Lessons Learned on a Bus in Africa

So this month I am in Kenya and it feels
wonderful to be back. It’s been almost a year since I last visited and when I
stepped off the plane into Jomo Kenyatta airport I had a new enthusiasm and
bounce in my step.  My squad spent
just under a week in Nairobi where I was able to make some new friends and
reconnect with the old ones. It was a relaxing time and a well-needed
transition period from our three months in Asia.  At the end of the week we hopped on a bus to Bungoma where
we will be for this month.  Bungoma
is on the western side of Kenya near the border of Uganda.  It is about an 8-hour bus ride from
Nairobi and that is about all I know about Bungoma at this point, and anyways
the point of this blog is not to inform you on Bungoma, but to share with you a
short story of something I witnessed while on that long bus ride.

If any of you have ever been on a bus ride
in Africa, then you already feel for me, but if not use your wildest
imaginations!  (In truth, this particular
bus ride was not all that uncomfortable as far as African bus rides could be,
but let’s just say it wasn’t a Greyhound.)  Well, like any bus ride, I spent most of the time with my
headphones in (listening to my African playlist, of course) watching the
scenery roll past and trying my best to fall asleep in any position available.
What I want to share with you all happened about the sixth or seventh hour in
our journey.  The bus had pulled
over to let off another passenger, and while she, the bus driver, and the
attendant proceeded to get her luggage I happened to look out my window and
spot a boy leading two cows and a calf along the side of the road.  Both of the full-grown cows had ropes
tied around their necks that were dragging a good number of feet behind
them.  My curiosity picked up when
one of the cows wandered away to the left alone while the others continued
straight alongside the road.  The
solo cow continued to wander toward a pile of rocks and rubbish as the boy
calmly followed behind.  The boy
didn’t run after him; he didn’t chase after him frantically to get him back
with the others; he just calmly followed the wandering cow allowing it to have
the freedom to explore its curiosity. 
The cow on the other hand paid no attention to the boy as it wandered.  This continued for about a minute
before the boy finally directed the cow back towards the others; he did this by
putting himself into the path of the cow so that by the cow’s natural tendency
to run away the cow was directed back towards the road.  Even so the cow hardly took notice of
the boy until the rope tied around its neck got stuck on one of the rocks.  It was then that the cow immediately
acknowledged the boy as it turned around and stared at the boy expecting him to
free it from its trap.  Just as
expected, the boy loosened the rope and set the cow free, and with its freedom
it immediately ran back to the others at the side of the road. 

What struck me as significant from this
little scene played out before me was how much we are like the cow in our
day-to-day lives.  See if you can
follow me on this:  If we are the
cows, then God is the boy.  And
like the one cow, some of us like to stray from where God is leading us; some
of us like to be led by our own curiosity and our own wills rather than by
God’s.  And it is only when we are
stuck that we turn and stare at God in expectation that He will free us. And
very much like the boy, God does not panic, does notfrantically run after us, but
instead calmly follows us.  And
sure enough He eventually leads us back towards the “road” and frees us when we
become stuck.  And when we are
freed, we more often than not run back towards the path God had intended for us
all along.

So I was thinking, curiosity is not
inherently a bad thing, but when it is lead by “our” wills and a refusal to
acknowledge God, it becomes a very dangerous thing.  Again follow me here, how much greater would it be if that
cow were to turn around and say to the boy, “May I go explore those rocks over
there?”  Well, that boy knowing
that his will for the cow was to get from one place to another, and seeing that
the cow’s desire was also for that purpose, but exploring the rocks would be a
blessing unto the cow, might have said, “Sure, but first let me tie up your
rope so that you do not get tangled.”