Waiting on the World to Change

We’ve arrived!

It took a while, but we finally made it to Ometepe, Nicaragua. In the last few days I’ve taken planes, boats, and buses (vans) crammed with more people than can possibly be safe, but we managed to get here relatively unscathed. A few belongings got soaked in the process (they tied our bags to the top of the van in a rain shower), but all’s well that dries well.

Travel Day One was mostly relegated to sitting in the airport. We left Toccoa Falls College at 7:00am to make the 2 ½ hour journey to the Atlanta Airport, arriving around 9:30am. Which would have been good, but our flight didn’t actually leave until 6:30pm. So we were going to be waiting around a lot.

Lunch came and went, and dinner did the same, and finally we boarded our plane to Managua. You could feel the anticipation (mixed with a little nervousness) radiating from the entire team. After 4 days of training, a 2 ½ hour bus ride, and 9 hours of sitting in the airport, we were finally on our way. As we took off, the pilot announced that the journey should take about 3 ½ hours.

I felt like I was a little kid again, with my dad driving in the front seat and the rest of us kids sitting in the back of the car asking, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” But the3 ½ hour mark passed and we were still high in the air. By the time we started our descent an hour later, we were all just ready to be anywhere with a bed.

But once we landed in Managua, we weren’t home free yet. We still had to smash all 19 of us into a small bus (a van, really) and drive for what we were told would be another 2 hours to the town of San Jorge where we were staying the night. True to the theme of the day, San Jorge was not 2 hours away, but 3 ½. We finally pulled into our hotel around 1:30am (3:30am EST).

Being that it was so late, we grabbed our bags off the roof of the van (yes, 19 bags on the roof of a van, you read that right) and dragged our weak bodies to bed, not taking much note of our surroundings. Which is probably why the morning came as such a surprise.

We had left a world full of shining metal buildings, gleaming pavement, and views unobstructed by pesky trees and suddenly found ourselves thrust into a place populated by low buildings with tin roofs and foliage poking through every crack in the dirt. It was all the more breath-taking because we hadn’t seen it coming.

When I think about it, a Christian life can look a lot like our journey to Nicaragua. We get all excited about something and want to rush headfirst into it to make it happen as quickly as possible. But much of the time God tells us to wait, take a minute, and just enjoy the ride. And nothing could be more frustrating. You feel as if you are at a standstill or maybe that you are moving but not getting anywhere.

But with God, the scenery can change dramatically, and at any point. One moment we are going about our daily lives – going to school, working, taking care of the kids – and the next we are somewhere we never thought we’d be, doing something we never could have imagined. Maybe it’s not as evident as going from Pittsburgh to Nicaragua, but I’ll bet there have been more than a few moments when you had to ask, “How on earth did I ever get here?” And if I was really feeling lucky, I’d hazard a guess that those were some of the best, most poignant moments of your life.

So when you are stuck at one of those standstill moments, remember that some of the best things God has for us are still ahead, and all we have to do is wait.

Psalm 130: 6

My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning