If you visited the Vine Centre earlier this year, you may have noticed that things weren’t quite as straightforward as usual. After a long period of planning, permissions, drawings, quotes, and consultations, work finally got underway to make the toilets fully accessible and fit for everyone in our community. It’s been a longer journey than any of us hoped. There have been delays, frustrations, and moments when it felt like it might never end. Anyone who has lived through building work will recognise that feeling. The good news is this: the end result will be worth it. The new facilities will be more spacious, wheelchair-friendly, include baby-changing provision, and help ensure the Vine Centre can better serve all who use it. For now, though, there’s been no escaping the inconvenience. Temporary toilets. Adjusted entrances. Slight changes to routines. Not disastrous but uncomfortable. And it struck me that this is a bit like life itself.
We all go through seasons when things don’t run as smoothly as we’d like. Health wobbles. Work pressures. Family tensions. Plans delayed. Things we expected to be quick and easy turn out to be anything but. It can feel like being caught in a storm, not dramatic enough to make headlines, but persistent enough to wear you down. One of the most well-known stories in the Bible describes exactly that experience. A group of fishermen are crossing a lake when a violent storm blows up out of nowhere. What’s striking isn’t that the storm happens; it’s that peace appears right in the middle of it. Not because the waves immediately stop, but because they realise, they aren’t facing it alone. That story has been a helpful reminder during the disruption at the Vine Centre. Peace doesn’t always come from everything being fixed quickly. Sometimes it comes from knowing the storm has a purpose, that it won’t last forever, and that we’re not abandoned in it.
Even as the work continues, frustration is being joined by gratitude. The delays haven’t cancelled the outcome; they’re shaping it. The inconvenience hasn’t defined the story; the finished result will. Perhaps that’s true for many of the storms we face in life. Not every delay is wasted time. Not every disruption is meaningless. Often, patience, resilience, and perspective are quietly forming while we wait for things to settle.
If you’ve recently come through a difficult season or are still in one, please know this: frustration doesn’t mean failure, and delay doesn’t mean defeat. True peace isn’t found in pretending everything is fine; it’s found in trusting that the storm doesn’t get the final word. At the Vine Centre, we’re thankful the work is progressing and that the building will soon be better equipped to serve our village and as always, the door remains open to anyone who’d like to drop in and see what’s happening.
