College is usually fun and joyous with the buzz of community, but before everybody arrives its somewhat dingy. I found myself with the task of moving a house of stuff into a single bedroom and a tiny shared kitchen. And I found myself feeling alone.
Returning to college I can't help but reflect back two years to when I was new at college and though happy to arrive, by November I had found myself in the wilderness. Alone and far from home I turned my face to seek the Lord and then I clung to the intimacy I found with Him there. His words broke through;
"Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.Two years on I have found a home in Northern Ireland, this college and the people I love here. I have routine and purpose, favourite places and a ministry. But again I was allured into the wilderness to discover it still cold on my bones, lonely in my thoughts and a dampener of my laughter. Again in this place I hear the tender speech of my God;
And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the valley of Trouble a door of hope.
And there shall she answer as in the days of her youth." (Hosea 2:14)
Humbled, quietened and in awe; the Lord restores me as one redeemed. I find a door of hope at the beginning of a new season, new faces, new rhythms, unchanging grace. I pray over this flat and those to whom it will be home this year, I pray over my influence and most of all I pray that the Spirit of God would enter and dwell here.
