I Got Growth All Wrong

Hi there. I hope this finds you well. How are you? That is amazing. I have been interesting.... let me let you the story.

If you have been following the blog, you are aware that I recently went through some disappointment, and I also got covid. Don't get me wrong, covid was disappointing but I guess it wasn't unexpected. Half the known world seems to have had it at one point or another. This didn't stop me acting like a prima donna patient. The difference between how my warrior wife handled the virus is like watching a Jackie Chan movie. My wife is Jackie, I am the nameless sidekick that gets beat up while my wife is fighting back doing repetitive backflips.

So fourteen days passed and I was finally allowed to go on my work trip. Unfortunately the night before, I got sick again. This time with a cold. I kind of thought the common cold would have retired by now after the new kid on the block had taken up all the attention. I couldn't cancel again so I soldiered on.

The shoot went well, we started in Paris where I met up with my friend Nat. Nat is a really interesting fellow, we became friends almost 20 years ago when he was studying in Australia. The man loves a pun more than anyone else I know and as terrible as his jokes are, he is a delight to have around. We were close, but it was on the Thursday that we became even closer.

We woke up in Paris at 6am. We quickly packed up and called an Uber to get to the airport for our 9am flight. We then flew to Rome and found ourselves exploring and filming at some of the most amazing sites: the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. It was all amazing...but tiring. Because the next day we only had limited time to film before flying back home, we continued on to our next destination - Barcelona. We arrived at 11pm and after finding a taxi we got to our accommodation at almost midnight. After meeting Flash the sloth from Zootopia who took 20 mins to check us in, we found that our twin room had a problem. It had a double bed. I went and told Flash who told us the hotel was full and we couldn't change. So Nat and I after a discussion about boundaries (including a literal one made with a pillow), shared a bed.

But it wasn't a hotel's oversight that caused us to get closer, it was the conversations we had that day and on the entire trip as I heard more of his story. Almost 15 years ago Nat moved to Scotland with his new wife and not a lot else. Nat has no Scottish heritage and his wife is American so the decision was strange. But he knew a person that was moving there to start a church and he felt like he should go and help. 15 years later and he is still there, still helping.

I have thought about this a lot over the years, and I have never been able to process this. Nat is incredibly talented and gifted at kids ministry yet during all of this time, they have never asked him to be the kids pastor. Is there something I am missing, are we not all called to grow and get bigger and better?

Well on this trip I found out what was wrong. It was my skewed belief system. In my chats with Nat I heard story after story of challenge, trust, faith and above all growth. Nat has lived an amazing life full of adventure and he has a lot to show for it, it just looks different to what I believed things should be.

This has started a line of thinking that may take me a while to process. I always thought different people operated on different levels, but the more I think about it - I don't think they are different levels, but are different games. My journey is not the same as yours and for me to expect you to operate by the rules of my game is nothing but arrogance. I guess that is why we are told not to compare ourselves with others, not only is it not good for us, it's also impossible.

Nat is a man who winning and growing on his journey and has inspired me to do the same on mine. I hope he has encouraged you as well.

Till next time