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Restless Hope

I’m a bit of a restless guy. I like doing stuff. When I’m done that stuff, I’m often in a hurry to do more stuff.

I eat too fast, sometimes skip over details too soon, rush on to the next “thing” too quickly.

Like you, I’ve experienced a steady parade of cancelled meetings and celebrations and parties during this pandemic. Some of that has actually been kind of nice, a lot of it not so much.

I’m a bit of a restless guy. I like doing stuff. When I’m done that stuff, I’m often in a hurry to do more stuff.

I eat too fast, sometimes skip over details too soon, rush on to the next “thing” too quickly.

Like you, I’ve experienced a steady parade of cancelled meetings and celebrations and parties during this pandemic. Some of that has actually been kind of nice, a lot of it not so much.

In my role as English Language Director in the International Program, there’s a whole bunch of “stuff” that I love that I haven’t been able to do over the past two years. This includes short-term English camps. These essentially involve hosting groups of students from overseas for two or three weeks at a time during the school year and throughout the summer. These students come from Korea, Japan, China, Brazil, and Paraguay. In these camps, they join our school community, learn English, and build cross-cultural friendships with our students. It is a rich and intense time of learning and connection for everyone involved. I love it.

And it hasn’t happened for two years. We’ve spent more than a decade building healthy relationships with our sister schools in Asia and South America, but we’re stuck in this Covid-induced limbo.

This is not an easy thing, but it’s a comforting reminder. We have ultimate hope in our God’s faithfulness and the promise that, in the end, our afflictions will end with the promise from Revelation 21 that “He will wipe every tear from (our) eyes.”

For me, the uncertainty is a little crazy-making. I want to run free again, doing the things I am passionate about and trained for. I have a hunch that some of you feel that too, whether it’s in your careers or in your personal and social lives.

Yet, Romans 12:12 urges us to “be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

This is not an easy thing, but it’s a comforting reminder. We have ultimate hope in our God’s faithfulness and the promise that, in the end, our afflictions will end with the promise from Revelation 21 that “He will wipe every tear from (our) eyes.”

I am hopeful—that the clouds will clear, that life can resemble normalcy again, and that we will once again welcome a busload of new friends from a faraway land.

For the time being, I’m doing my best to be joyful in hope.

I wish you all the same.