Train of Thought

As I write this, it’s Tuesday morning and I am on the train heading into Oxford for another day of training at Regent’s Park College. A stretching day lies ahead, as is always the case on such Tuesdays.
 
Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate, more and more, a truth that I learned a long time ago in the gym. That is, it is the difficult, stretching times, the times when we are well and truly out of our comfort zones, that are the very times which develop us.
 
As my favourite Austrian philosopher (Arnold Schwarzenegger!) once wrote: “Don’t worry about pain. It means growth.”
 
Clearly, with the year we’ve had, we are in just such a hard, painful and stretching time. But take heart! God is in it with us, and will use this time to be about His work in us and through us.
 
May God richly bless you, even as He stretches you.
 
Much love,
 
Simon
 
Blessed be the LORD, my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. (Psalm 144:1)