It seems that this is a common answer in the worldly world in which we live, and often in God’s world as well. Answers don’t come when we want them, often the answers we want often don’t come at all, and regardless of the answer, we are made to wait. Angela, Anna, and I waited 5 years more than planned for the arrival of our second daughter, Maddy, and had basically given up when the news finally came. The pandemic caused immense pain and grief for so many, and made the whole world wait. This year especially our organization has had to wait, and then hurry up, and then wait again, for banks and other agencies to get their job done so we can take the mission to a better place. It could all almost cause me to pull out the remaining hair I have, admittedly only taking a few short moments to do so (a side note, be careful of pride, as I really loved my hair, even carrying a blow dryer in my backpack the first time I traveled in Costa Rica, back in the early 90s, when I had that Flock of Seagulls thing going).
Two of my brothers and my sister, Glenn, Monte, and Rebecca, and I, early 90s, at Baby Acapulco’s in Austin, when I still thought I might escape hair loss. The copious amounts of gel must have been blocking my critical thinking.
In the end, sometimes we must hurry up and wait and trust that God’s promises will be fulfilled, and we must also prepare ourselves for when the time comes. In our home we speak about the importance of pushing forward through adversity, never giving up, not allowing obstacles to get you down, not too much or for too long anyway. After all, we all have our moments.
Having children surely strengthens my drive to make it through, as giving up is just not an option when there are others depending on you. We see this every day in our work, families who live on the edge economically their whole lives, never giving up, always pushing forward to care for their children and older adults, always prepared for God’s fulfilled promises, so often experiencing those promises daily. After all, miracles are happening all the time, more easily recognized by an open heart, and those in need are often extremely open to God’s everyday actions in their lives.
There are just under 100 families scraping out an existence in the El Radial precario in Naranjo.
Sometimes we must hurry up and wait, taking every day for what it is, never giving up, and trying to find peace in the wait. God’s greatest promise is that very peace, a peace we can’t even really understand completely. But we’re not a culture known for waiting. We want what we want when we want it. The world seems to only be moving faster and faster, and we’re much better at hurrying than waiting. We move so fast that we don’t experience the blessings around us, those sitting across the table or beside us at the office or in class. We don’t take in the beauty all around us, human, natural, and supernatural. We so often don’t want to wait our turn, we don’t want to wait and let others speak, and we don’t want to wait and see what we can learn from each other. We don’t want to walk in each other’s shoes, as often they’re uncomfortable, bacteria and fungi aside.
There is one thing we should never wait for. We shouldn’t wait to tell and show those around us how we feel about them. Love should never be hindered, hampered, or held back. Maddy came 5 years later than planned and has been nothing but a blessing to our lives. She can be a bit unforgiving of my age, as I surely move a little slower, but life without her is unimaginable. We tell her every day, both that she was 5 years late, that I’m old and tired, and that we love her anyway. We get the guilt going early in our home.
Anna left, currently 14, Maddy right, currently 4.
The pandemic caused so much pain and suffering, still being felt today, but hopefully, we learned something from it. Did it slow us down and make us reexamine what’s truly important in our lives? Do we now realize the importance of relationships, of those around us? They are, after all, the treasure of our lives.
As we must wait for all good things, the mission land sale will go through soon, in God’s time, as will refinancing, and the patience will have finally paid off. We’ll be in a much “strong”er place. You folks have helped us get here, and we love you, as you have been the hands and feet of Christ to us.
So regardless of what you’re facing in your life, keep going. Don’t give up. Life is filled with struggle and pain, and only peace can get us through. It is the real prize. We will also keep pushing forward on our end, knowing that God’s promises will soon be fulfilled.
Until then, we’ll just have to hurry up and wait.
The sunset from our front porch after 4 days of incessant rain. We were a little wet but still worth the wait.