect for the season that would begin just a few days later.

  

  'Walk in the light'

  
• Encouragement: After a particularly concerning scan at a time where there was some uncertainty about potential problems with my lungs (which later turned out to be a simple infection and a false alarm), I sat on the step of a beach hut at Brighton and caught sight of this shell (see the shell picture). This shell is now in my house in Mooroolbark to remind me that God uses even the battering of the ocean to make things beautiful in His way ... though I'd still prefer it if the shell wasn't broken.
• Plans (for she who hates her plans to be changed): My plan for this first year back in Australia was to study (0.4 load), build up a bit of a translation business (0.2 load) and start something new with my sending agency (0.4 load though due to some other uncertainties on that front I didn't spend much emotional or other energy on getting too specific with plans for the semester). As it turned out, both my subjects at MST were offered as intensives. This meant that I only focused on the study after settling back into life here. The study also ties in quite nicely with life these days, as pastoral care and spiritual formation are the two subjects I'm taking this semester. Isn't God kind?! 
• Timetable:  Although I was told that it looked like I had cancer on July 10th and was led to believe that I'd have surgery within a few weeks, the operation didn't take place until September 14th, two months later. Waiting was hard. I was rather frustrated with what I saw as one delay after another, but of course, it worked out well in the end. I was able to attend all my face-to-face classes, have a little holiday with a friend, and the timing has worked out quite well afterwards too in terms of staying with family during the recovery and ongoing treatment stage while having friends stay in my house.

I'm aware that this blog is very 'Suzanne' focused, but hope that this little exercise of 'count your blessings' can be encouraging to other friends experiencing various challenges in life too. The truth, for each of us, is that God knows if even a sparrow gets blown off a pier in Mordialloc (though 'my' sparrow seemed just fine). How much more does He care for us who are made in His image? He doesn't whisk us out of the fierce winds of life but He does watch over us in it.