Timing is Everything

We all had a good laugh yesterday around a potluck table when we were talking about God's timing. Stating the obvious, that God's timing is not our timing, I responded, "by DECADES!".  It's true.  There's a story in the Old Testament about how Joseph logged almost two decades in jail for crimes he didn't commit. He just got in the way of someone else's bad plan.

I've discovered in my life that following the urge that doesn't pan out is usually reframed when I find out it hasn't panned out immediately. That's the operative word.

The need to be in it for the long haul is overwhelming in this present culture. And yet, those who are classics, those who stand the test of time, those who accomplish a long obedience in a single direction, those who can go the distance, are the ones we admire. We admire them because we know  the core of what they are doing is true and has weight.

So take your time today. Even if your are under deadline, take your time. For example today and tomorrow I have two long luxurious days of writing. My prayer has been for my hours to seem like they are endless. Instead of feeling the speed of those hours as they start out, let me feel the length of them. In the same way that five minutes can seem like an hour as I hit the snooze button over and over again upon waking let me feel the length of each second.

"May your days be long" is a great blessing. "May your seconds be long" is even better. Whatever it is you are trying to accomplish today in this summer season, even if it is difficult, 'may your seconds' be long."

But wait, Deborah, you say....What about hard times?  Well...let me give you another example.
I discovered when I switched sides of the bed to sleep on recently that the railing to the left side of the bed had been put on incorrectly. The installation had left it upside down so that each time I rose off the bed the unfinished edge 'bit' the back of my thigh.  "I'm going to fix this" was my next thought.

In the middle of the project, which I was determined to do myself, there I was with the foot part of the bedrail removed and dangling and the head part stuck fast. I cried out. I sat in that moment of frustration and suddenly it came to me that a. this job was going to take longer than I thought and b. I could unscrew a set of screws on the actual piece and flip it all the same. Mission accomplished? Not quite. I flipped it and then couldn't get the piece back in because it had moved the whole bedstead. Eventually I got it in as best I could and determined that an hour was all the time my schedule allowed for the project. It was forty minutes longer than I thought I would spend. Time for bed.

My point? Even the seconds we are in pain will be better spent if we don't hurry them. It was a good night's rest in bed, not on a too short couch because I put myself in 'not in a hurry' mode.

Enjoy your time today,
Love,
Deborah