Waiting …
We are raising the support needed to return to work in Los Anonos, Costa Rica. When in language school, we hoped to return by the end of February. Now it is looking more like it will be May. We are waiting … but we wait upon Him!
Waiting is not something North Americans do well. We are efficient. We are go-getters. We get things done and we expect results.
North Americans pull into a Dunkin’ Donuts drive thru (because we’re in a hurry) and if there are more than 2 or 3 cars, we tend to either drive on or park the car to see if there is a shorter line inside.
North Americans are in a hurry. We’ve got a schedule to keep. So, we often buy prepackaged, single serving meals, that can be microwaved in a matter of moments so we can race off to our next appointment. We easily become frustrated at checkout lines in the grocery store that don’t move along quickly enough. In short, we don’t tend to wait well.
On the other hand, in Costa Rica, you tend to wait for just about everything. Waiting is part of the lifestyle. Going to the bank can be an expedition. You might wait an hour if it’s a busy time. You go inside, take a deli style number and wait your turn (although if you are elderly or pregnant ~ both being honored~ you are moved to the front of the line). Or you might stand in a long queue outside for an ATM. If you need to purchase something in a Pharmacy or just talk to the Pharmacist, you take your deli style number and you wait. If you are buying a SIM card for prepaid cell service, you get given a deli style number and you take a seat (there can easily be 100), and you wait for your number to be called or posted.
If you go to a job fair, you wait hopefully in line. If you go to immigration there are hundreds of chairs, as well as different waiting rooms. You have to get there by 8:00 AM to even get a number.
Once you get one (yes, it’s a deli style number!), you take a seat and … wait. Once you’ve seen someone, you find out everything you don’t have with you and what you need to do. In the future, you’ll come back again … and wait.
If you’re driving and roads are rerouted due to mudslides, you may detour and a 3 hour trip can turn into 6 hours … so, once again, you wait. If you are taking a bus, and there are thousands of them (all withOUT schedules), you simply stand in line and wait until one shows up – in 5 minutes or in another hour or so. If you’re a gringo, like us, you hope that you’re waiting in the right line for the bus you really want! The amazing thing is that people are calm and orderly. No one acts upset or annoyed that they have to wait.
Ticos aren’t checking their watch every few minutes, rolling their eyes, muttering under their breath or any of the typical behavior seen when you have to wait in the USA. If an elderly person is moved to the front of the line by a bank guard, no one is exasperated because it lengthens their wait. Ticos see waiting as part of life. It can be an opportunity to slow down, talk to a friend or total stranger also waiting. It may not be quick and efficient, but it IS relational. And that’s at least as important to them.
After a year of language school and living in Costa Rica, we should be used to waiting. But the time seems to drag by here in NH … as we wait. We are sending information packages with letters to different churches, talking to pastors and friends and looking for opportunities to visit places where we can share our vision, what God has called us to and invite individuals and churches to partner with us.
But mostly, right now, even though we are very busy, we feel like we are waiting. We are watching to see who God is calling to “partner” with us. It is amazing and humbling to see. After all, who are we? Just ordinary people, serving an extraordinary God, the same as those of you who are reading this blog. And we are reminded that we are not waiting for results (i.e. supporters), but we are waiting ON God. And He has a lot to say about waiting. Here are a few things He has to say about waiting.
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. Lam. 3: 25
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him …Psalm 37:7
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning – yes, more than they that watch for the morning. Psalm 130:5-6
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
And so, we wait for the support. We wait for God to move the hearts of the people and individuals to partner with us – the ones He chooses, not us. We wait for His perfect timing to return to the work He has given us to do in Los Anonos, because plain and simple it is HIS work, not ours. Yes, we love staying with our dear friends Arthur and Braunda, who have graciously let us live with them as we wait. We love seeing friends in our church. We love being with family again. But we are pulled back to Costa Rica and look to our return.
Andrew Murray, pastor in the late 1800s, who considered missions to be the chief aim of the church wrote:
“At our first entrance into the school of waiting upon God, the heart is chiefly set upon the blessings which we wait for. God graciously uses our need and desire for help to educate us for something higher than we were thinking of. We were seeking gifts; He, the Giver, longs to give Himself and to satisfy the soul with His goodness. It is just for this reason that He often withholds the gifts, and that the time of waiting is made so long. He is all the time seeking to win the heart of His child for Himself. He wishes that we should not only say, when He bestows the gift, “How good is God!” but that long before it comes, and even if it never comes, we should all the time be experiencing, “It is good that a man should quietly wait.” “The Lord is good to them that wait for Him.”
“What a blessed life the life of waiting then becomes – the continual worship of faith, adoring and trusting His goodness. As the soul learns its secret, every act or exercise of waiting just becomes a quiet entering into the goodness of God, to let it do its blessed work and satisfy our every need. And every experience of God’s goodness give the work of waiting new attractiveness, and instead of only taking refuge in time of need, there comes a great longing to wait continually and all the day. And however duties and engagements occupy the time and the mind, the soul gets more familiar with the secret art of always waiting. Waiting be comes the habit and disposition, the very second nature and breath of the soul.”
My Father desires to have a relationship with me, he desires to hear my petitions, he desires that I understand who he really is, but he also desires that I learn to understand that my wishes are not necessarily his ways.
Sometimes, in fact, many times, there is waiting involved. And herein lies my lesson: while waiting upon God, I will honor him by acknowledging who he is, acknowledging his omnipotence, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach me, and minister to me, as I wait.
Abba, as I wait on you, teach me to wait in reverence to who you are. Strengthen my faith so as to wash away my fear, and doubt. Let me, in my waiting, glorify you. ~ Andrew Murray
Waiting and how you wait is most certainly a cultural phenomenon. But waiting on Him … that is a character thing. And so we will fix our eyes on Him for prayer partners, financial support partners, short-term mission team partners. It is His plan and His calling and His timing. And so we wait and watch expectantly!
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