If there is one thing you learn from living in Africa, its patience. This is something I have realized very quickly.
Probably during the times I spent waiting.
Waiting in the hot sun for the bus to pick us up, waiting during long rides while inside that same bus with at least three times as many people who should naturally fit inside it. Waiting for meetings to start, the usual kind of stopping and waiting when I try to walk and my skirts and my hair get snagged on just about every thorn bush in Kenya. When told we are leaving at 8:30am sharp- waiting till actually 10:00. I wait while sitting through hot four-hour Maasai church services in a language I don’t understand. I wait between all of my sentences when the translators explain what I am saying. I wait during the times where I don’t know what is going on.
So much so, the idea of “hurry up and wait” has become sort of a punch-line since living here. Some of the best and sweetest moments we have had as a team have been those we have spent while waiting. We accept the fact that we may wake up early and rush to leave for an important event to get there on time, and then get there to spend 5 hours there waiting for it to start. And this is so okay.
This is Africa, and we run on Africa time.
Surprisingly, these things are not where I have felt the most challenged when it comes to having patience. These are not necessarily things that I have struggled to wait for. Instead, I know that God has really been pushing for me to wait on Him.
I like to know things. And naturally, when I pray, I like to hear answers. I like to assume that God is going to open up the heavens and speak to me or reveal something divine in that very moment. I have also had to realize that this is not always how the Lord speaks. So often lately I hear God saying, “Rachel, hurry up, and wait.” This is okay.
I am a child of God, and I run on God’s time.
God wants me to be eager to seek Him about the things happening in my life. He wants me to seek after Him today about what to do with my future. He wants me to seek Him first about my worries and my concerns and my questions. He wants that. He wants me to, in a sense, hurry, to bring these things before Him, and be in a place of full solitude so I can receive what He has to say. Then, He calls me to wait.
So much of my life should be spent waiting.
Waiting is a beautiful thing. Waiting patiently is a sign of love and pursuit and perseverance. I need to be willing to wait. I need to be patient enough to seek God tirelessly. I need to be patient enough to wait and see how He is going to speak to me. I need pursue God’s will for my life with a steady desire, understanding that I don’t fully know what that even is yet. I need to be patient and know that God is sovereign. I need to be patient and know that I don’t always need to know. I need to have peace in waiting and knowing that God has the answer, and that He will answer me in His time. He wants me to wait. And the more that I wait on Him, I realize that some of the best times spiritually for me, where God has revealed big pieces of His plans for my life, have been during those that I have spent waiting on the Lord.
If there is one thing you learn from following Christ, its patience. This is something that I have realized over time.
Definitely during the times I spent waiting.
