Gonna Fly Now

In one window of Word I am writing this blog, and in another I am tweaking a cover letter for an organization I have applied to eight times. This will be my ninth attempt, and after I apply for this position I will apply for a second position with the same organization. I’m sure they won’t be able to resist me for much longer.

Tenacity is often rewarded simple because it often borders on annoying, and annoying someone long enough and often enough, he or she may give you what you want in exchange for sanity. My little sister is an excellent example of this. Her tenacious powers of annoyance are like a bulldozer.

When my sister was ten she was called to be a missionary to Taiwan, and while I went through stages of wanting to be a scientist, concert pianist, and private jet pilot as I grew up, she never wavered. She’s pursued this path with diligence so that now, at just 23, she has been picked up by the Assemblies of God to be a missionary in Taiwan. The only thing she lacks is enough monthly monetary support. She calls churches all over the Northern California/Nevada District trying to get services so she can share her heart for Taiwan and bless the people with what’s really a life-changing message. (You can ask non-relatives and they’ll confirm this claim).

The more services she can get, the more chances she has that either a church or the individuals attending it will sponsor her. When she has enough sponsors to meet her budget, the Assemblies of God will buy her a plane ticket, and she’ll be off into the clouds. And her exuberance to leave everything she knows behind and dive head-first into a completely foreign environment on the other side of the planet for years at a time to tell people about Jesus dwarfs that of a five-year-old waiting to open presents on Christmas morning.

This means that if she calls a church and doesn’t get through, she calls again. If she’s told to call back later, she does. If she’s told to call at 2:00am on Saturday morning and to repeat calling every 3 minutes while singing the national anthem, she does. Today she let me know that after exactly one year and two days of calling, leaving voicemails, being promised a call back, and general unresponsiveness, she got in contact with a church’s pastor. She almost fell out of her chair, and then she scheduled a service. After a year and two days I’d say that persistence has passed into annoying, and yet it worked.

In my sister’s case, and hopefully in the case of my soon-to-be-ten applications, whether something shows determination or is just irritating is a matter of perspective. This reminds me of one of my favorite Bible stories. (Please note any faith in me as a learned Biblical scholar is misguided and hilarious). Anyway, in Luke 18 Jesus tells a story about this widow who needs an evil judge to grant her justice. It looks hopeless because since this judge “neither feared God nor cared about people” he probably wasn’t going to expend any time or effort helping a friendless widow. But she kept coming to him, and the New Living Translation puts it wonderfully when the judge decides, “I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!”

If that widow was anything like me or my sister, she must have hated constantly asking for help. It’s humbling to ask for something that you can’t get for yourself. When people consistently don’t call you back, ignore your emails, don’t hire you even though you put your very best foot forward and wore lipstick and everything, it makes you feel second-class. I’m sure it builds character, but character won’t pay the bills for me, my sister, or anyone else in need of results.

After telling the story about the widow, Jesus tells his disciples “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice them quickly!”

I don’t think that since God promises swift justice to his people that he will also give me a dream-job exactly when I say he should, or that every church my sister calls for years at a time will give her monthly support. But I do feel that God’s not tired of hearing us ask, and even that He wants us to keep asking for his help. He’s in our corner, and will keep squirting water in our face when we get knocked down. Again, refer to my husband for all your sound exegesis needs, I’m clearly just finding spiritual parallels from the Rocky movies.

I’d conclude now, but I need to finish that tenth application to my favorite nonprofit. I’ll let you know when they cave.

Much love,

Katie