Hope Deferred
Tena tātou katoa e te iwi mīhana… (Greetings to all the people in mission),
This month’s whakataukī (proverb) is: “He manako te kōura i kore ai.” (The crayfish [or lobster] won’t appear just because you set your heart on it). This proverb is a warning to the dreamer, against wishful thinking. It is a less than subtle hint that if you want something you better jolly well put in the effort required to make it come to pass. Like maintaining, baiting and setting your craypot (or diving) so that you actually catch some kōura (crays). Take it from a Wairarapa coast Māori—the outcome is well worth the effort!
Many believers are becoming understandably frustrated, and leaders of ministries and missions can… burn out.
While the whakataukī provides sound wisdom for normal living, our current experience is anything but normal! Plenty of effort continues to be invested in attempts to generate results for the benefit of the mission of God, yet that which we set our hearts on too often does not appear. As I read, watch and listen to what is happening around the global missions community, the more appropriate phrase for our “light and momentary troubles” (2 Cor. 4:17) would seem to be Proverbs 3:12a: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick…” Many believers are becoming understandably frustrated, and leaders of ministries and missions can… burn out.
Back in our early-90s missionary training we were assigned Myron Rush’s Burnout (1987). He defines burnout as “the type of stress and emotional fatigue, frustration, and exhaustion that occurs when a series of (or combination of) events in a relationship, mission, way of life, or job fail to produce an expected result” (italics mine). Admittedly, Rush is/was a management guru not a psychologist, but his definition and recommendations have stuck with me through the years and I’ve found them to be helpful. When recovering from the effects of persistently failed expectations, he counsels rest and then: 1) seek professional help, 2) don’t expect too much too soon, 3) don’t expect things to be as they were before and, 4) gradually develop new habits for the new reality.
God doesn’t humble us just to put us in our place. There is a positive reason for it: to grow us (individually and collectively).
How many of us have followed the advice of Proverbs 16:9, making plans only to discover in this pandemic season that God seems to be frustrating our steps? God? Really? We could debate whether or not the pandemic was “sent by God” (I think not), but a biblical theology should concede that it is being used by God. How? “To humble us” is the common conclusion I have heard among global missions leaders during the pandemic. But I don’t think that goes far enough. We need to have a maturity mindset. God doesn’t humble us just to put us in our place. There is a positive reason for it: to grow us (individually and collectively).
Missions leaders can be forgiven if they’re struggling to make necessary adaptations as the pandemic persists, to form new habits for the new reality. The reality keeps changing. Expected results, from the most innovative of strategies and engergetic investment, may not be forthcoming and hope deferred makes the heart sick. The crayfish just aren’t climbing into the pot. They’ve hibernated.
If our longing is for anything other than God’s will, then our expectations will be misaligned.
Read on just a little in Proverbs 3:12 and we see a beam of light, “…but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Here we switch from expectations to longings. I wonder if the Spirit of God is whispering to us, “what do you really desire?” Glib answers are not accepted. This season should prompt us to take this opportunity to examine our hearts afresh. If our longing is for anything other than God’s will, then our expectations will be misaligned. God’s will is never frustrated, God is always fulfilling God’s purposes. Our individual agency may be frustrated, but the Spirit continues to carry out God’s mission. The pandemic is a sobering reminder that it is God’s, not our, mission. Sometimes we just need to stop and remember that.
In Growing Through Stress (1991), Kath Donovan encourages us to develop an eternal perspective, and consider the stress such as the pandemic is causing, as “the stuff out of which something glorifying to God can be created… The outcome is enlargement of mind and spirit and an enriching influence in the world.” God is preparing us for the future.
We have much to learn from James’ great ‘maturity epistle’ about how God works in us and through us via troubles, testings and temptations. Right at the outset he notes that troubles of many kinds cause our endurance to grow—our endurance. This, he reckons, should be cause for great joy! How valuable must endurance in the faith be?! Towards the end, James 4:13-16 warns us to remain dependent on God in all things and to yearn for God’s will above all else. It is an exhortation to prayerful humility, patiently waiting for the Lord to act and, ultimately, for His return. Interspersed throughout the letter is community-building ‘advice’. We are to endure troubles, testings and temptations with one another (created by one another!), for it is in the tensions of learning to love one another in-Christ that God transforms us by the renewing of our minds (cf. Romans 12).
Our presumptive plans may not be producing the outcomes we hoped for, but something else is going on that will only be perceived with hindsight. The Spirit of God is maturing us, both individually and collectively for God’s future purposes. So, maybe it’s not really ‘crayfish’ we’re longing for after all, but significance, meaning, and purpose. In which case, they will emerge over time if we set our hearts on God alone, even as we continue to #stayonmission.
Arohanui ki a koutou e haere ana ki te ao (love to you all as you go into the world),
Jay
