" You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...
...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting."
-Oh, the Places You'll Go!
If you haven't figured it out by now, Theodore Seuss Geisel also went by the pen name Dr. Seuss, and I have spent this week waiting. First of all, I have been waiting to start working. In my Week One blog post, I told you all that I would be working at Garrett's Popcorn at Navy Pier. Unfortunately that has been the last major thing I have done with it. Apparently the human resources department has had it rough these last two weeks, and my paperwork along with the three other students who have also been hired there has been at the bottom of the pile, not forgotten but delayed. So as of right now I am not working, but for those who have supported me financially, your prayerful donations have been supporting me these last two weeks without any extra cost to me or my mom, and of that I thank you very much.
Second, I am waiting for this community to come together. During the school year, when you listen to upperclassmen tell you about Summer Mission, one of the major things is the community that is created, unlike anything they had ever been a part of or had been a part of since. Talk about great expectations. But the fact is that community isn't grown in a day, it grows slowly. And it has been growing, slowly but steadily. Day by day, activity by activity, we are getting to know each other. I have met every student and know all of their names, if not in the moment than after a few seconds of thinking. But something I have had to come to terms with is that I will not be best friends with everyone, as much as I want to. There are too many people, and some of these people are very different from me. I haven't even been able to see the beauty in everyone yet. Some people are just a face and a name. But they are all beautiful, and with each passing day I know someone else a little bit better. Even last night we had the annual Student-Staff Kickball game, where I got to interact more with some new people and experience a little bit of who God made them to be.
 |
| Our team colors were Red, White, and Blue. Photo Creds: Stuart Voltz |
That's how I look at people I guess, everyone as masterpieces of which I get to see a little piece. A smaller group of people show me a bigger picture, and an even smaller few allow me to see closely what is harder to see from far away. These moments are precious to me, and it's amazing how those moments happen with close friends and also with people we talk to on campus. You who are reading this, you are a masterpiece, painted by the Master. Who you are is worth looking at and admiring.
Finally, I am waiting for change in my own life. God has been showing me so many things, among how I look for belonging in places other than him, and how I tend to seek to please others not to help them, but so I can be appreciated in return and proud of how much I help others. "Look at me, I can feel myself thinking." "Compliment me," As a result, I am held captive by what I think others think of me. That is sin, the things that keep you captive, in bondage to death, not life. But I want this tendency to change right now. This is the first time I can really remember being challenged by my brokenness, and I want fix it myself, be better, and move on. But I am learning that God doesn't work like that. A quote from Miles J Stafford, taken from our small group curriculum, reads:
"The Spirit of God does not give immediate holiness of lie by faith or any other means. True, His method of producing holiness is by faith, but it is through the process of growth."
This is not a one stop shop. But I know that while I have to wait, I will do so if it brings about lasting change. I will also do so because, like many things I have experienced here in Chicago, that is the way it is going to be. I don't have control over it. So as much as that annoys me, I have to deal with it.
"NO!
That's not for you!"
-Oh, the Places You'll Go!
I have not been just waiting.
During the week I went to campus as many days as the mission goes together, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Week 2 was a week for reading, Week 3 was a week of doing. I had 5 spiritual conversations over those three days, got to share the gospel twice, which I had not yet gotten to do. I'm so thankful for those conversations, and looking forward to one individual I will be meeting again in the near future.
This week is a new week, and with a new week, comes new things that God has to teach me, new people God has for me to meet and get close to, and new things to go to him in prayer for.
- Everything mentioned in previous weeks
- That I would start working soon
- That our community would grow incredibly close together as soon as possible
- That I would continue to grow to identify my sins and brokenness, but instead of driving me away from God, it would drive me to appreciate the power of the Gospel even more, because Christ dies for me while I was and am still a sinner. I didn't have to clean myself up for him, he takes me in all my disgusting brokenness and holds me close to himself.
I'll quote my good friend Luke Thompson-Kolar in saying,
"Blessings on your week."
-Austin
No comments:
Post a Comment