As I am looking out my home office window I reflect upon the issue of timing. How is it things happen when they do? How is it that we can spend hours planning and strategizing and visioning and yet have so little control over the issue of timing? Sports teams refer to the second half of their season as “gearing up” for the playoffs. Like the first half of the season was just for fun and doesn’t really count. Golfers refer to the issue of timing as a series of events starting from the moment they walk onto the first tee box until the last putt at 18. My good friend the mechanic refers to timing in the sense of performance and endurance. But is this all there is in regards to timing? Is timing an issue that we can control, manipulate or even generate? Timing. Working so hard to achieve the magnificent all the while hoping that your timing is right.
I continue to look out my window and think about other issues surrounding timing.
When will my kids come screaming into my office looking for adoration and acceptance?
When will my phone ring with someone trying to pry my vote?
When will my wife come in looking for an answer as to why lunch cost me $15.00?
When will Jesus come back?
When will the children of God start taking seriously the word of God?
When will the church burn bright in this darkened world?
When will I decide to be a difference maker in my world?
When will I decide to let go of my need for the control of timing and allow my God to show me His timing?
I watched a segment of a conference where the once up and coming leader of a video production company rose from the obscure to the national scene only to watch his 14+ years of blood sweat and tears come to an end. Was it because of his lack of endurance? Was it because of his lack of performance? Was it because of his failure to strategize, plan and vision cast? No. He was successful in all these variables. What happened was that his dream and his timing became more important to him than his God. His work for God became his motivation for living and ministry. And God called him to task.
“Is your dream more important to you than I am?” What a gut check.
The speaker quoted CS Lewis…”the man who has everything and God is no better off than the man who has only God.”
But how does this tie into the idea of timing? Let me attempt to answer.
When we are searching for God’s will for our lives we have a tendency to try to control the timing. We might pray for action, but we want it on our terms. We might be active in knocking while we seek but we neglect (intentionally?) to knock on all the doors. We might be searching for God’s answers within the broader context of our dreams instead of seeking those dreams within the context of God’s will and plan for us. I have witnessed my children trying to put a square peg into a round hole. It is not pretty or very quiet. In most cases the peg and the board go flying through the air. Could it be that as we are trying to get our timing right we are trying to put our square pegged dreams into the round holes of God’s plan? If my children explode with emotion because they can’t fit the peg into the hole, what happens to me when I get God’s timing confused with my timing? Maybe God’s answers to our prayers are in the form of the question, “Is this more important to you than I am?” The answer might be harder to accept that we think. In the mean time, wait. Seek. And wait some more.
