Hammerfall 3.0: One Year On

 Due to what has become the typical schedule for posting here, I note that the anniversary of Hammerfall 3.0 occurred this past Wednesday, 11 December.

In general I do not specifically mark my three Hammerfalls (other than my failure at The Firm of course, which resulted in the firing of myself by myself and gave us the Annual Day of Failure every 02 August) as I found for such things that maudlin recollections of the events year after year is neither good practice nor a good use of time.  Given the fact that it was the first anniversary though, there is likely no harm in just reflecting for a bit.

If I had to look at the year since that event, I think the hallmark would be "change" - change in ways that I could not have imagined on the 10th of December last year.  Life is like that sometimes, month or years where nothing changes at all and then - suddenly - the world seems to shift out from under one's feet.

One thing that strikes me in a dark humour sort of way is that this was the sort of thing that I had been asking for, in a backhanded sort of way.  We had wanted to move closer to Old Home and had made a passive go of it through occasionally looking for a job, but was always somewhat hampered by the fact that we had commitments (largely Na Clann, to make sure they got through school).  Suddenly, dramatically, we were given the ability to relocate - might I say "pushed" - in a way that was both unexpected and for which we had to pay nothing.  But it was only after going through all the possibilities of either finding on-site work or remote work in New Home that this happened - in a real sense, at the end of the rope.

The second major thing that strikes me is the fact that in almost every way, my life was upended.

I have written on this before, but the fact was that I had a very well developed schedule in New Home.  I had my activities and my participations and - for a time - a second job at Produce (A)Isle, with every day mapped out to the activity.  I had no "free time" to explore new things or do something different because my schedule was so full.  Miraculously with the move, all of that was instantly cleared away (but with a twist of course; for example the ability to still train at a dojo in my martial arts style or have an ability to engage with other rabbit rescue organizations).

The third thing that comes to mind is simply the evidence of God's hand in this.

It has been evident in every Hammerfall I have experienced:  In the first Hammerfall, we were relocated at the company's expense and I started the month before we would have had serious financial difficulties.  For Hammerfall 2.0 I had plenty of warning and was provided with a job within six weeks of my departure.  For Hammerfall 3.0 - which to be fair was no longer in duration than the first Hammerfall - we again were relocated at the company's expense and started with an income not too far before it was truly needed.

If , to the Christian, these sorts of provision do not blatantly show the hand of God, I have no idea what does.

Change is never easy, and sometimes the change we need to make is the hardest of all because we become comfortable and ensconced in our daily lives.  It is at times like that, it seems, that God can move most readily and effectively simply because, with the stripping out of all the security and sameness of what we have known, we have nothing but Him to rely on to make a way.

And He does indeed make a way, if it is not the way that we always anticipate.