Sunday, August 27, 2006

Timing is Everything

Raise your hand if you've ever been a victim of bad timing.
Raise your hand if you've ever met somebody just a little bit too late.
Raise your hand if you've ever met somebody just a little bit too soon.
Raise your hand if you've ever just been too late to decide?
How about too quick to decide?
Have you ever lost somebody who you felt like should have lived longer?
Have you ever had somebody overstay his or her welcome?

Why is it that things in life seem to happen at just the wrong times?

I am under the firm belief that timing is everything.
However, it takes much more faith for me to realize that "timing" isn't anything I have control over.
I think that bad timing is another way of saying our timing didn't line up with God's timing.
And I think it's not a good habbit to call God's plan "bad."

I don't think that God has one specific path laid out for each of us. I think he calls us to certain places at certain times, but if we don't listen or go it doesn't mean we messed up his plan. God lets us have choices, and what we need to do is pray for the wisdom to make them.

I have almost moved to Oklahoma like every year since I was a senior in high school. And I'm only just now here. To tell you the truth, I don't really know what that means. I don't know if it means that I finally let go and let God bring me here. Or if it means that I took charge and defied everything that was keeping me in Michigan.
I don't know if it means the people I meet here are all just here when I needed people. Or if I met them just because I moved here.
I have a hard time differentiating.

Some people I was friends with left not too long after I got here.
Did I miss them? Was I too late? Were those relationships lost because of bad timing? If I'd moved down sooner would we just have never met?
I don't know.

I don't understand God's timing, and I wish I did.
I don't understand when he decides to give and then take away.
I don't get his reasoning.
And I don't get why it seems like I'm responsible when I miss out on something with which I think I should have gotten a fair chance.
Why do I always feel like I could have just done something differently?

Jacob waited 7 years on Rachel.
The Israelites waited 40 years on Canaan.
Abraham and Sarah waited 90 years on Isaac.
Noah waited 100 years on the rain.
We're all waiting for the return of Jesus.

Why does time seem to go by much more quickly in chapters and verses?
How do we make the paradigm shift from "bad timing" to "God's timing?"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think I can relate to what you're going through. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing. When I graduated from OC, I came back down here (instead of going back home to Canada) without knowing where I would work or what I would really be doing. I'm not sure if it was the draw of friends down here, or just a fear of moving out of the Bible belt.

Anyway, I wasn't sure for the longest time if I had made the right decision or not. Enough time has gone by now that I can appreciate that God really did need me to be here to support friends through tough times, and to strengthen myself for whatever lies ahead. All that being said, I'm sure God would have found something useful for me to do in Saskatchewan too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that things will probably get clearer for you when you look back on these times and what you've accomplished.

Nice to stumble upon your blog. I was just procrastinating on facebook and ended up here. Talk to you later.