Who is Nat?

 

My name is Natalie Husk, although most people call me Nat (except my parents!). I was born and raised in Cornwall and am proud of it! I have always been involved in the church, whether going to my local village chapel in Common Moor, joining with bus loads from Cornwall at MAYC events, helping at the District Children’s Holiday or even attending Synod a few times! I am very thankful to the Cornwall District, the Liskeard & Looe Circuit and of course Common Moor chapel for being such valuable parts in my journey of faith.

 

Today I live in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where I work as a youth worker for the Methodist Church. I run after school clubs, youth clubs, a youth fellowship, do outreach work and organise trips away. Not long ago I was asked by a youth group, to give them a weekly topic for reflection, an email containing something to focus them on God for the week. So every week I sit at my computer and write down my thoughts! It started quite small, with just the young people receiving them, and now lots of people of all ages find my thoughts in their email inbox!

 

It is a huge privilege for me to find that people enjoy and are challenged by what I have written, especially that I can now share what God has done for me with those who walked with me at the beginning of my journey. Ultimately these reflections are aimed at the young people I now work with, but if God can speak to others through them, how great is that!!

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December
Advice
I Love You

November
38. Bald is beautiful
37. Fire
36 Sleep
35 Music

October 2006
34. Stupidity
33. Painting
32. mmm Pasties
31. Built to last
30. Phlegm

September 2006
29. Meetings
28. Crime thoughts
27. Colours
26. Unwanted guests

August 2006
25. Comparison
24. Waterproof Mascara
23. Tasty MSG
22. Helplessness

July 2006
21. Attraction
20. Hair
19. Hero
18. Laughter

17. Factoids

June 2006
16. Voiceless
15. Bruises (ouch)
14. Sunburn
13. Mistakes

May 2006
12. Arms
11. Willow Tree
10. Eurovision
9. Chicken
8. Addictions

April 2006
7. Age

6. Celebrities
5. Language

March 2006
4. Commonwealth Games
3. Decisions
2. Drizzle

1. Trelawney

ADVICE 

‘Don’t eat yellow snow’. That’s all very well, but how many people do you know who actually eat snow to start with? ‘Don’t go out with wet hair’ which is all very well if you get up early, but for those of us who get up at the last possible moment, it means I would never leave the house! Before my parents got married but Nan told my dad that if my mum ever got moody (not that she ever does!!) that he should ‘feed the brut’ – a good piece of advice which I think works for most people. Maybe the way to loose weight is for me to stop being moody then?! 

Advice – it is really easy to give, not so easy to take. We can all quote numerous pieces of advice people have given us over the years, some of which we will have taken, others which we should have taken! A few years ago when I was in Belarus I saw this amazingly beautiful wooden fish. I fell in love with it immediately and bought it there and then. As I showed the rest of the group my fantastic buy, pretty much everyone told me I shouldn’t have bought it as it was quite fragile and would never survive the trip home. I was devastated, but determined to prove everyone wrong. If you come to my house you will see, in pride of place on my mantelpiece, a beautiful wooden fish in perfect condition. If I had taken everyone else’s advice I’d be without one of my favourite things – you see it’s easy to give advice when you have no vested interest, if it the outcome doesn’t really affect you. It doesn’t matter if the advice is wrong or right, we sometimes just like to be heard to have an opinion and to know best. It’s a lot harder to give good advice when the right thing is not necessarily the thing you want to happen.  

I have had to make some major decisions recently and I have been given no end of advice….

‘Pray until something happens – God will make it clear what you’ve got to do.’

‘If in doubt, do nowt.’

‘Push all the doors to see which ones open.’

‘Go for it.’

‘Don’t go for it.’

‘Do what you think is right.’

‘Do what is right for those around you.’

And my personal favourite – ’I can’t tell you what to do, but you should……’

Don’t you just love it when people say they can’t give you advice and then proceed to tell you exactly what to do? Don’t you just love it when everyone else knows what you should do (all differing of course) except you? Don’t you just love it when everyone else’s advice is to benefit them and not you? Don’t you just love it when you have no idea what to do at all? No, not really! 

What do you do when the advice you really seek is from God and yet He is the only one who seems to be keeping quiet? If He would just send His answers on a postcard it would be really helpful! But God doesn’t really work like that. What am I saying, He doesn’t ever work like that! 

Dear Natalie,

Having a great time here in heaven – weather is brilliant! Wish you were here (I hope not just yet!). Oh and by the way, this is what I want you to do……

Love God x 

So as I struggle with these decisions, ever hopeful for the heavenly postcard, I pray, and I pray, and then I pray some more. Sometimes I pray for a knowledge of what to do, sometimes for a sense of peace so I can concentrate on other things (because when I have a big choice to make it tends to occupy most of my thinking, distracting my from the other, less immediate things in life), but mostly I pray that whatever happens, that whatever I choose, that whichever door opens, God will be there with me. There is a great song by the Pretenders called I’ll stand by you (recently destroyed by Girls Aloud – grr!) which I think relates brilliantly to a conversation between God and me (or you!). Listen to it, it’s amazing! Anyway, one of the lines says, ‘When you’re standing at the crossroads, don’t know which path to choose, let me come along, cause even if you’re wrong, I’ll stand by you.’ How great is that, even if we make a total mess of every decision we make God will still stand by us. He’ll not abandon us because we don’t take the right advice, He’ll not say that He ‘told us so’ or that He ‘was right all along’ but He’ll walk beside us, He’ll support us and love us and He’ll always stand by us no matter what. Wow! 

Therefore my one piece of advice to you would be this – as you go through life and all that comes with it, look out for the loving God who is ALWAYS standing by you. He may not always be seen or heard, but He is there, and I’m sure He’d appreciate you turning and chatting to Him – He’ll be beside you for a while, so you might as well get to know your eternal companion!  

Oh and one more bit of advice for you……don’t drink and drive – you might spill it!