Old Faithful

Old Faithful is a cone geyser located in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. It merits its' name because of it's predicable eruptions. Old Faithful will erupt 65 minutes after an eruption lasting 2.5 minutes, or 91 minutes after an explosion lasting more than 2.5 minutes.

Two choices: live in Vancouver where home and our short history was, or live in Southern Ontario where our family was. This was the decision Andrew and I faced a year and a half ago when we were thinking about where to live after we got married.

After lots of prayer and contemplation, we felt that God was leading us towards Ontario for three specific reasons:
1) Spend intentional time with our immediate families, since we doubt we'll be in Ontario long-term
2) Be intentional about getting to know each other as husband and wife and building a strong marriage foundation for decades to come
3) Be local to 'do life' with many life-long friends, instead of always playing 'catch-up'

Well it's been 7 months. So far we've been blessed to have spent loads of time with family! Andrew played on a hockey team all winter with his brothers, we've been to Ottawa twice to visit my sisters, lots of Hill family dinners and trips up to Listowel to visit the Hartungs. Andrew's youngest sister has spent a couple weekends with us in Kitchener and recently joined us for our roadtrip to Florida. It's been awesome!

We're so thoroughly enjoying being married to each other, building healthy communication habits, joyously (most of the time!) sharing life together, learning to make decisions together and getting to know each other better and better. We've read some solid marriage books, and are working through Mark Driscoll's recent Real Marriage sermons. We're learning how to work through conflict and being challenged daily with humility and lessons in selflessness.

So many fun times with friends! Games nights, birthdays, coffee dates, hockey... and a summer of 7 weddings coming up... we're loving time spent with old friends!

Yet, there are some big things that I love about life that are missing.
Urban culture.
Beautiful environment.
Being part of a Jesus-loving church.
Local outdoor rec - hiking, kayaking, biking.
Working with youth, especially urban Aboriginal youth.
The ocean. Mountains.

It dawned on me this week.
God didn't lead us to Kitchener to be active, to love the city, to be passionate about our jobs and community involvement. He didn't call us to a specific church. He didn't call us here to work at jobs that we love.
He called us here for our family, old friends, and to build our marriage. And that's exactly what is thriving right now.

So he IS faithful! I have been thinking for months that Kitchener just sucks, or we have the wrong attitude about being here or we're doing something wrong.

But no, God is providing exactly what he purposed us here for. And we are being challenged daily to not complain about what's missing, but living fully in what his purposes are. (And hoping like crazy that there are mountain-bound adventures in our future!!!!)

He's never going to lead us somewhere and not have a purpose in it. He is faithful to fulfill his purposes. And I need to keep my eyes and heart on HIM and not me.