A few days ago we were out for an evening jog. To tell you one thing about this part of Africa (Kenya and Tanzania), it is that EVERYWHERE we go we are called “mzungu.” This word, mzungu means “white person.” It is not uncommon at all to pass by 25 people on the road and for 15-20 of those people to call out this word as we pass by, especially by the children. The kids will even run after you for a couple of minutes down the road screaming it!
Well, while I’m running it is difficult to give attention to each of these people, watch for potholes/rocks that I might trip over (because I am prone to doing this quite often), and also concentrate on breathing all at the same time. Therefore, I usually ignore a lot of the people that yell “mzungu” at us as we run. However, as we pass these 2 little girls on the opposite side of the road, they begin to scre
am, “mzungu, mzungu” again and again. Their screaming only got louder the longer that we tried to ignore them. It was probably 5-7 minutes after they began that we decided to turn around and run back toward our house, crossing the road so that we could see the oncoming traffic.
As we came back towards those 2 little girls, now on the same side of the road as they were, they were still BEGGING for our attention. I assumed that eventually they would get tired or lose interest in yelling the same word over and over, BUT they didn’t stop until we came up to them and gave them the attention that they were so desperately wanting! They were relentless in their desire for the “mzungus” attention.
The same way that these two girls didn’t give up as long as it seemed that we were ignoring them or couldn’t hear them, we should not give up in repeatedly asking God to give us counsel, reveal more of His character to us, and just spend time in His presence. We should be that excited about the attention and presence of the Lord. It should give us that much joy and leave us in complete awe when He speaks to us! Although God never ignores us or pretends to not hear us, it does seem that He is silent at times. He also answers us in ways that we were not expecting or don’t really want Him to answer in some situations. No matter how much it feels like we are not getting the answers we seek immediately, we should continue to desperately seek after Him, desiring whatever it is that He has in store for us.
