#23 - Dayenu - It would've been enough

So we just post a blog announcing we got the green light to go Pennsylvania in September 2020, the borders get shut because of COVID19. And now, a couple of weeks later, we know that there's a big chance that we will not be able to leave in September. And even if there's still a little bit of hope, we were really upset about it. It felt like our calling was being blocked. A text of an Israeli friend of mine made me realize that I have to look at the situation differently. I think this text will help you too, so allow me to write about it. 

Dayenu
We were supposed to go to Israel May of this year, but this trip got canceled due to the virus. During this trip, Ramon would have to video-assignments and I was going to help at a friend, that's expecting her 2nd baby. We were going to use this trip to see if, after Pennsylvania and Central-America, we would go to Israel for a while. When I shared my disappointment with my friend, we talked about Gods meaning with all of this. A couple days later she sent me a text with a sort of devotional her rabbi had sent her on the 7th day of Pesach. On this day the Israelites remember the day the red sea split open so they could cross it. During the Seder meal, jews sing a song named Dayenu, which loosely translates to: It would've been enough. I asked permission to share this message. 

The text:
During the Seder we sang the song “Dayenu “, and in it, we said it would have been enough had God brought us to the sea and not split it for us. How so? How would it have been enough with the Egyptians running after us? It teaches us that every person in the very current place he is in - is in the best place possible. And there is no need to imagine a better place to be in where you feel “that“ is the ideal. The ideal is here and now. 

What’s left for us is to acknowledge and embrace the good we have in the here and now, and try to grow in that reality. And that is exactly the point of Dayenu. It is easy to say 'thank you' when the sea splits (when we see life’s shining on us and going our way), but much harder as the Egyptians are running after us (when we are in the dark, dead-ended, frustrated, or are just plain lost) to still love the place we are currently in, thank, and say Dayenu. 

But it is not enough only to thank. When Moshe prays, God asks him 'Why are you screaming? Tell the nation to start moving.' Where should they move to? The raging sea?! However for something to happen from above we need to move here on this earth. 

So, on the one hand, we need to agree to be where we are and love the place we are in. And on the other hand man's whole being is to move forward on the ladder's rungs to contend with the current challenge. Every new time in life presents us with challenges, uncertainties. We can love the place we are in, yet take steps to bring us forth to a better place.

Omdenken
The text really hit home with me and I still reread it every now and then. I was so busy being disappointed that we still couldn't get to work for God, that I didn't see the opportunities right in front of me. Staying in the Netherlands longer doesn't mean I'm being stopped doing what I'm called for. It just means that I can execute that calling on another place for now. If the Bakers are called to strengthen people and organizations, we can also do that in the Netherlands. And after a while of thinking about it I can even say: Even if we'd end up not going to Pennsylvania at all anymore, Dayenu, it would be enough. God is showing us so many beautiful things and serving Him is not bound to place or situation. It's bound to our hearts. And our hearts are to follow Him, whether we are in the Netherlands, in Israel, Kenya or America. It is well and it will be enough.