Read Psalm 37:1-9
These versus tell us three times not to fret and give
instructions using these verbs: trust, delight, commit, be still, wait
patiently, refrain from anger! If we don’t fret we will get to know the
desires of our heart, he will make our righteousness shine like the sun and we
will inherit the kingdom of heaven. It actually makes fretting sound pretty
pathetic! It gently tells us how to just “be” in the presence of the Lord.
Being does not come easy to me as I’ve always equated it
with laziness. However, my Bible Study started a new book called “Women of
Balance,” and the first lesson talks about finding balance between being and
doing.
Growing up in a developed country one learns that doing is
the path to success and we have all kinds of gadgets to make our doing easier.
Oddly enough, the gadgets make me so efficient that I can fit more doing into
my schedule.
In Kenya, I am often just as busy, but am forced in a state
of being by events beyond my control. There are many events that can force one
into a state of being, the list includes but is not limited to:
1.
Rolling black outs – they are often announced
days in advance in the newspaper which says the power will be out from 9 am
until 5 pm. The last power outage was from about 10 pm to 10 pm to following
day…yeah that’s right, 24 hours!
·
On black out days, I either have to wade through
the sea of humanity at the only cyber with a generator in Ngong, or if its not
that important, I spend the day at home being less productive, but more
peaceful. There is nothing like cooking and eating by candlelight!
2.
Inefficient public transport – some matatus on
my route jump the queue and arrive at my stage empty…so they wait at each stage
for about 5 minutes instead of stopping only long enough to drop off and pick
up passangers. This can increase your travel time by half and hour!
·
When I remember that I have no control over when
I’m going to arrive at my destination…I let myself just be. Sometimes I use the
time to pray, or I strike up a conversation with my seatmate and sometimes I
just sit and look out the window and marvel at my place in God’s beautiful
world.
3.
Supermarket lines – I’m not sure why supermarket
lines in Kenya are so slow, sometimes their computers go offline, other time
there is a power outage and the computer system has to switch to the generator
system, sometimes the person in front of you pays with a credit card which
requires them to go to the customer service desk to pay and then come back to
the line to finish their transaction.
·
Normally one doesn’t have the time to talk to
the person in front of behind you in line. But I have made quite a few friends
in the supermarket line because we are forced to stand there for a ridiculously
long time. Humans, being relational creatures, eventual one will speak and then
before long you realize this stranger could actually be a friend and not too
long after that you’ve exchanged phone numbers and arranged to have coffee.
Being requires that you don’t get hot headed and change lines before you get to
that far.
4.
Traffic jams: Referred to affectionately as
“jams,” these miles long pile up of cars happen because Kenya’s roads are too
narrow and there are no turn lanes. Not to mention that quite a large portion
of what passes for vehicles in Kenya are not road worthy.
·
It’s just God’s way of giving you extra hours
within the day to pray, not only for deliverance from the insanity of the jam,
but also to express your gratefulness for what God has done to and through you
during the day.
5.
Kenyan time: i.e. one to two hours later than
the time set for a meeting/function, etc. A perfect example of this (and number
4) is when the first ever Kenyan Presidential Debate started almost 2 hours
late because one of the candidates was stuck in a jam!
·
Even weddings start late here. I have to admit
I’m not very good at being when I know someone is running on Kenya time,
because they are wasting my time. This however is an opportunity to pray for
patience and thank God for calling me to Kenya…and reminding myself I said yes
to God and that Kenyan time is part of that bargain.
6.
My new personal forced state of being is Baby
Tamara. Her needs trump anything else I’m doing and force me to sit or walk
with her and just be!
·
This is my favorite state of forced being! I
think about how wonderful my unconventional family is. I marvel at how God
works and at how perfect his plans are. I think about how lucky I am to be a
mom to Judie and Millie and a grandmother to Tamara. I can’t even imagine what
other plans he has for my life, but I am so happy for the moments when I can
just be and dream and pray about God’s will for my life.
With the exception of black outs and babies, the advent of
mobile phones has made being almost obsolete, you can still play games, email,
check FB, listen to music or check out videos on YouTube while you are in a
traffic jam, waiting for a wedding to start, stuck in the checkout line, or on
the matatu.
However on this particular black out day my phone battery is
dead, I’ve done the work I can do on my computer without being online (I use a
hotspot on my phone to hook up wirelessly to the internet), and studying
Swahili has given me a headache. So there is always reading, or I could arrange
my Tupperware baskets or maybe I could try just being for a while. At least
until the power comes back on!
Note: Two days after I
wrote this blog, as I finished my editing, the lights went out…it’s 7:08 pm. In
order to upload the blog I will have to be online. My phone is fully charged
but who knows when the power will come back on. The timing of this power outage
is telling. They just announced that Raila Odinga’s challenge of the
Presidential Election to the Supreme Court of Kenya has been denied and Uhuru
Kenyatta has been declared president. And then the lights went out…Again. Maybe
Kenyatta will do something about it or maybe I’ll be doing a lot of being in
the future. Only God knows!
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