Our Stories
Christians in Community
Christian Berechree
Operations Manager, Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre
Operations Manager, Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre
“Man makes plans, God laughs”.
This neat turn of phrase has long been one of my mum’s favourite sayings.
She always has it ready in her back pocket when her slightly neurotic middle child (this guy) needs a reminder that, try though he might, he can’t actually plan and schedule life into submission.
While I realise it’s a tongue-in-cheek saying and I certainly don’t believe God actually laughs at our plans, I’ve found it to be a helpful reminder many times over the years.
When I have caught myself gritting my teeth, trying to reason and logic my way through whatever storm I’m facing, Mum’s oft-quoted words have brought a surprising calm to the situation.
Let go. Trust God. He has plans for you, so why do you think your plans are better?
One shining example of this lesson (which I’m very much still learning) is the winding path that brought me to my current job with the Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre (HBNC).
When my wife, Samantha, and I packed whatever belongings we could fit into the back of a small moving van and started the process of moving to Roma with a seven-month-old baby, I was sure it was the start of my grand plans coming to fruition.
A newly-minted master’s degree in hand, I had landed a job as a journalist at a historic newspaper in the heart of cattle country.
While it wasn’t quite the setting I had in mind, I was confident this was the beginning of the illustrious career in journalism I had long dreamed of (and racked up an unspeakable amount of HECS debt for, but let’s not go there…)
Three moves, three job changes and another baby later, it all came to a shuddering halt less than two years after we arrived in Hervey Bay.
I won’t go into the grim details (there are plenty of stories readily available online to fill in those gaps) but my plans for the career I had planned for suddenly seemed impossible, unless I uprooted our family from the place which had quickly become our home. Even then, there was only a slim chance of anything paying off.
In the midst of that chaos, I remembered that old adage of my mum’s.
God was certainly not laughing at my plans, but I know He was smiling on me.
I was disappointed, frustrated and even embarrassed to walk away from a career for which I had sacrificed so much and planned so hard, especially after a relatively short time.
However, I never could have predicted that my pursuit of a journalism career would lead me to helping lead a not-for-profit organisation affecting real change in our community, and in the lives of its most vulnerable.
Do I believe working at HBNC is my one true calling in life? No, I don’t believe that’s how it works.
I do believe, however, that my hard-learnt lesson about trusting God and following where He leads has put me on an even better path than the one I had mapped out for myself.
This neat turn of phrase has long been one of my mum’s favourite sayings.
She always has it ready in her back pocket when her slightly neurotic middle child (this guy) needs a reminder that, try though he might, he can’t actually plan and schedule life into submission.
While I realise it’s a tongue-in-cheek saying and I certainly don’t believe God actually laughs at our plans, I’ve found it to be a helpful reminder many times over the years.
When I have caught myself gritting my teeth, trying to reason and logic my way through whatever storm I’m facing, Mum’s oft-quoted words have brought a surprising calm to the situation.
Let go. Trust God. He has plans for you, so why do you think your plans are better?
One shining example of this lesson (which I’m very much still learning) is the winding path that brought me to my current job with the Hervey Bay Neighbourhood Centre (HBNC).
When my wife, Samantha, and I packed whatever belongings we could fit into the back of a small moving van and started the process of moving to Roma with a seven-month-old baby, I was sure it was the start of my grand plans coming to fruition.
A newly-minted master’s degree in hand, I had landed a job as a journalist at a historic newspaper in the heart of cattle country.
While it wasn’t quite the setting I had in mind, I was confident this was the beginning of the illustrious career in journalism I had long dreamed of (and racked up an unspeakable amount of HECS debt for, but let’s not go there…)
Three moves, three job changes and another baby later, it all came to a shuddering halt less than two years after we arrived in Hervey Bay.
I won’t go into the grim details (there are plenty of stories readily available online to fill in those gaps) but my plans for the career I had planned for suddenly seemed impossible, unless I uprooted our family from the place which had quickly become our home. Even then, there was only a slim chance of anything paying off.
In the midst of that chaos, I remembered that old adage of my mum’s.
God was certainly not laughing at my plans, but I know He was smiling on me.
I was disappointed, frustrated and even embarrassed to walk away from a career for which I had sacrificed so much and planned so hard, especially after a relatively short time.
However, I never could have predicted that my pursuit of a journalism career would lead me to helping lead a not-for-profit organisation affecting real change in our community, and in the lives of its most vulnerable.
Do I believe working at HBNC is my one true calling in life? No, I don’t believe that’s how it works.
I do believe, however, that my hard-learnt lesson about trusting God and following where He leads has put me on an even better path than the one I had mapped out for myself.
Posted in Our Stories