Interruptions

Brent and I like to make “to do” lists and check off the completed tasks. Our goal is always bent toward 100% completion. Yet reality often interrupts our desire and we are lucky to complete much of what we set out to do. Some would say, our lists are too long, not realistic enough or even not well thought out. I would say, the truth probably lies within all three. Nonetheless, daily we make lists and daily we check things off and have items we just don’t get done. Recently, a seasoned missionary woman said, everyone comes here with a list of things they want to accomplish in their ministry and many burn out trying to accomplish their goals. She informed us that a “successful year” is defined by completing 10% of what you set out to do. I thought to myself, rubbish…unacceptable. And yet, the reality of our lives is flushing out to be just so. You may be asking why such low percentages? Remember, TIA (this is Africa)…it is full of challenges at every turn. Most everything takes ten times longer to execute, IF you are even able to do so. Interruptions are at every turn. Often I am reminded of what God began to teach us years ago, to greet each day with being intentional about bringing His Kingdom here and yet flexible in how we set out to do it. In other words, praying and seeking how building His kingdom might look like on any given day, while living with the notion God has the right to interrupt “the plan” at any time. Oh, the times He has interrupted…and the times I have dug my heels in. My confession….

We have been in Uganda now 71 days (but who is counting?) and it has been a ride of interruptions. Let’s just say, it has been a season of pruning. And if we are honest with ourselves, we all love the out come of the pruning process – the fruit…but the cutting is painful. I would say, we are in pain and yet desperately trusting the Gardner as He cuts away.

The area He is using His machete in me is in regards to my thinking. You see, while we are settling into our third home since arriving here, things have been  jolted again. Maybe it is our crowded living conditions? (But we have a home, large one at that compared to most African families living in one room and sharing a pit latrine with 25 other families). Maybe the lack of internet – again? (Most Ugandans don’t own computers or attend school). Maybe the constant lack of electricity? Or, lack of water? Can you say a jerry can shower? (This is how most Africans live on a daily basis.) Perhaps, it is watching your children suffer with the lack of friends? (How about our Africa neighbors suffering from no food, water, or medicine to cure the simplest of ailments – diarrhea.) Or what about my husband who needs a wife who is not wasted by the end of the day? (Most Ugandan men leave their wife for another women.) Then there is loneliness for family…for friends…for the community you once lived in and the food you once loved. (I won’t even go there) And then, you just look around, and see this world you now find yourself in, so desperate. This world is one full of poverty, corruption, hunger, thirst, darkness, hurt, fear, unemployment and I could go on. Sam Smith writes of the soul’s condition, “I feel the vacuum, the loneliness, the silence, the dehydration of the soul as people who want desperately to save our constitution, country and planet yet still wander the streets without knowing how to say hi to one another.” This is descriptive of what I see here and it scares, saddens and yet strangely ignites within me the desire to say hi to everyone I meet. Oh, this place needs the love of Jesus. It needs to see joy. But it must see it first in me.  I am no good if I look outward or inward…but I must look upward. Glance at self…gaze at Him.

If we are going to make it here…if you are going to make it where you live, we must live with intentionality and the right for Him to interrupt at any time….and simply say “hi” to all who pass us by. The fruit of our lives must be the love of Jesus! And if we are wallowing in the minutia within and around us, we will miss all He has for us in any given day. I am tired of missing it…are you?