Weekend musings
Rowan and I are Jack Johnson fans. I think he's described as writing 'soft rock' which sounds kind of pathetic. But he does have nice, guitar-strumming, I live by the beach type music. I remember listening to it with Rowan on a two-day, child-free holiday to the Hunter Valley in 2005 (a distant memory - the last time we went away on our own).We both read an article yesterday in Saturday's Good Weekend magazine about Jack Johnson. I was envious of the ease of his life. Living in a beach shack, beautiful wife, three kids, writing a love song every now and then, making stacks of money. Rowan said 'he's just so laid back'. What a life!
I thought we could do that. I'd happily leave the craziness of inner city Sydney life behind. When we lived in the city, near the uni, people would say 'how great - you can go out for coffee all the time'. I think we went out about twice in two years - taking five small children to a cafe is just a teeny, weeny bit stressful.
We could move to a coastal town, live near the beach. I don't want a big house (all that cleaning). Get jobs that paid the bills.
But then I realised, we aren't living that life. We aren't living that life because our life is not just about us. It's not about what we'd prefer to do. Many years ago we made a choice to serve God with our life and trust him to take us to the people that he wanted us to serve. I thought that might be somewhere exotic but as its worked out it has been at Sydney Uni. Where Rowan and I met. Not exotic, but important.
So I'll just look forward to that beach shack sometime in the future ...
Comments
It's a lot easier giving up the 'good life' when we remember that we serve a God who has a 'better life' in mind for us.