I don't know about you, but patience has never been my strong suit. As a matter of fact, when I was a teacher of elementary students, that was my constant prayer, to have patients for certain students. Now, if you are one of my former students reading this, then I'm not talking about you, I promise :)
Really, this is no shock. Western society has spoiled us. Yup, said that too. We're spoiled individuals. Every aspect of our society is immediate self-gratification. If I'm hungry and if I have money (and even if I don't but have a credit card) I can get pretty much whatever I want within minutes. It probably won't be healthy but I can satisfy my sense of hunger. And think of Starbucks. I can have coffee at any time of the day, hot or cold, latte or mocha; some of us have even replaced our old fashioned coffee makers for Starbucks because it just doesn't taste the same. Or even better, we have those fancy coffee makers where I can make one perfect cup of any flavor at any time of the day. Is it obvious I like coffee?
So back to Tom Petty and waiting. Once we started praying about serving in Zambia in the fall of 2012, things seemed to move fast. God was quick to confirm that this was what He wanted us to do and then Peter's trip in January made it even more obvious that we both had a place there to serve. Then the next step, after the holidays and telling family we began to purge our house and prepare it for selling. And except for some little odds and ends, we are ready. We could pack up our tent stakes in less than 3 months. As a whole, it seems that things have moved pretty quickly.
Now has come the last phase before we go and that's fundraising, waiting and Tom Petty. I keep hearing him whine it in my head....
Looking to others to help us now financially was not as easy as we expected it to be. We actually have to talk to people, send out letters, remind them that we are in need of their support once they have verbally agreed to commit. We had no idea how slow this process could be.
We are ready to go, have I already said that? We could actually leave in about a month as quick as the houses are selling in our area, but yet, we now sit and wait. Casting Crowns sings a song called "Somewhere in the Middle" and in the chorus it says, "Just how close can I get Lord to my surrender without losing all control. Fearless warriors in a picket fence; Reckless abandoned wrapped in common sense."
That's where I feel we are now. Ready to break down the picket fence and tired of being stuck in common sense. We have to remind ourselves constantly that to just sell it all and go will only sustain us for a year or maybe two, but as we are looking at a life change, that won't work. We need to accept
that we can't do this on our own means.
In a society where we are taught to be self-sufficient and have complete independence, this can be good but also bad. We are having to breakdown everything we've been taught to follow and remember that we can never be completely independent and self-sufficient. It's a fallacy, with one clean swoop it can be here today and gone tomorrow, but God and His character is constant. We are learning to throw off that self-sufficiency and independence and become completely dependent upon God's provision and the Spirit moving others to joining us in the work that He is doing in Zambia.
Abraham and Sarah tend to come to my mind often as I look at the promises God made to them. I think it was about 25 years in between the promise of Abraham's descendants to number the stars and the actual birth of Isaac. I hope we don't have to wait 25 years, but I then am reminded in Hebrews 11 that everything is by faith.
So even though I can hear Tom Petty in my head whining, "It's the waiting that's the hardest part," I also know that by faith we will wait on God's provision of our daily bread.
What about you? By faith, will you also join us in Zambia and help provide our daily bread? We would love to have you walk alongside us as we prepare for Zambia.
Please visit How Can I Help Part II in our blog to find out more.
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