CRUNCH WEEK

It feels like a bit of a crunch week in the Unsettling Adventure. We expected to have moved by now; we are still waiting. Nine months in.

Sometime soon we’re going to have to make decisions about what’s next, regardless of what’s going on.

The hold-up is in the chain of course. Somebody needs to sign a thing before anyone else can do anything. At least, that’s what we imagine the problem is - nobody can actually tell us.

“We’re not allowed to know what the issue is,” said the estate agent the other day, shortly after declaring that it was “Definitely something small and nothing to worry about.” I smiled weakly at that.

Crunch points are interesting. Will the miracle happen at the last moment like it does in the movies? Will the clock tick all the way down to 00:01 just as our hero saves the day? Or will seeping reality push us towards a more practical assessment of the situation?

In other words, is it better to have unshakeable, unswerving faith at the crunch point, or is it wiser to prepare for the worst and take action before the fat lady sings?

That’s been a theme for a while now: what to let go of, what to hold on to - that precarious balancing act of faith and wisdom. Somehow, I think God expects us to have a bit of both, which always creates a really interesting tension. I could spend a lifetime figuring out how to work that out.

Anyway, here we are: crunch point. One thing must be true though and that is that (as they say) ‘faith comes by hearing’ meaning that it makes sense to hold on to all the things you’ve actually heard from God. Another point is that you can ‘ask for wisdom if you lack it’, which means you can pray for it. So managing the crunch point tension is all about hearing and praying - which is no surprise, really.

Also, bubbling away in my mind, is the thought that there are lessons we’re learning and will look back on. It’s hard to reflect now, but I’m sure there’s some strengthening, some building, some testing and pruning going on for Sammy and me. One day, on our comfy sofa, in our new house, we might get the chance to see it from the other side. For now though, it’s just a rocky part of the adventure.