January 23, 2007

Time Out!

Here in the United States we are driven by time. It seems that we are always thinking about being on time. Oh no, the alarm didn’t go off. I’ll be late for school! Our compulsion to be on time borders on obsession, leaving little time to visit, think, reflect, or pray.

This is not true for most of my friends in the South Pacific. There they operate on what is jokingly called “island time” or “coconut time.” Seldom does anything happen “on time.” Meetings start anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours late. One of the reasons is that if anyone—and I mean anyone—is not at the meeting we all wait for that person to show up. In their culture it would be extremely discourteous to start without them. Their relationships are more important than time. Conversely, here we begin regardless and hope we have a quorum.

When Pastor Fiama Rakau, the former assembly clerk of the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu, visited the United States for the first time, upon his return I asked him what surprised him the most. He answered, “Why everything is on time! When they say they are going to pick you up at 2:00, they are there at 2:00.”

Ecclesiastes tells us that there is “a time for every matter under heaven.” That, I believe, includes time for our friends, our children, our spouses, our church, and our God (not necessarily in that order). How many times have we said to someone, “I’ll get to that in a minute.” That’s the exception that proves the rule since we probably have no intention of doing whatever it is “in a minute” (if at all).

I have always been amazed at the depth of spirituality that pervades life in Vanuatu. There the church is often still the center of life in a village. In those villages everyone has time for others, for their children, and for God. You would not hear “just a minute” in Vanuatu (or rather “yu wet smol taem” as they would say it) but rather, they would stop what they are doing and attend to you and think nothing of it.

They also make more time for their church and for God than we do, on the whole. This more relaxed way of living gives them time to contemplate their relationship with God. I suspect that the ni-Vanuatu do not engage in deep metaphysical thoughts but instead simply take the time to be with their creator in a simple but loving way without being burdened with over-thinking everything. I envy them in this regard.

The picture that accompanies this letter exemplifies the difference between life in the States and life on a South Pacific island. It is a picture of the mail pick-up sign at the airport in Port Vila. In case you can’t read it, it says, “Cleared Twice Daily, Morning 9:30-10:15, Afternoon 3:30-4:15.”

So, take off your watch. Be late. Take the time to love, to think, to pray. Life is too short to live it at full speed (I think that’s an oxymoron). Take a time out and learn to really live South Pacific style. You’ll love it and be happier for it.

David (or as I am known in Vanuatu “Pua misi”)

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 105