Slo-mo

Recently God has come through big in two distinct matters in my personal life. Delays that have been years in coming arrived. The measure of it I cannot fully comprehend, and perhaps never fully will. It was a surreal stretch of time in my life the last few weeks, still is a bit surreal. We are sitting at the gate in Chicago, our flight delayed due to the maintenance crew on board our plane doing a repair. It reminds me again God’s delays are often due to ongoing repairs. The healing of any culture or system of Government, and more precisely the people involved, often takes much longer than anticipated. We like broken stuff fixed immediately. We press God and others when its not moving at our pace. We hate the “in due season” clause. We think the season is now. We vent our frustration, and voice our displeasure. We claim God is deaf, that the heavens are brass, that God has forsaken us. We forget about the fact that God is also concerned about the process, that He is working all the time to heal the most important of broken things, our hearts, and the hearts of those around us. Our journey into Haiti has been really quite short compared to much many have done before us and are invested in now. Fourteen trips later though, we have seen progress in our seasons of travel. We have also seen things that appear to be going backward. Young men  and women who we have helped and ministered to, struggling to find footing in a desolate culture. Trying to find a place in a world that is fast leaving them behind. Have you ever pondered being able to see the world from a darkened, locked closet, and wonder if ever the lock will be removed, and if it is, what you had dared to dream would have passed you by. These kids have access to a key hole called the cell phone and Facebook, they are seeing things the generations before have not been able to witness in a brand new and very real way, via pictures, real time video, and friends communicating from that other universe beyond their locked closets. It’s one thing to conjure a reality from the spoken word of stories, it’s something different when you can see it in full color. Several are not dealing with the delays well at all. They are trying to get out of the closet on their own. And they are not handling the current status of their lives in the desolation zone well. The same could be said of our culture now as well. But the battle lines on the two fronts are completely different. The iPhone 6 slo-mo camera lens captures the reality of Haiti in incredible detail. The delays are often God’s slo-mo camera lens on our lives, giving us a chance to review, to take note, to absorb what we are missing at full speed. However, we often spend the time stewing and complaining. If it has taught me anything, Haiti has taught me to be very careful about what you do with the delays. Soon enough we are in the air, in the meantime, I wrote this blog, looking at pictures and pondering, peering deeply into what the camera lens captured that at first glance I missed. So I leave you with this, don’t begrudge the delays, they are a God send, don’t hold your breath because they will likely be longer than you would like, and seize the moment, it will pass soon enough, and you’ll likely regret your angst and press as you discover the God plan behind it all. This I continue to learn, albeit slowly at times. Blessings to all!