Waiting

There is an excellent little book entitled In God’s Waiting Room. I’ve forgotten the author, but I love the title and enjoyed the book. The idea of waiting is something that all of us have and will go through.

It’s really nice to be back in the United States after living in Central Asia for nine months. We’ve just had a little over a week with our daughter and son-in-law in Tucson. What a refreshing time we had! There were three things that struck me over these last days:

1. The number of “things” and conveniences available to us on a regular basis that we learned to do without while in Asia.
2. Our daughter – my “little girl” – is pregnant with twins. O my!
3. The uncertainty about our next assignment.

I’ve reflected a lot over the last number of months about how God has shifted our focus from the local church to a worldwide call to missions. We’re anxious to get busy doing what we believe we’ve been called to do, but find ourselves waiting. Oh, we’re not the only ones in a waiting period. We realize that. There are many people who are waiting for God’s deliverance, direction, touch, etc.

We’ve been greatly privileged to see God redirect us into a new career, or at least a new direction within ministry. The process He has used has been pretty gentle in our way of thinking. There have been many others, some of our friends, who have been redirected in some pretty tumultuous ways. Our path has been clear and gentle, though, at the same time, challenging and stretching.

Though we believe we know our role in the future and would love to begin working toward the goals we see, we sense a check in our spirit to wait. Wait? Yes, wait for the signal to begin the race. In a track meet, the runners are called to the starting line, told to get set, and then they wait for the starting gun. I believe that we’re at the point where we’ve been called to the starting line. Like the track athlete, we’re waiting for the command to “get set.” The runner uses the time from the “Runners – to your mark!” for the final “shake out” of the muscles and to place themselves in the starting blocks. They place their hands at the starting line, their feet in the blocks and look down the track at the finish line. (Ok – that’s only for the shortest races, but, this is my story!).

I feel like the days in Tucson – and now in Joseph, OR – are the days for us to get ourselves to the starting blocks for the race before us. How soon will the command to “Get set!” come? When will the signal come that starts the race? I don’t know about either of those. What I do know is that our task is to be ready for when the signal comes that we might “run with perseverance the race set out before us.”

The last two years have been a fascinating period in our lives. We’ve learned a great deal about each other, ourselves and our Father. We’ve seen His clear direction, heard some gentle whispers and felt His hand as we’ve followed His lead. This period is not over, it’s just moving on, however slowly, to the next period when we find God’s faithfulness demonstrated anew. In the meantime – we’re sitting expectantly in His waiting room.

Ready - and Waiting

Here we are - just about an hour from leaving for the airport to return home. In many ways it's hard to believe that we've gotten this far. Of course, there are other ways in which we wonder how it could have taken so long to reach this point.

It's hard to put into words the things we've discussed related to our time here - these last few days in particular. In fact, I can't take the time to work through those things right now since we still have to finish packing.

That is one of the frustrating things. We're trying to fit everything in and it just won't work. There are some things that we've already given away, but there is more that we're going to leave - I'll hope to pick them up if I'm able to return in the Fall.

Assuming our flights are all on time, we will land just about twenty-four hours after we leave our flat. Of course, we'll have a couple hours at this airport just waiting. We'll have another four hours to sit around in Frankfurt, Germany. But, the next stop is Portland. PTL!

We still have questions about why we were chosen to come to Asia for this assignment. I don't know if those questions will ever be fully answered, but we've had some clues in the last few weeks. None of those clues point to academic issues, but we are still confident that we are here at the Father's direction. We now leave confident of the Father's re-direction for the next stage of our ministry. We're also more convinced than ever about the critical role missions plays in the great story of God's redemptive plan. To have even a small part in that drama is a great privilege.