Advent 09- CU

For the next few days my advent posts on Good Things are going to be on events or organisations that have had a big effect on me at different times in my life.  The first of these is probably going to prove to be a bit controversial: the Christian Union (CU) at York Uni.

Now I'm far from saying that the CU is a perfect organisation.  It certainly isn't, like all groups of people on earth it has faults!  Also, I'm talking here about the UYCU of the time I was at uni (2003-2006).  It had already started to change- as it should, as the membership changes- before I left and I believe it had continued to change even more since then.

But for all its' problems, I learnt a lot while I was in the CU.  I came to uni at 18 with huge gaps in my knowledge of God that CU helped to fill in- both from good speakers at main meetings* and from small group Bible studies.  These were perhaps the best bits of CU as far as I was concerned (see tomorrow's post for more).  Perhaps the biggest thing I learnt from CU was some indication of how I could use the gifts I had been given in the service of God.  I was utterly shocked to be selected as the General Secretary, and very much doubted that I could do the job.  But thanks to God's support I did, and learnt a lot from it, even though at times it was very, VERY frustrating.  There were committee decisions I didn't quite agree with, I felt that I was inadequate and inferior to the others on the committee, I felt that the CU- or at least some of its' members- had their priorities wrong.

But behind all of that was a lot of people who loved God and wanted to do what they felt he was calling them to.  They may have been held back by issues they didn't understand, or by prejudice, or by fear or by genuine different interpretations.  But there was a lot of good, as well as the bad.  That was why I stayed part of the CU, and tried to do what I could to make it better.  Others have succeeded where I failed.  But I think God recognises the good even in mistakes and failures, and can bring good out of them.  Even from the mistakes, I learnt a lot about God's people, and I learnt to trust God and rely on him to get me through things I didn't think I could do.  That's why I still call the CU one of my Good Things.


*Note: not all main meeting speakers were good.  I mean that the ones that were helped me.

PS  I believe that this is also my 100th post on this blog.  Yay!  If there was a way of sharing cake with you via the internet, I would.