Have you ever heard the story about the leaky bucket? In case you haven’t, I’ll tell you the short version. There was a leaky bucket that was ashamed that he wasn’t doing a good job since he could only deliver half of the water a normal bucket could because of his holes. However, one day he noticed that because of his daily routine of bringing water from a stream, there were many beautiful flowers along the path where he had leaked. Yeah, it’s a cheesy story, but I have to say I’ve been feeling a bit like the bucket lately. Despite how well things have been going for us here in Austria, sometimes I wish we weren’t starting over again. Instead of having a laser-focused action-packed ministry, I’m learning culture and language again while doing a Bible study here, a meeting there, refugee center once a week, while throwing in the occasional project for a little variety.
However, like the bucket, faithfulness (and of course GRACE) can make up for our inadequacies. Just the other day I was reminded that even though David was anointed as king at a young age, it took him many years of hiding in caves and running around like a crazy man before he became king. God was using this time to build his character– it was not wasted time. In the midst of my discouragement last week God had me stop and look at the flowers I had watered along the path that I’m beating. Last weekend we had some visitors in from our missions office to do a presentation on Biblical leadership training. Russ and I had spent several weeks beforehand inviting people who we thought might be interested, and we weren’t getting many commitments. But as the day of the meeting came and I looked around the room, I saw a couple of guys from my Bible study, some other friends from the refugee center, and the pastor of the church we attend.
I don’t know what the fruit of last week’s meetings will be, but I am encouraged to see what God will do. So if you don’t mind I’m going to grab my leaky bucket. I’ve got a path to water.