It’s been nearly a week since we arrived to our first “home”, here at the Caminul Felix village in Oradea, Romania. During this time, we haven’t done much at all in terms of working. I could go into all the details, explaining why we haven’t been assigned much to do but that’s not the focus of my blog. As much as we embraced the opportunity to catch up on our rest and rejuvenate, after several days of this, many of us, especially myself, became frustrated by the idleness. I didn’t travel all this way and leave all I did behind just to relax and hang out with friends in Romania. I came to serve!
Okay, so after spending some time considering my feelings and hashing it out with my teammates, I came to realize that I need to readjust my view of doing “nothing”. Firstly, serving consists of so much more than just physically doing something for our contact/liaison. Serving is such a broad concept, and I was only focusing on one aspect of it. Even in times of rest, I can serve my teammates, and more importantly, I can still serve God.
Secondly, Jesus told us to “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10). He goes on to say “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” This verse really spoke to me because not only did it remind me that I’m not always supposed to be go-go-go, do-do-do; it also reminds us that He “will be” all that I’m here to help Him do. Will be …. so no need to fret over the week of not spreading the Good News to the nation of Romania; it’ll happen in God’s time.
I need to learn to take the time to be still and be with God. In Psalms 46:10, the word still comes from a Hebrew word meaning to “let go” or “release.” I need to come to place where we are willing to submit myself to God and acknowledge that He is in control. By being still, I am surrendering my will to God’s will. This requires me to fully trust God, allowing me to experience the fullness of all God wants and has for me. As I work on being still, I can also be developing my relationship with God and can begin to know God. I can know God by having an intimate relationship with Him, by getting to personally know Him by what He says and recognizing what He does for me in my daily life.
I had been struggling with the idleness all week, and I realized on Thursday that God was going to keep me idle until I realized the lesson He was trying to teach me … the lesson that I just shared with you, that of Psalms 46:10. God had been giving me this time of not being busy so that I could grow closer to him. Friday morning, we were given the task to collect trash from the grounds of the farm, and I relished every minute of the “work” there was to do. Saturday morning, we did have the opportunity to spend time and play with a whole bunch of kids. Loving on kids is always a good time, no matter what country you’re in or what language they speak. At the moment, it appears that there will be work for us to do come Monday morning. Praise Jesus! But if there is not, then that is fine too.
