Liberated to serve

Soon after coming back from South Africa (and the day before finding out I was pregnant) I wrote this in my journal:

"I felt convicted toward the end of our trip. I realised I'd been in too much of a hurry. I'd wanted everything at once. God's given me a wonderful husband and home. Yet I long for more, as though all good gifts should arrive at once. God is not in a hurry, and I think he wants me to enjoy the journey! I need to set aside some dreams, hopes, and even inner conflicts right now, heeding the voice of the only one who really makes any difference in this world, who commands me to find rest in his care. Our situation of childlessness has been teaching me that in any circumstance our hope should be to serve and glorify our creator. There are no circumstances that exclude Christians from doing those things. Christians can serve and glorify God in Afghanistan, South Africa, America, and Australia, in childlessness, small families, and large ones, large homes & tiny flats, marriage & singleness, riches & poverty, old age and childhood under godly governments and evil ones."

I am sure that God had taught me this lesson before. Yet he used particular sets of circumstances to remind me again, even more powerfully than before. This lesson has been a help to me in recent times of sickness. I should not be wishing to hurry past this season, but rather should take comfort and strength from the fact that I can serve and glorify God right now. I've felt quite liberated as I've realised that circumstances and location really don't matter. We can respond rightly to God, and serve Him, no matter what is going on in our lives.