Espere por favor

Recently, my mom and I were checking out at Publix, and I changed the card reader into Spanish. When she inserted the card, the screen said, “Espere por favor”, which means, “Please wait.” Being the teacher that I am, I tried to teach the word to my mom and explained that esperar has two meanings in Spanish -- to wait and to hope. I find it interesting that Isaiah 40:31 can be translated either as “those who wait” or “those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” The Hebrew word qavah is used figuratively here, meaning “to wait, or to look for with eager expectation.” Waiting here holds a positive view of the future with a hope that is secure. Waiting on the Lord is an act of faith-- trusting that God will do what He has promised even when you cannot see it.

Unfortunately, waiting does not generally appeal to us in our instant society. We try to avoid waiting at all costs. Microwave meals, flash passes, and instant entertainment at our fingertips keep us from the sensation of waiting. Until we don’t have a choice. That was me. I’ve had a dream of being a missionary and teaching in a small school since I was in middle school, if not before. In a sense, I’ve been waiting for years and years and years for this opportunity to teach in Mexico and share the Gospel. Since I went to Costa Rica in 2015, I’ve been waiting to go back to Latin America for a longer period of time as a missionary. When I wasn’t able to travel to Colombia in college or study abroad in Costa Rica or do an international internship, there was more waiting.

Eventually, I accepted that God could call me to missions in the United States. There are many immigrants who live here and I looked into a program where I would get a master’s degree and teach in the inner city. I made it all the way to selection weekend and then, I was denied. At that point, I hadn’t even heard of Global Education Ministries. But soon enough, the door opened right up-- all that I had waited and hoped for all these years. God knew all along where I needed to go. He was preparing my heart, my body, and my mind for this task. The call was a call to esperar and hold onto esperanza (hope) in Christ. I have to esperar in the little things, like a cancelled flight, and in the big things, like the brokenness of my mind and body and those of so many others. I must continue to wait and hope for God’s complete restoration of all things. My charge to us today is this: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). Espere por favor.