Dear Partner,
Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision the people perish.” Have you ever been to a church service and heard that verse? If you have, you were probably glad you left your checkbook at home that Sunday because it generally meant a fundraising campaign was coming.
According to Google, there have been 129,864,888 books written. I Googled how many books were written on vision. Here is what I came up with, “a lot.” You can go to Amazon and scroll through an endless number of books on vision. I then checked to see if any books were written about doing nothing. You might be surprised to learn there are some. You’re probably not surprised to learn the number of books written on doing nothing pales in comparison to the number on vision.
For me, I have found that doing nothing is unbelievably difficult. I currently run BWEA and Hiawatha Youth Camp. With that responsibility, I also have a property maintenance company. One part of that is run by my son, called Legacy Construction, which does building, renovations, and construction work. My responsibility for that is small and all behind-the-scenes. The other part that does lawn service & snow removal, I’m actively involved in. It’s not huge, only around 120 weekly customers, but it keeps me busy, especially from April through November. I generally work 7 days a week during some of those months. It’s not a sustainable pace for the long term but for a few months, it’s doable. It’s busy, especially in June and July with trips back and forth from camp to home in order.
Do you know when my most difficult days are? In mid-January, when I’m doing nothing. I have a large board in my office that has a countdown for spring to arrive. The board shows me daily the number of days “waiting.” It’s a difficult place to be, doing nothing, just waiting. I don’t think I’m alone in this.
In even the small cases of life such as sitting in a waiting room at the doctor’s office, or waiting in line for your groceries, or waiting for someone on the other end of the line to take your call. Just talking about those smaller situations made the blood pressure for some of you rise.
Now, imagine the bigger things you’ve had to wait for. You can get discouraged, looking at Proverb 29:18 and thinking, “I should be doing something, anything, one thing, to pursue this dream.” But sometimes the dream isn’t really clear. It is hazy at best with no real focus. Sometimes, you have a dream but there’s nothing more you can currently do but wait.
While the Bible talks about dreaming, it also gives us a good number of examples on waiting. Noah had to wait hundreds of years before the first sign of rain. I know he was building the ark during that time but how many days during the work did he look to the skies for at least a dark cloud to pass by?
Joseph had to wait for 30+ years before his dream became a reality. In the majority of that, waiting time was in places you would never expect a future ruler to be in (a pit in the ground, a slave, a jail cell).
David had to wait 14 years from the time he was anointed king to the time he took over the throne. And instead of being mentored and guided by Saul into this king position he was hunted and chased for years.
Caleb and Joshua had to wander and wait 40 years for a promised land due to no fault of their own but rather the lack of faith by others around them.
Mary had to wait, and while her wait was only 9 months you would think, if there’s a miracle in a virgin birth, there could also be another, smaller miracle of a 9-day pregnancy to speed things along.
There’s a song by Christian artist Greg Long from 20 years ago called, In the Waiting. It has a line that came to mind as I put this letter together. It says this:
“Pray, I try and pray for Your will to be done. But I confess it's never fast enough for me. It seems, the hardest part is waiting on You. When what I really want is just to see Your hand move.”
So, while January generally marks the beginning of new dreams and aspirations for what will be in the year ahead, if you find yourself like me, waiting, remind yourself, that we’re in good company. Noah, Joshua, Joseph, David, Mary, and many others throughout Scripture had to wait as well. Remind yourself that some lessons for life can only be learned in the waiting. It’s not all bad.
Ironically, I began this Pledge Partner letter for January the second week in December. The morning I started the letter I was called and asked by someone if HYC would be interested in purchasing a campground. So that’s where HYC is currently, just conversations about that possibility. However, if the conversations lead nowhere, and HYC is back to square one, we’ll be okay. We’ve been there before and while it’s not my favorite place to be, I’ve found there is a resting peace that can only be felt in the waiting.
Sincerely,
Craig