The Leaky Bucket

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.