{"id":2771,"date":"2012-08-08T09:15:57","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T09:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/?p=2771"},"modified":"2014-09-23T11:38:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T11:38:26","slug":"i-am-a-mule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/the-welford\/i-am-a-mule\/","title":{"rendered":"I am a Mule"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today was a hard day. I scraped the car trying to reverse into my new carport, had conversations I didn\u2019t want to have about the possibility of not having children of my own. It&#8217;s a thought that has never been far from my heart or head, and by proxy, tears have never been far from my eyes.<\/p>\n<p>I sometimes wonder why I find it so hard to forget about God and just walk away. I mean, it\u2019s not just me who has hard times \u2013 it seems pretty universal. So why hang on? Why not walk away from God and Christianity once and for all? I have come to the conclusion that it boils down to stubbornness.<\/p>\n<p>I am stubborn. Prior to today I had always seen that as a bad thing, a thing that caused me trouble. But maybe it\u2019s the thing that has actually kept me faithful. Maybe this \u2018thorn in my side\u2019 has actually been a blessing.<\/p>\n<p>Luke 22: 31-32 \u2018\u201cSimon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Have you been given a thorn that you hadn\u2019t realised was a blessing to you and potentially others?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/the-welford\/i-am-a-mule\/\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png?w=750\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today was a hard day. I scraped the car trying to reverse into my new carport, had conversations I didn\u2019t want to have about the possibility of not having children of my own. It&#8217;s a thought that has never been far from my heart or head, and by proxy, tears have never been far from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 897245;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[312],"tags":[20,23,101,110,192],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PoLK-IH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":748,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/god-made-coffee\/","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":0},"title":"God Made Coffee","date":"9 June 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Dallas Willard was speaking at our Sunday meeting recently and proclaimed \u201cGod made coffee\u201d (among other things).\u00a0 He was challenging us to remember to thank God for the many good things we are surrounded by and try and to start the day by blessing something of the amazing world we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/friends-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8360,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/get-your-dancing-shoes-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":1},"title":"Get your dancing shoes on!","date":"26 February 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of my morning walk with God I listen to the bible and some worship to help me start the day and focus things. At the end of my walk I head over to Spotify and listen to some Rend Collective Songs. One in particular recently has been on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/andre-hunter-62014-unsplash.jpg?fit=1000%2C665&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7055,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/getting-excited-about-the-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":2},"title":"Getting excited about the gospel","date":"21 June 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you ever been to a game or been at an event where you have really gone for it? Not worried about who is around you and what they might think, you just shout out or lift your hands, punching the air and giving it some? British culture can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/go-big.png?fit=565%2C350&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7253,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/thoughts-from-the-cvm-team\/resolutions\/","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":3},"title":"Resolutions","date":"27 December 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"So that\u2019s Christmas done \u2026 it\u2019s the time for resolutions now \u2026 so easy to make, but so hard to keep for many of us! The decision to keep going with it can be hard, but we all have hard decisions to make don\u2019t we? Which reminds me of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Team CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8562,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/bomb-disposal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":4},"title":"Bomb Disposal (Pt 1)","date":"17 July 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Dealing with the Seven Deadly Sins When I look out of the kitchen window at home, I marvel at how prolific and healthy the garden is.\u00a0\u00a0Not the good stuff (flowers or shrubs which we might actually have chosen and planted) but the weeds \u2013 they seem unstoppable!\u00a0\u00a0Every nook and cranny\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/bp-book.jpeg?fit=1000%2C697&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":949,"url":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/friends-of-cvm\/love-zim\/","url_meta":{"origin":2771,"position":5},"title":"Love Zim","date":"20 September 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"LoveZim International prayer day for Zimbabwe 26th September 2010 An exciting thing is happening in Zimbabwe.\u00a0 There is a move on to redeem the broken land that was once called the \u2018breadbasket\u2019 of Africa.\u00a0 Zimbabwe is rich in resources but has become a place of poverty, hunger and dependency.\u00a0 A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Friends of CVM&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/friends-blog-640x360.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2771"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5637,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771\/revisions\/5637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cvm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}