God's timing

This whole thing about God's timing is interesting. If you saw my facebook status today it said this: "We know that everything works in and on God's time. Unfortunately, we aren't always wearing the same watch or looking at the same clock as God is." Now, I was not expecting my mom and others to begin to worry that things had gone terribly wrong out here in Texas. It was merely something I wrote to a friend of mine in which the email dealt with why things happen how they do and when they do. Anyway, I have been pondering on this today. Why do things happen when they happen? Why do things happen the way they happen? I think about how Lindsey and I ended up here in Texas. It all started with a phone call from our friend Ryan, who is also out here with his wife. It started out as just a call amongst two friends catching up on each others lives. From that call though, the vision of leaving our home, family, friends, and everything we had known was birthed. If Ryan would not have joked about us moving out to Texas with them, would we be out here now? It's kind of crazy to think about.

We base a lot of our life on time and if the events of our life happen in a certain time. Think about it. We like deadlines on things. Deadlines are good for in a lot of ways, but it's not always good to put a deadline on God doing something in your life. Have you ever prayed for an uncertain situation like getting a job or raising money for a mission trip? Maybe you prayed for someone's sickness to be healed. How long did you give God to answer that prayer? What did you do when God failed to answer? If the door was shut on that situation, how did you react? I think we miss a greater picture of what God is doing in our lives when we put God on our time schedule. It's like we try to mapquest God. We type in our prayer and we expect to get an answer on exactly how long it is going to take before we finally get the answer we want. The thing is, God does not work on our time. I think we all know this. We say it so often. But, do we really KNOW it. Does it really stick in our lives. Are we really patient enough and sensitive enough to God's will and His timing? Can we really trust that God knows what He is doing and that He has perfect time?

Have you ever had to wait for someone on someone to unlock a door? It feels like forever. I get so impatient sometimes when that happens that I am in a bad mood when they finally unlock the door that I cannot enjoy where I am at. I think we get like that with God. When a door shuts on an opportunity for us, that doesn't necissarily mean that God is telling us to end that dream or that that opportunity is not ever going to happen. I believe God lights our paths and He guides, but sometimes I think the lights shine brightly on a door that has already been shut in our face. Our natural reaction is "God, this door is already closed. I need to turn around in a different direction." So we turn and walk away. A closed door doesn't always mean a dead end. It may mean that you just don't have the right key yet to unlock it. Maybe on some of the closed doors in our life, God isn't saying "Turn around, there is no hope here." Maybe He is saying "Stay here. Be patient. This is the door you will enter, but you must wait until I unlock it."

For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day. Habakkuk 2: 3

I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time [appointed] for every matter and purpose and for every work. Ecclesiastes 3: 17

Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]. Hebrews 4: 16