We were supposed to leave for our village three hours ago. The phrase “hurry up and wait” really is valid and has been for the past week. It’s been cool, though, watching everyone adapt and let the pressure of time and punctuality roll off to embrace the moment and spend time encouraging.
During the past three hours, I’ve been able to spend time with my team as well as others from the squad. I love getting to know everyone’s heart. I can already feel F Squad growing closer and becoming family.
At one point, though, I walked away from the room to watch pigs eating garbage, birds fly around trees, and water buffalos graze in the trash. One particular water buffalo has been tied up close to our home for the past two days. Yesterday, it was lucky, and it was tied up under a tree. Today, however, Mr. Water Buffalo is tied to a wooden pole in the middle of flatland surrounded by garbage.
As I was watching him, he sat down and closed his eyes. As soon as he sat down, a bird came over and jumped on top of him. It walked around on his back and then started picking at him with its beak. Watching this, it hit me that this is similar to a lot of what’s going on right now.
For feedback, within the teams, we give each other positive and constructive feedback. Right away, when I saw the bird on the water buffalo, I thought of feedback. When that bird is walking around on your back and your head, yes, it hurts. It is painful to have anything walking all over you. Then, it starts pecking and plucking things off of you. It hurts to have that beak digging into your back and your ears and your skull, but it helps. It helps make you cleaner. It takes away the things that have attached onto you that aren’t you. It brings clarity and truth to light.
In the same way, God is like that bird and we are the water buffalo. He uses situations, people, circumstances, attitudes, conversations, joy, and pain to shine light into the darkness. Sometimes it really hurts. Sometimes it’s exactly what we need to hear. That word of truth that needs to be spoken. That circumstance that really sucked at the time, but that produced so much growth. A work in progress. A dirty water buffalo in the middle of a field.
