Immeasurably More

Dear Reader, I’ve temporarily put my more philosophical reading list on hold while I study for the theory test that UK Driver’s license applicants are required to pass. I’m studying from the Driving Standards Agency’s book The OFFICIAL DSA THEORY TEST for Car Drivers and The Official Highway Code, which declares itself to be “the No.1 best selling theory test book on the market”. Given that the DSA designs and administers both the theory and practical portions of the driving test, I’m surprised anyone else bothers to produce driving guides. The Highway Code is a collection of both legal requirements and common conventions for all users of roads. In fact, the first section is addressed to Pedestrians, informing them that it is illegal to loiter in crosswalks or to hold on to a moving vehicle. Of course, unless a Pedestrian is also a driver, I’m not sure how they will be aware of these restrictions. Perhaps it is time to issue Pedestrian licenses? At the very least it would force ...

Preface: I am currently working from my old office. Because I have no real US address anymore, I asked the British visa processing center to return my passport and visa to my relatives address. For the last week and a half, I've been answering the questions "Why are you still here?", "Didn't you leave?", and "How's the UK?" every time I turn a corner at the office. I've been fantasizing about my big UK apartment and the convenience of paying my rent with pounds paid to me directly instead of transferred from the US. So, you can imagine my excitement when I spoke to my aunt yesterday and she told me she had a package for me of unknown origins. Providentially, I already had plans to meet the relatives for dinner. (You can't get good hot wings in the UK, so I'm eating as many as I can before I go.) I ripped open my UPS package and dug out my passport from beneath a stack of returned original bank statements and pay stubs. There i...

Today is, as they say, the first day of the rest of my life. Yesterday, I found out that my transfer to my company's UK office outside of London has been approved. My tentative starting date is three months from today. This is kind of a big deal. In the Bible, in Ephesians 3:20, Paul refers to God's ability to do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us". I have on more than one occasion imagined moving to the UK for an extended period of time. Sometimes I live in a quiet Scottish bungalow surrounded by Shetland ponies. Mostly, I live in a sensible one bedroom flat walking distance from the office. On extravagant days, I end up married to nobility and living in a ridiculously expensive London apartment with a maid and a seamstress who makes sure my pant legs are always exactly the right length, so I'll be well-dressed when I do whatever needs to be done to save the world on that particular day. I can imagi...