Report Out of Africa, Part 7: God’s own sweet time
8/24/2009 12:59:42 PM
Our driver’s name was Precious. At African Bible College we met a student named Blessing. There were children at the Crisis Nursery named Grace, Angel, Innocent and Hope. At the orphan feeding center in Selengo, the director’s name is Gift. “What’s your name?,” a Malawian child asked me.
“My name is Carmen,” I replied.
“What does that mean?,” he inquired.
The good news is that my name has a meaning: poem or song. But that’s not why my parents chose to call me by that name. In Africa, naming is important. So many children die that when a child is born it is given a name that reflects the gratitude due to God. Imagine knowing from the day you were born that others regarded you as a Gift of Grace, a Precious Blessing, an Innocent Angel, a child of Hope.
Then I met Patience.
Patience, a 14-year-old Malawian double orphan, poses for a photo.
Patience is a diminutive 14-year-old who is waiting.
He is waiting patiently for the Lord to do what the Lord has promised to do. He is waiting patiently with expectant faith, without fear and without doubt. He does not believe that the Lord should, nor could, be hurried. He believes that God is faithful, can be trusted, is sovereign, loving and good. In the face of a family that has been decimated by AIDS, in a life that has seen too much death, in the midst of severe poverty, Patience waits.
We know that patience is a virtue but in the face of Patience himself, I had to consider just how impatiently I live.
I recall that patience is supposed to be one of the layers I put on every day. Colossians 3:12, “as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
I recall that patience is a part of the spiritual fruit God expects my life to produce. Galatians 5:22, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.”
I recall that in the Bible and throughout history, the people of God have waited patiently for the Lord in seasons of slavery, seasons of famine, seasons of war, seasons of drought, seasons of wandering, seasons of lawlessness, seasons of persecution and seasons of exile. God always proved Himself to be faithful to His promises – in His way and in His day – always according to His will and in His own sweet time.
With the children of God from the banks of the river in Babylon, with the prayers of Sarah and Hannah and Elizabeth, with the prophets and the Psalmist and the saints beneath the throne of the Lamb who was slain, we cry out, “How long, O Lord?”
How long will you let this go on?
How long will people suffer injustice and famine and nakedness and sword?
How long will you put up with man’s inhumanity to man, natural disasters and those who suppress the truth?
How long, O Lord, how long?
And then with Paul: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation … that even as we groan in prayer in sighs too deep for words, we wait eagerly for redemption. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” (Romans 8:18-25 paraphrased)
Patience has nothing and hopes for everything. Patience has no hope of gaining anything for himself but waits patiently with genuine hope in the One who is able to do all things.
What are you waiting for these days? (Remember that Patience has waited a lifetime for things that you and I take for granted and yet, he waits with expectant hope.)
What are you hoping will happen?
I am waiting with eager expectation and I am full of hope that God will do for me what I could never do for myself. Like Patience, I am seeking to cultivate a spirit of genuine peace that rests in the knowledge of a God who is working out everything in His own sweet time.
To read other stories in the Report Out of Africa series, click here.