So, I had a cool topic for this week.
And then I sat down at Starbucks after church last Sunday to write about it, like I do….and it wouldn’t come out. I mean, I tried writing it like four different ways, and the words I wanted to say, the point I wanted to make, just kept getting jumbled on the page. It was as if the black of the words melted together and became some sort of ink blob. They just wouldn’t come together right. It was like trying to pull a weed out of a garden when the ground is baked hard and all you succeed in doing after pulling at the thing with all your might is breaking off the top part of the stem. No good.
The time wasn’t right. The ground wasn’t soft; it wasn’t time to pull the weed. The time wasn’t right to talk about what I wanted. The words are still stuck in the ground. They’re all twisted around each other; all firmly baking beneath the hard soil. And they’re still growing, still forming. It’s not time to take pull them up yet.
And so, I’m going to wait to write about it. It’ll come; I promise. And maybe it’ll even be the best one yet. Maybe it won’t. But I’m waiting.
Because timing is everything.
I should know.
You know how there is a good time to say things to people, and a bad time? Even if you say whatever it is you’ve got to get off your chest in the exact same way? Same place, same tone of voice, same facial expression. Same everything. Different time – completely different reaction.
There are several people in my life that are kinda, sorta, potentially incredibly hard to talk to.
The hardest one is, to be very honest and meant with no disrespect whatsoever, is my father. Depending on the day, if I tell him that his socks pulled up to his knees and being proudly displayed in his sandals are rather tacky-looking, that they might be, in fact, incredibly uncool, he has a couple possible reactions. The first one is just plain laughter. That’s a good reaction. I had good timing. I read his personal mood signals right. But somedays I don’t read things right (or, to be honest, I’m too busy to care) and when I tell him his socks are a bit ridiculous, he storms out of the room, insanely angry and hurt, and slams a door or three. Same words on my part, totally different reactions on his. It’s all in the timing.
If two people are in the middle of a heart-felt conversation, and one of them pulls out a phone and starts texting someone else – very, very bad timing. Seriously. Whatever the texter had to say could probably have waited fifteen minutes.
You don’t ask a football player how his day has been right after he walks off a field where he just lost his game. You don’t ask Mom for a couple of bucks for a new outfit right after she’s done the bills. It’s just bad timing.
So, as you go through life, be careful of your timing. Be aware of the people you interact with, what they’re going through, what mood they’re in.
But, also, be aware GOD has His own timing as well. Don’t try to push it. Be willing to wait for His perfect timing. Be listening for His quiet voice to give you the “go” signal. It comes in different forms – sometimes it feels like a rope tied around your chest pulling you somewhere. Sometimes it’s just a gentle nudge in a direction. Sometimes….it feels like a logical guess and a huge leap in faith. So be aware that God directs us in different ways.
But, despite that not-so-minor detail, be willing to wait for the perfect timing. Be sensitive to timing. Life will go so much better for you if you do.
In His Chrysalis 