Appreciating the rhythm

The life at GSF has a slow, methodic, rhythm to it. We watch as the children arise and begin their daily chores before going to school. The chickens poke along the ground searching for food, the babies awake with laughter or tears (one of the two), and regardless of what time I awake it seems that the farmers in the field are already there working the ground. It is a sustainable rhythm. Life flows with the rising and setting of the sun. Work is done within the cosmic framing of the morning and evening sun. After the sun has set, life begins to wind down, a settling occurs, and the day is done.

Juxtapose this life with my life as an American. A world of opportunity is before me each morning when I rise. I leave running and I return sweaty, but still there is need to run kids to sports and activities. I miss the sunset entirely and pay no attention to it whatsoever. It matters not the time of day and night, work can and will be done.

I am inspired by the farmers that I observe each morning while I drink my cup of coffee. They do not seem harried in the least. They go about their faithful work with dignity and a confidence that their labor will produce fruit. Their homemade hoe is all they bring with them and they toil the day away in a steady, manageable rhythm. If the rains come (which they do each day this time of year), they find shelter and rest. But their rhythm is not disturbed, because in the end they recognize their need for the rain and they receive it with thanksgiving.

I seem to arise each morning with a drive to produce something, to have a sense of accomplishment, and to validate myself by checking things off the list. Yesterday, my friend, Carolyn Jacobsen, took me to visit another orphanage and said to me: “come on let’s go visit ‘Answering for the Children’ so you will fill like you have accomplished something today.” She has been here for years and she is cut from a similar cloth, and she knows the struggle well. “I have been here for two weeks and I must justify this journey” is a inner-power that drives me: “I must produce, I must yield a crop, I must bring back a harvest.” These thoughts, feelings, and interior motivations are all driving forces each morning when I awake.

I hit the ground running in Uganda and was determined to do as much as possible for these two months in the country; however, the longer that I am here the more that I see that it is really all God’s work and I must be patient to sow, to water, and to plant and allow him to produce and to bring the harvest. When the rains come, I must learn to sit, enjoy, and realize that it is all for his greater purposes that many times go unseen.

(Four hours later) I just spent the last four hours listening to the heart of a friend of mine…Now, if it were any other day, I would have been off to town “to work” and in the end, I would have missed this precious opportunity to love. I am a slow work, but I am learning to appreciate the rain…

Jimmy