Reasons to be thankful

I’ve now completed my first week at St John’s, but that’s not the biggest news of the last few days.  On Friday, we sold our house!

We moved to Finchfield in 2009 with every intention that it would be our home for the rest of our lives.  Of course, we’d forgotten that God has a sense of humour.  So, even when I first gave in to the possibility that God might be calling me to ordained ministry, I was thinking it could be a part-time thing, allowing us to remain there.  But God (and David, my DDO) had other ideas, so we had to make alternative arrangements.  Many people have asked us why we couldn’t keep it and rent it out – the simple answer is that the rent wouldn’t cover the mortgage.  As such, we had no choice but to put it on the market.  I must admit that I was worried about the reported lack of life in the housing market and had started making arrangements for a bridging loan through the Diocese, but Jenny was confident – “If God wants us to move to Nottingham, he’ll make this happen.”  I should listen to my wife more, because (after a slightly nervous wait), we exchanged contracts and completed the sale of our house on Friday.

The Finchfield house has been a place of much joy and happiness for us, so I was surprised and delighted to hear Jenny say that she didn’t miss living there after only a couple of weeks here in Nottingham.  We’ve accepted God’s call on our lives and we know that means we’ll be moving around from house to house over the years.  I’m told there are some very lovely vicarages out there!  Of course, when I retire, we’ll still need somewhere to live, so we’re probably going to buy a much smaller property that we can rent out (possibly to other theology students round here), thus allowing us to remain on the housing ladder.  No rush on that score, though.

God has been very good to us – the sale has progressed (relatively) smoothly, so we’ve said a prayer of thanks or two (or three, or four!)

Other reasons to be thankful include the following:

• a flare-up of my Crohn’s disease (which kicked in earlier this week) has only lasted a few days;
• we’ve made some fantastic friends;
• Nathan can sit up by himself for longer and longer periods; and, most importantly…
• the cake in the college Common Room has been excellent!