Timing is Everything
Countdown to midnight! It’s New Year’s Eve! Timing will be everything when that ginormous Times Square ball signals 2022 has begun. 2021 is almost ready to be wrapped and put away. Now, the great expectations and hopes for 2022 are for it to be one of our best, most blessed years ever. With optimism, we can only hope and pray that not only the year is better, but it’s also to hope that we are better, too! What needs to change so that we can be the best version of ourselves that we can be?
One of the most important things to consider is how we can stay tuned in to God’s timing. Every great accomplishment involves timing. I witnessed that this year when I knew I wanted to move to a 55+ apartment community to forego all the maintenance and hassle with owning and taking care of a house. Obviously, my wants were God’s wants because the timing was perfect for my move to Austin and to get the absolute perfect apartment for me – easy access to my car and people who come to see me. Thanks be to God.
Please forgive my referral to football, but I can’t help myself. My Dallas Cowboys are on a winning streak that I hope continues. I know from watching Dak Prescott (the Cowboys’ quarterback), that a successful football catch requires incredible timing between quarterback and receiver. In business, good timing in the market—particularly decisions about hiring and expanding—can mean everything. And, if we are musicians or singers, we know how important it is to keep time with the other musicians. Timing is everything.
Watching all the ocean lovers that include my grandchildren here in Cabo — riding the water bicycles, the sunduggers, the swims out to the floating platforms, I see how important timing is. The waves here aren’t conducive to surfing, but it is to timing. I’ve never tried to surf – well except for those little boogie boards, but I know careful timing when swimming out with the boogie board to get the best waves back in to shore. I know that surfers don’t say “Let’s go make some waves today.” Surfers can’t create waves in the ocean. Only God can do that. Surfers wait for the waves that God creates.
That means surfers spend a lot of time waiting. Sometimes they might see a wave and let it go, knowing it’s not the right time. Then the surfer sees just the right wave, starts paddling faster and faster, catches the wave, rides the wave, and gets off the wave without wiping out. Surfing looks easy, but in reality – I understand it requires a lot of skill.
The same is true in life. We have to develop the skill of timing. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8:6, “There is a right time and there is a right way to do everything, but we know so little.”There’s a rhythm to life. Learning to do the right thing at the right time takes skill. Christians often call that skill “walking in the Spirit.” The more we grow as a follower of Christ, the better we get at walking in the Spirit. Sometimes God’s Spirit leads us to run fast. Sometimes He leads us to walk slowly. My move to Austin in February was clearly “walking in the Spirit”. The world would say “The stars aligned for me.” But, I say, “the Creator of the stars aligned it for me.”
May we inch in closer to God this new year – so close that we know when He wants us to speed up and when He might want us to slow down. We can enter the new year trying to make our own waves. Or we can learn to see and catch the waves God is making all around us.