Hi all! Week 18 means the end of April and that we have officially been sending these stories out for a third of a year. Praise God and thank you to all the contributors so far. I can't quite believe we made it! Though I know there is therefore still two-thirds of the year to go haha.
This week, my friend Helen is sharing on the Thunderbolt moments where she hears from God and, more recently, what it means to wait on God's timing and listen for the still small voice. Helen and I met through volunteering for the same charity and I am so glad to be able to share her thoughts today!
In Helen's words...
I am the kind of person who likes a thunderbolt moment. Those moments when the earth shakes and you know that life will never be the same again. I had a particularly memorable one aged 19, when I first set eyes on my future husband in a student pub in Bath, after my Christian friend had put ‘Boyfriend for Helen’ on her Prayer List three weeks earlier. I had another thunderbolt moment when I was in a bubble bath in 2006 and heard an audible voice from God saying “You should be the youth worker!”. I ended up serving as a youth worker in Hazlemere Church for the next 10 years and loving it, even though when God initially spoke, I really disliked teenagers!
So, when in June of 2021, I heard from God again, this time saying I should be a “Voice for the Voiceless”, I knew the drill; a pretty spectacular series of events would ensue, many miraculous answers to prayer would unfold, and my new path would be set. Fabulous!
Except that this didn’t happen. Firstly, it took me two years to leave my current role as a community worker for a variety of reasons. When I eventually left in July 2023, I was bereft. I had just resigned from a job I loved, with nothing on the horizon apart from the sense that God was calling me into something new. When would the thunderbolt hit?
It took another five months for God to whisper His next steps in my ear. I was in a school assembly, sharing about the work of the charity Street Kids Direct, when I sensed God nudging me with the words, “This is it. THIS is where I want you to be”. I was naturally VERY excited, and again anticipated that my whole future path would miraculously unfold before me. But it hasn’t.
At times I have felt like the Israelites in the desert, as described in the passage Exodus 16:2-5. They had all witnessed many miracles, but in these quieter and confusing times in the wilderness, the Israelites began to doubt that Moses had heard from God correctly. Their faith was shaken.
But gradually I have come to realise that this stage of my journey is not going to be about my beloved thunderbolt moments. It is going to be more about listening to the small, still voice of God and trusting Him in the wilderness.
God may not be acting on my timetable, nor in my preferred dramatic style, but He is definitely at work. If I look back over the past couple of years, I can see how far I have travelled. And all of it without a thunderbolt in sight!
Helen is a Schools Worker currently volunteering with the charity Street Kids Direct, after serving for 17 years as a Youth and Community Worker in Hazlemere Church. She has been happily married to her thunderbolt moment guy Paul for 31 years, has three grown up children and a badly behaved but very loved cat called Theo.
Thank you all so much for reading this story of God connecting with his people. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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Until next week,
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