What are you willing to wait for?
We live in a world where people have come to expect things to be INSTANT and PERFECT, if not QUICK and EASY. We have fast food, drive-through cafes, full-serve gasoline stations, business ventures that promise to get you rich fast, and complete money-back guarantees if you are not completely satisfied with your product, food or coffee. You can even have a quick marriage (or trial run with no strings attached),and an easy divorce!
In the Developed World and from what I have seen in the majority of the Developing World we have access to microwaves, Instant-Messaging, Instant Entertainment, Instant Coffee and even Instant Housing! And other than the things that everyone expects to or wants to wait for, like babies and death and taxes, we have generally come to be a people who cannot and will not wait for anything.
How many of you have left a restaurant because the waiter took too long to serve you? Or demanded a free coffee because the barista took too long to make it? How many have left a meeting because someone didn’t show up on time? How many times have you been willing to pay more money for something because it came ready-made and with a lifetime guarantee?
How many marriages have failed because one or both spouses were unwilling to die to themselves and to wait even a lifetime for change? How many would be prodigal sons will never feel welcomed home because either they themselves or their parents are unwilling to wait for true reconciliation or to test the change? How many people living in poverty will never outwork it, because they would rather use poverty as an asset to receive than work hard even for a lifetime so that their children could enjoy the fruits of their labour?
How many projects have you left unfinished because they were taking too long to accomplish? How many dreams have you given up on because you couldn’t wait for them to come to pass? How many of you would be willing to spend a lifetime like Abraham to receive a promise or like Moses leading a people to a land that you will never yourself enter? How many of you would spend a lifetime helping to construct a Cathedral that will never bear your name? How many are willing to spend their whole life working towards a goal before seeing the fruits of their labour; waiting?
After two years on the mission field we are still waiting for so many things to fall into place, we are still working so hard to lay a good foundation for a work that will last until the problem is solved or until Christ returns. And through it all, God is teaching us the importance of waiting. Not passively sitting by and watching the world turn, but actively working towards a goal; waiting on GOD to see it accomplished and to know the fruits of our labour.
This week we were able to buy Benjamin a little tricycle. It was the least expensive one in the store, the others came with “bells and whistles” with fun compartments and brand names, and they also came with price tags between $50-$200. This one came in a simple box with a simple picture of a child on their trike and a price tag of $19.99. When we got home and opened the box, we were a little bit surprised to find pieces of plastic held together in a plastic web, with two metal bars, some screws, stickers (that don’t stick) and a simple instruction manual. Benjamin waited patiently as we took the plastic pieces apart, read and followed the step-by-step instructions and finally constructed his new trike. As it took shape, he exclaimed “WOW!” a number of times at what he knew was slowly coming together. He was willing to wait because he knew that the reward of his waiting would be the enjoyment of the final product, which he could see on the box. It took under an hour for this project to be completed, but it has taken two years for another project that we have waited for as a family and as a ministry: The APPROVAL OF THE FOUNDATION (non-profit organization) in El Salvador.
We have waited through meetings, and have been left waiting in meetings for no one to show up, We have written documents and amended documents, waited for translations, waited for approvals from different Ministers and Department Heads, have waited for our lawyers to complete their promises, have waited for finances,waited for our Board of Directors to own the vision and work as a Governing Board, etc. and now that we have finally been approved and after taking a time to praise God for His goodness and faithfulness we begin the next step of actively working and of waiting for what we know only God can do and for what, if we did of our own effort would not last more than a lifetime.
Now we wait again. We wait for permits to construct and even to plant corn, we wait for another final approval to receive children from the Ministry of Childcare, we wait for financial partners, wait for personal supporters, we wait for the purchase of land, we wait for employees and Family Parents, we wait to train them, we wait for a business to be established here which will make the Foundation self-sustainable and able to grow to serve thousands of Children in need…
We wait in HOPE, but we don’t passively wait. And we have learnt that no matter how long it takes, not matter how much effort and how many “disappointments” and struggles along the way, even if we don’t see it in our lifetime it will be worth the wait!
Romans 4:18 "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
Romans 5:1-6 says:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
the HOPE in waiting through the labour
the JOY of the finished product!