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What God Asked Me Not to Do in Cuba

“I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”

—Jesus, John 17:4

If you ask me what I learned in Cuba, I’ll tell you that I learned to let my Father lead. And by letting Him lead, I learned to bring glory to Him through faithful obedience, rather than frantic striving.

If I could pinpoint the moment this lesson hit me, it would be the day I became friends with a two-year-old boy. He was the tiny, shy, brown-eyed son of one of the Cuban pastors. I called him Ninito and he started calling me Tia once he finally warmed up to me.

It started with the two of us playing soccer on his parents’ porch one evening. The rest of my mission team was sitting around the dinner table, tired after playing a much more intense soccer game with much older children earlier that day. I had sat out during that game to relax on the bus with the wife of one of our translators and my mentor.

The porch soccer game became more competitive when the pastor’s eldest son and another team member joined us. Soon enough, Ninito was too small too keep up and was crowded out of the game he had initiated. Frustrated, he stole the ball and carried it into the house. I chased him down and coaxed it out of his arms by offering him the one thing better than a soccer ball: a piggyback ride. This not only meant the game could continue; it was the solidification of our friendship.

While the older boys played, I took Ninito out to the field in front of the pastor’s house and ran the length of it with him on my back, over and over again. The night sky above us was full of stars, the air around us cool and refreshing. Ninito giggled and shrieked with joy. Every so often I would spin quickly or pretend to throw him off. He loved it.

When I slowed down, Ninito pointed up and started talking about la luna, the moon. Now, this was the instance where God taught me the lesson. I realized that if I had played soccer with the rest of my team earlier that day, I would have missed out on that precious moment with the pastor’s son. While initially I had felt slightly sad about missing the game, it paid off in the evening when I had enough energy left for God’s unique assignment for me.

The Lesson

During one of my quiet times in Cuba, I stumbled upon John 17:4 where Jesus prayed: “I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” How did He bring glory to the Father? By completing the work the Father gave Him to do. Glory never came by striving. Glory came by accepting and being obedient.

Jesus did not heal, help, or say hello to everyone He could have. There were people on the street He passed by without so much as a “follow me”. There were moments where He said “no” or chose to rest or pray instead of work and do (Mark 1:32–39). How much more must we rest? How much more must we pray? How much more must we look to the Father for direction about where to spend our time and energy?

Going into my time in Cuba, I originally placed a pressure on my own shoulders to do all that I could, translate perfectly, and be there for everyone at all times. By day two, I was a crying mess because I couldn’t measure up. It’s no wonder that God used the week to teach me how to act based on His leading instead of my own frantic good intentions.

An attitude of needing to take on every role and do everything is an attitude of a heart that says that God cannot move unless we are constantly moving. A heart like that has a too-large view of people and a too-small view of God. Especially on a mission trip, this is a recipe for a burnout.

The Application

Approximately eighteen hours after Ninito and I spun in the field, God gave me a chance to apply the lesson again. It was a sunny Wednesday afternoon, two hours before my team was to host a youth event. We had no plan.

We had originally been scheduled four hours to plan the event, but our time was cut short unexpectedly. To make the situation more complicated, the Cuban pastors and our three team leaders stepped back. They left the planning to the 10 of us who were between the ages of 19 and 21.

As a college student, I’m accustomed to tight deadlines. However, this scenario was slightly daunting. There’s a big difference between typing a paper quickly and figuring out how to keep a room full of young people entertained for an afternoon.

Luckily, God had already given us the first step of our planning process. That morning, my friend Connor had told me that God laid it on his heart for us to handle our planning by spending time in listening prayer individually and then coming back together as a team to compare notes.

So, at the start of our two hours, when everything in us was screaming to talk to each other to form a plan, we spread out across the pastor’s property and spent the first 20 minutes of our precious two hours on our knees.

When I went to pray, I had the impression that I needed to be an expression of love that afternoon. I also felt that that we needed to provide a time to pray over students, lest they walk away with unmet needs.

This all made sense and sounded like something I could do. Until I had another impression: God did not want me to take over any aspect of the planning for the event or putting it on. Rather, He wanted me to be on standby and pray.

Immediately, I wanted to disregard that. My normal tendency is to act, do, and go. I am a person who takes initiative and likes to ensure that everything flows smoothly. I can administrate, organize, plan, and command.

But this wasn’t the time for that.

Our team reconvened and everything flowed seamlessly, as if each person’s insight were a puzzle piece to the big picture. Connor felt that two testimonies needed to be shared. Katie and Karl, not so coincidentally, felt burdened to share their testimonies. Caleb agreed to lay out the Gospel. I shared my insight about the importance of prayer. Chris and Levi reminded us to be flexible. Alysha F. told us that she wanted to lead a game. Hunter reminded us of our influence. Sarah volunteered to take over the administration role and I, stifling a twinge of resistance, let her take over.

An hour before everyone arrived, we broke off to carry out our various preparation roles. For me, this meant letting go and sitting down to pray. I planted myself on the edge of the same field Ninito and I had spun in the night before, which was now flooded with sunshine. I asked God to shine through us, help us, and draw people to himself. I also asked that he would bring me young girls to love on and pray for.

When the students came, the room that was once our planning place became vibrant and full of people. The game, pictionary, brought so much laughter. The words spoken were of grace, truth, and real relationship with the Father. All of it was better than we could have planned for or thought up if we hadn’t spent time in prayer before we planned.

At the end of the night, God provided me with an 18-year-old young woman to pray for and encourage. I might have missed her if I had been too busy planning to give her my attention. Sarah did excellent in her role of administration, I might add.

As always, God knew what was right before I did. He asked me not to do what I knew I could do so that I would have the time and energy left over to do what He wanted me to do.

Like I said at the start of this post: In Cuba, I learned to let my Father lead. Letting Him lead allowed me to learn to bring glory to Him through faithful obedience, instead of the frantic striving I’m prone to do. In the end, I accomplished more on His terms than my own.

 

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